The e-Skills manifesto

GeSI’s contribution to the e-Skills Manifesto shows how e-skills and ICT go hand in hand to enable the transition to a low-carbon economy.

There is broad consensus among stakeholders that e-skills are crucial to boost competitiveness, productivity and innovation as well as the professionalism and employability of the workforce.
There is a need to ensure that the knowledge, skills, competences and inventiveness of managers, IT practitioners and users meet the highest global standards and that they are constantly updated in a process of effective lifelong learning.
The demand for e-skills has been growing rapidly in the last decades. In 2008, the total number of IT practitioners1 in Europe amounted to roughly 3.95 million according to the core definition, approx. 4.78 million according to a broader definition. Their number has more than doubled since 1995. The four largest countries, Germany, UK, France and Italy account for more than half of Europe’s labour force, and the seven largest employer Member States (adding Spain, the Netherlands and Poland) account for around 75%. The workforce has increased between 1998 and 2008 by around 77% for the core category and by around 82% for the broad category (Empirica, IDC,
(2009) Monitoring e-Skills Demand and Supply in Europe).

In a chapter entitled “Green Matters”, GeSI outlines the carbon-reducing potential of ICT with practical examples such as smart grids, and reviews efforts to put ICT on the global climate agenda through stakeholder engagement. 

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