First panel: Digital skills for digital jobs, EC
programmes, coding in education and NGO based
initiatives
Second panel: E-facilitators as multipliers of
digital skills, place of libraries and telecentres in a
changing world
The first panel on digital skills for digital jobs was
moderated by Andrea Parola (European e-Skills
Association) and included representatives from
the European Commission, DG Connect (Alexander
Riedl), private sector (Gert De Laet, Cisco),
academia (keynote speaker Predrag Pale) and
Lithuanian National Coalition (Renata Danieliene,
Young advisor to Neelie Kroes).
The second panel of the day was moderated by • The advantage of e-facilitators is that it is a figure
TE's Managing Director Gabriel Rissola. Four
people can trust. Citizens are not as eager to
speakers joined the discussion: Ilona Kish (Reading
trust a national employment agency or ministry
& Writing Foundation) representing the role of
to help them increase their skills, but they put
libraries, Pedro Aguilera from Spanish Association
the trust in people and telecentres can offer this
of Telecentre Networks (Member of TE), Christoph
through e-facilitators.
Kaletka (Technical University of Dortmund), and
Digital Champion in Austria Meral Akin-Hecke.
• Panelist I. Kish stressed the fact that more than
60,000 European libraries are still being used
and they serve over one million visitors each
year. Today libraries serve additional functions
such as community hubs and training points. She
also explained the connection between basic
literacy, affecting 1 in 5 EU citizens, and how this
is directly affecting digital literacy. Therefore
libraries can serve as a place to implement
digital literacy programmes as well.
Highlights:
• The panel talked about the Grand Coalition for
Digital Jobs that made it possible for already
existing initiatives such as Local Coalitions
to continue and extend their impact while
receiving institutional support. What comes
next will depend not only on the EC as initiator
but all the stakeholders and their pledges.
• The programme of ERASMUS+ was highlighted
by the EC representative as a success and a role
model for other programmes, e.g. ones where
universities and businesses work together, and
job mobility for young people is ensured.
• ICT professionals need a broad range of
employment skills and NGOs and telecentres
have the key task of reducing the barrier in
learning ICT skills and understanding what
opportunities exist.
• P. Pale made the point that coding should be
taught in schools as a sort of obligatory general
culture just like the subject of music. Although
not everyone may become a programmer but to
learn the basics of how the world works will give
students an important advantage later on in the
job market.
• The most urgent issue to address, according to
Alexander Riedl and the European Commission,
is the skills mismatch: 25 million people
unemployed and 2 million job posts. “Here the
role of NGOs is essential”, he says “because
NGOs can guerrilla and transform the system.”
One successful example is the Get Online Week
led by Telecentre Europe and the EU Code Week.
• Gert De Laet talked about the next industrial
revolution – the Internet of things and that
around 7,000 people at Cisco will be re-trained
to support new technological needs in the job
market as well as consumer market.
14
needs (employability, how to make the best use
of a device they bought, information and leisure
time, etc.)
• Panelist P. Aguilera said that at present 14 EU
countries still haven't recognized the e-facilitator
as a profession. Therefore, a common EU
understanding of what an e-facilitator is, needs
to be available in all EU countries.