Virtually all young people are familiar with electronic games and social networking and might be considered as “digital natives”, but they are not “digitally competent” in the sense that they do not know sufficiently how to use the digital world in a business context

E-skills refer to the vast array of competencies, knowledge and abilities that people can acquire to learn, communicate and work within the field of technology. These skills can range from programming and social media to hardware skills in routing and switching, and beyond.

Therefore, the European Commission has launched the European e-Skills Week 2012 to mobilise stakeholders to inform young people on how to acquire e-skills and find jobs in the digital economy. The European e-Skills Week 2012 is a European campaign focused on showing people how to get jobs through e-skills. Building on the success of e-Skills Week 2010, the DG for Enterprise and Industry has again teamed up with Digital Europe and European Schoolnet, to drive awareness of the need for e-skills and their benefits.

By 2015, 90% of jobs will need e-skills. The number of ICT practitioners in Europe was 4.7 million in 2007 and is forecast to reach 5.26 million in 2015. In more general terms, jobs for highly-qualified people are expected to rise by 16 million between now and 2020, while those held by low-skilled workers will decline by around 12 million. This huge amount of up-skilling can only be achieved with e-skills. It is a precondition to become employable, learn and find a job online.

Malta this year will be one of 35 countries participating in this second organised e-skills week. Locally, the e-skills week is being organised by the local eSkills Alliance, which is a multi-stakeholder partnership led by the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA) together with various public and private partners. The event consists of a week-long of activities that aim to highlight the importance of the development of e-skills for life, as well as how to get a job in the digital age. Events organised included ‘A training and awareness session for career guidance councillors’, ‘Social Media & Business Media Careers and Data Driven Careers’ and other talks targeted at different age groups. A national seminar is also being organised to discuss the importance of e-skills with regards to the Maltese economy.

Coinciding with the e-skills week, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, published recent figures relevant to the ICT trends among university graduates. In the EU27, the share of computing graduates was 3.4% of all university graduates in 2009 compared with 4% in 2005. Among the member states, the development of the share of computing graduates between 2005 and 2009 has been mixed. The highest increases were registered in Malta (1.9% of all graduates in 2005 to 5.6% in 2009) and Hungary (2.0% to 3.4%), and the largest decreases in Portugal (5.1% to 1.7%) and the United Kingdom (5.9% to 4%). In 2009, the highest shares of computing graduates were found in Malta and Austria (both 5.6% of all graduates), Spain (5.1%), Cyprus (4.7%) and Estonia (4.4%).

The European Commission has recently made some waves when it said in a statement that “digital natives” who have grown up with technology may not be able to use digital skills in a business context. The statement was made to coincide with the launch of European e-Skills Week 2012. The statement goes on to claim that skills learned by playing games and using social media such as Facebook and Twitter are not the digital e-skills needed in the workplace.

In order to raise more awareness on the importance of being updated on e-skills issues, Meusac is teaming up with the MITA eSkills Alliance to organise a one-day seminar on 17 April. The aim is to provide more information about the topic, whilst promoting the work being done by the various institutions and how it is being implemented locally through various ways and means.

Mauro Miceli is Executive (EU Policy and Legislation) – Meusac. More details can be obtained by contacting Meusac on 2200-3300 or [email protected]