1. Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs
Gabriel Rissola, Managing Director
Telecentre-Europe AISBL
SparkLab Andalusia launch
Granada (Spain), 7 March 2014

2. Unemployment rates in Europe (July 2013)
• EU-28 unemployment rate: 11.0% (26,654 million people)
• EA-17 unemployment rate: 12,1% (19.231 million people)

3. Unemployment in Europe: highlights
• Dramatic raise of unemployment rates: 6.8% in 2008 to 11.0% in
2013
• Almost leveled unemployment rates between men (10,7%) and
women (10.8 %) by end of 2012
• Youth unemployment :
• EU-28: 23.4% (5.56 million people under 25)
• EA-17: 3.5 million people under 25)
• Lowest rates in Germany (7.7 %), Austria (9.2 %) and Malta
(10.6 %)
• Highest rates in Greece (62.9 %), Spain (56.1 %)
and Croatia (55.4 %)

4. Lack of enough digital workers in Europe
• Not enough candidates to work as ICT practitioners
• A number of practitioners does not acquire through education
and/or training (all) the skills demanded by industry
• A substantial number of those that do have the right skills
lives far away from the job opportunities.
• For those who are ready to move to a job abroad it is hard to
demonstrate their skills acquired informally – which is often
the case of younger adults.

5. Lack of enough digital workers in Europe
• The demand for employees with ICT skills is growing considerably,
by around 3% a year
• More than 500.000 ICT job vacancies are forecasted to remain
unfilled by 2015
• Nearly half of the European labour force (47%) is not confident
their computer and internet skills are sufficient in today’s labour
market

6. Filling the gap: Grand Coalition for Digital
Jobs

7. Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs
1. Training and matching for digital jobs
ICT practitioners and career changers (including mid-career
workers from adjacent work areas) need training programmes
that meet employers’ skills needs and effective placement
services that help to bring them into jobs.
Indicators:
•Number of people who have graduated from GC4DJ industry-led training and
certification programmes
•Number of job placements through projects carried out under the GC4DJ

8. Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs
2. Mobility
Hiring ICT practitioners from other Member States remains a
challenge for many SMEs; where large companies have sufficient
resources and extended networks, small companies lack
information and scale.
Indicators:
•Number of ICT job vacancies filled from other member states through EURES
targeted mobility schemes

9. Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs
3. Certification
To stimulate the take-up of a single European certification
scheme for digital skills of ICT practitioners, based on European
quality labels for ICT industry-based training and certifications
and the European e-Competence Framework.
Indicators:
•Number of Member States/ companies/employees adopting and using the
European e-Competence framework

10. Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs
4. Attracting young people to ICT: awareness raising
Awareness raising campaigns at EU and national levels are
indispensable to better inform students, young professionals and
SMEs about the range of opportunities that ICT-related jobs offer
(i.e. education and training, jobs and careers).
Indicators:
•Number of ICT university enrolments/graduates
•Number of young people entering/finishing ICT education and training (i.e.
formal education/VET and ICT industry training)

11. Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs
5. Attracting people to ICT: innovative learning and teaching
The choice for ICT careers by school/higher education students
should be fostered. This requires more aligned educational
schemes as well as structural changes inside the educational
systems. Bridging the worlds of education, industry and
employment is essential to reach this objective.
Indicators not developed yet

12. Who we are
•
Pan-European membership organisation representing 39 local
network organizations from 27 European countries
•
It represents 20.000+ ICT access and training centres
•
Prominent e-Inclusion umbrella organisation in Europe
•
Expert on e-literacy, e‐skills and IT social business
•
It promotes knowledge and resource sharing, mutual support,
capacity development and advocacy
•
Regular programmes and tools

13. Local Coalitions for Digital Jobs
•
T-E contribution to support the GC4DJ
•
Multi-stakeholder partnerships developed/facilitated by T-E
national members in EU Member States
•
Focus on countries facing higher unemployment rates and larger
digital job gaps
• Confirmed LCs in Ireland, Spain, Italy, Greece, Romania, Latvia,
Lithuania, Slovakia and Poland
• LCs in process of formation in Portugal, Slovenia and Croatia
•
Activities focused on awareness raising, training, certification and
matching of digital jobs offer and demand

14. Local Coalitions for Digital Jobs: aims
•
Facilitate youth/unemployed people access to industry-led training
and certificates recognized internationally
•
Stimulate the take-up of the European e-Competences framework
as a standard to assess and certify the digital skills of ICT
practitioners
•
Develop regional projects to ensure effective filling of ICT
vacancies, in particular from SME
•
Upscale successful local projects to achieve an impact on European
level, and learn from successful solutions developed in partner
countries

15. Local Coalitions for Digital Jobs: activities
•
Organize awareness raising campaigns to promote ICT education,
jobs and careers with young people
•
Involve young people in "real" ICT projects to discover fascinating
domains and ultimately choosing a career in ICT
•
Bring in contact pupils and students with successful ICT
personalities, organizations and senior experienced people
•
Organize promotional events that target secondary and university
students and include a competition, with scholarships awarded
through industry-led competitions

16. SparkLab contribution to the Local Coalitions
•
Through technological innovation, attract young people to
telecentres (either as users or digital mentors)
•
Through experimentation, allow them co-designing and co-creating
products & services ideas that could be marketable
•
Through social innovation (e.g. Innycia) help them developing
digital endeavours with a sense of local development
•
Through collaboration with IT industry, design tailored
programmes to develop young digital talent that meet employers’
skills needs
•
Therefore, motivate young people interest to embrace digital

17. Spanish Local Coalition
Formed by all members of the Spanish Association of Telecentres:
•
Consortium Fernando de los Ríos Andalusia
•
Asturian Services Technology Consortium.
•
Cabildo Insular of Fuerteventura.
•
Technological Center Foundation of Integral Logistics Cantabria.
•
Government of Castile and Leon.
•
Provincial de Burgos
•
Directions General of Telecommunications and Information Society Catalonia.
•
Xunta of Galicia
•
Directions General of Telecommunications and Information Society of Murcia.
•
Dedalus Foundation Tudela
•
Red KZGunea Basque Government
•
Esplai Foundation
•
Red.es

18. Spanish Local Coalition
• More cooperation agreements to be signed soon

19. Spanish Local Coalition
Activities already performed:
•Social Internet conference
•Innycia (Guadalinfo)
•E-inclusión Forum (Esplai)
•Digital Competences workshop (Association of Telecentre Networks)
•2 SparkLabs launch (Catalonia and Andalusia)
More info:
http://competenciasdigitalestc.wordpress.com

20. Spanish Local Coalition
Next steps
•Continue the process of expansion with new partners
•Local Coalition Action Plans development (individual and collective)
•Participation in Telecentre Europe Project :
• Local Coalition plan for MOS-MTA campaign
• Get Online Week 2014
•Internal dissemination of the activities and projects of the Spanish
Local Coalition
•External Conference presentation and diffusion of Local and Grand
Coalition

21. Thank you
gabriel.rissola@telecentre-Europe.org