One year after the launch of the New Skills Agenda for Europe, the European Commission pushed its ambitions even further this week with the publication of a Communication setting out its vision for creating a European Education Area by 2025.
The Communication focuses in general on “how to harness the full potential of education and culture as drivers for job creation, economic growth and social fairness as well as a means to experience European identity in all its diversity” but also announced specific plans on “mainstreaming innovation and digital skills in education, by promoting innovative and digital training and preparing a new Digital Education Action Plan”.
Those initiatives are absolutely needed as new technologies are changing the nature of employment and automation is replacing current jobs. Europe needs to adapt to these changes, creating enabling conditions to generate, attracting new types of jobs and equipping its inhabitants to deal with the new situation.
The Developers Alliance had already flagged some of these issues in its report, commissioned to Copenhagen Economics, on “Jobs in Apps: Mobile Economy in the Nordics. A Catalyst for Economic Growth”. The main focus of the report was quantifying the number of jobs supported today by the App Economy in the Nordics and the potential in the future. The report also recorded a difficulty experienced by innovative industries in harbouring and recruiting top talent both amongst engineers and developers as well as supporting roles like marketing and human resources. This represents an obstacle to the great potential of technology to shape the economy and society.
Equipping people with the right skills demanded by the job market is essential and we are pleased to see that the Commission is seriously committed to upskill and reskill European citizens and the labour force. This is the only way to make the European economy more competitive, more inclusive and more sustainable.
Initiatives supporting lifelong learning, vocational training, entrepreneurship education and those aimed at recognizing acquired competences, skills, knowledge and experience, is the best mechanism for adapting citizens’ skills to new challenges and for promoting positive transitions as well as more and better jobs.
The Developers Alliance is supportive of any initiative aimed at preparing society to be more digital and more entrepreneurial.
MICHELA PALLADINO
Director, European Policy & Government Relations
