GOW 2016 LAUNCH IN AMSTERDAM
An official launch event was held in Amsterdam on 4 March to mark the start of the seventh European Get Online Week. Invited guest speakers from the European Commission and the industry shared their views on the progress and solutions to empower Europeans with digital skills. the ways how to make it exciting for young people to get involved and upscale and upskill their digital knowledge.’ R. Sharon continued:‘ For us it starts with skills as this is the foundation but it doesn’ t end there. We give entrepreneurs the ability, the know-how, the platform to use those digital skills to address societal issues.’
‘ It is surprising that in 2016 still 100 million Europeans have no or very limited digital skills,’ said Alexander Riedl( Deputy Head of Unit, DG Connect, European Commission) via Skype.‘ Therefore Telecentre Europe has been a long-standing partner. <…> This year the Commission will present a new Skills Agenda and digital skills will be an important part of its plan.’
A. Riedl also encouraged stakeholders to take action on the local level:‘ This is why Get Online Week is so important because this campaign achieves it. So every telecentre, every public library, every school, every co-working space should become a learning space for digital skills.’
This year’ s campaign supporters Liberty Global and Cisco talked about why digital skills and inclusion is so important for the ICT industry. Piotr Pluta, Cisco Director Corporate Affairs EMEA, emphasized the new collaboration through Networking Academy( www. netacad. com) that will allow Telecentre partners to offer online learning courses on basic IT skills.
‘ Telecentre Europe is excited to launch this year’ s GOW in Amsterdam, a smart-city known for its technology, innovation and high-quality education. A smart Europe generates new digital jobs and services, but we have to make sure no one is left behind and opportunities are equal for all. We run GOW to promote digital skills for jobs and inclusion, building people’ s trust and confidence in using technology and the internet,’ said former Managing Director Gabriel Rissola.
The Digital Champion of the Netherlands Tineke Netelenbos talked about activities in the country within the context of GOW.‘ What we see is that people think they are digitally skilled. But at the end of the day they don’ t have all the skills they need,’ concluded Tineke Netelenbos.
Photos of the event are available on Telecentre Europe’ s Flickr account.
Roy Sharon, Director CSR Liberty Global, presented how digital imagination could be the new approach to engage people in learning digital skills but also contributing with their knowledge to collective solutions and making social impact.‘ We also look at
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