2023 European Year of Skills
On 14 September 2022
[https://digital-skills-jobs.europa.eu/en/latest/news/2022-state-union-2023-will-be-european-year-skills],
Ursula Von Der Leyen, President of the European Commission, 
announced in the annual State of the Union address
[https://digital-skills-jobs.europa.eu/en/latest/news/2022-state-union-2023-will-be-european-year-skills],
her intention to make 2023 the ´European Year of Skills’ to address
the current skill shortage in the EU. 

Currently, in fact, more than three quarters of companies
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/une_rt_m/default/table?lang=en]
in the EU report difficulties in finding workers with the appropriate
skill set. This is even truer when it comes to digital skills, with
only 4 out of 10 adults
[https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/digital-skills-and-jobs]
and every third person who works in Europe lacking basic digital
skills. Additionally, IT and security specialists
[https://www.ela.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2021-12/2021%20Labour%20shortages%20%20surpluses%20report.pdf]
are few and the female component
[https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/ade44a8d-8541-11eb-af5d-01aa75ed71a1?pk_campaign=Newsletter_April2021]
of this workforce appears to be even smaller.  

To address the EU digital skills gap, several steps have already been
taken.

 	* While improving education and skills is a key part of the EU
Digital Strategy ´Shaping Europe´s digital future
[https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52021DC0118]`
and the related Digital Decade
[https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/europes-digital-decade-digital-targets-2030_en]targets,
the Digital Education Action Plan
[https://education.ec.europa.eu/focus-topics/digital-education/action-plan] is
certainly a key step towards a possible European Year of _Digital
_Skills. This, in fact, sets out a common vision of high-quality,
inclusive, and accessible digital education and aims to support the
adaptation of the education and training systems of Member States to
the digital age. 
 	* A further element launched at EU level to foster digital skills is
the European Digital Skills and Jobs Platform
[https://digital-skills-jobs.europa.eu/en], which makes information
and resources on digital skills, such as a digital skills
self-assessment tool
[https://digital-skills-jobs.europa.eu/en/sat/page], funding and
training opportunities (e.g., the EU Code Week
[https://digital-skills-jobs.europa.eu/en/latest/events/eu-code-week-2022])
available to all. 
 	* Encouraging digital skills trainings is also part of the mission
of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition,
[https://digital-skills-jobs.europa.eu/en/about/digital-skills-and-jobs-coalition]
which gathers Member States, social partners, companies, non-profit
organisations and education providers to raise awareness and address
together the digital skill gap. The European Digital Skills Awards
[https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/european-digital-skills-awards-meet-24-outstanding-finalists]
are part of the activities organised by the coalition.

In alignment with the EU goals, data.europa.eu has its own knowledge
hub: the data.europa academy [https://data.europa.eu/en/academy].
Here, data providers working at international, national, regional, or
local government levels, as well as data enthusiasts within the civic
community, can find relevant e-learning materials, webinars and
training courses to upgrade their digital and data skills. The open
data lessons offered are currently structured along four themes
(policy, impact, technology, and data quality), following the Open
Data Maturity
[https://data.europa.eu/en/impact-studies/open-data-maturity]
dimensions. 

If you want to upgrade your understanding of open data, don´t miss
the chance to explore our academy [https://data.europa.eu/en/academy]
offer and consult our events calendar
[https://data.europa.eu/en/news-events/events] and news pieces
[https://data.europa.eu/en/news-events/news] to stay updated with the
upcoming webinars.

For more insights into digital skills
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets?locale=en&minScoring=0&query=digital%20skills&page=1],
consult our related datasets
[https://data.europa.eu/en/news-events/news?keywords=&country=All&sort_by=created&sort_order=DESC&items_per_page=10&keywords=digital+skills&merged-select=created&items_per_page=10] and
stay tuned for our November data story that will expand on the topic!

 

For more news and events, follow us on Twitter
[https://twitter.com/EU_opendata], Facebook
[https://www.facebook.com/data.europa.eu] and LinkedIn
[https://www.linkedin.com/company/publications-office-of-the-european-union/],
or subscribe to our newsletter
[https://data.europa.eu/en/newsletter].

 

Share the article:

Publication Date/Time
2022-11-16T08:00:00+00:00
Find out more about the progress made on digital skills at the EU
level