Commission proposal for an. ICT Council on skills and employment at European level

Transcription

1 EUROPEAN COMMISSION Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion DG Europe 2020: Employment Policies New Skills for New Jobs, Adaptation to Change, CSR, EGF Commission proposal for an ICT Council on skills and employment at European level 1. Context In the December 2008 and June Communications, the Commission announced its intention to explore the possibility to setup Europeans sector councils on jobs and skills. In its report 2, the expert group on New Skills for New Jobs (NSNJ) recommends the creation of EU sector councils as one of its key actions for the analysis of the skills needs and the development of proposals for updated qualifications in each sector. In the flagship Communication An Agenda for New Skills and Jobs 3, the Commission indicates that "it supports the creation of Sector Skills Councils at European level when an initiative comes from stakeholders such as social partners or the relevant observatories". Recently, as part of the Bruges Communiqué on enhanced European cooperation in Vocational Education and Training 4, European Ministers for Vocational Education and Training, the European Social Partners and the European Commission underlined the role of the European sector skills councils in improving the quality and efficiency of vocational education and training (VET) as well as its attractiveness and relevance by strengthening the anticipation of skills and competences development. Finally, and specifically for the ICT sector, as announced in the Communication A Digital Agenda for Europe 5, the Commission makes the creation of a sectoral council for ICT skills and employment one of its actions to support digital literacy and skills. 1 COM (2009) 257 final: A Shared Commitment for Employment 2 New Skills for New Jobs: Action Now 3 COM(2010) 682/3: An Agenda for new skills and jobs: A European contribution towards full employment 4 Bruges Communiqué of 7 December 2010: 5 COM(2010) 245: A Digital Agenda for Europe 1

2 2. Scope of the ICT Skills Council The ICT council should be, as for the other European sector councils (SeCos), about providing its stakeholders with more and better information on the evolution of their sector in terms of skills and employment than if they relied only on national sources. It should however go beyond the scope of only looking at the skills required for workers of the sector ICT given the transversal nature of ICT and the importance of digital competences in all aspects of modern life. The second primordial role of such a Skills Council is to provide good practice examples and recommendations on how the worlds of work, employment and the worlds of education and training can be better bridged in order to find effective solutions to overcome the mismatch between supply and demand regarding ICT and digital competences for the future workforce. The ICT council should cover: - the ICT sector as such, covering both the IT and Telecom industries; - the ICT professions and practitioners across sectors (ICT is a pervasive technology and the ICT function exists in every company large and small in all sectors) - Digital competences in general, for workers, students and citizens alike. Digital competences should be understood from the most basic needs (civic and inclusion function, digital literacy and competences) to the more advanced ones (linked to employability as well as innovation and competitiveness for the more sophisticated users) - All stakeholders involved with the supply side covering formal education and training but also all suppliers of informal and non formal learning It should take into account the European Commission's Communication on "e-skills for the 21 st Century" (COM (2007) 496) which includes a long term e-skills agenda. It should also build on the activities launched by the Commission, the Member States and other stakeholders to foster e-skills and e-inclusion. It should in addition take account of all educational policies related to ICT and education and Key Competences (recommendation, 2006). It should also take into account the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the external evaluation of the implementation of the Communication and the related Council Conclusions. 3. Role of the ICT Skills Council - Serve as a platform for dialogue and exchange of information, monitoring trends and developments relating to the supply and demand of skills and fostering the adoption of good practices; - promote digital competences in education and training, in curricula, at work and in daily life, for students, workers and citizens; - Encourage partnerships between the ICT sector and education and training; - raise the awareness on EU instruments (EQF, Europass, European e-competence Framework, ESCO etc.) and facilitate their translation into national qualification frameworks; 2

3 - Interact with the other sector councils and initiatives on the issue of digital competences and advanced e-skills in terms of how developing such skills can contribute to other sectors, and in particular on the contribution that the ICT Skills Council can offer to other sectors. 4. End products - A report providing the synthesis of information exchanged covering the evolution of the supply, employment and skills needs including foresight and forecast analyses for the ICT sector and for digital competences generally and in other sectors. - A report describing the actual situation of bridging the worlds of education and work at all levels of education (so not only at the transitions between learning and work but at all educational steps taken whereby input from education to improve digital competence and e-skills might play a role; It involves both the learning of pure ICT skills towards an ICT professional, larger digital competences required for all employees and citizens as well as how the use of ICT in education can enhance the learning and teaching of other competences such as learning to learn, entrepreneurship, maths, science and technology, etc. The report should also synthesize the recommendations towards bringing the worlds of education and work closer and overcome the mismatch particularly for ICT and digital skills. - A report describing innovative tools, national and/or regional strategies, local initiatives, methods put in place by members of the council for peer learning purposes and/or for those countries not having a ICT skills council yet. - An annual conference and actions to raise the awareness of the importance of e-skills and digital competences and to disseminate the reports produced by the ICT Skills Council. - Written recommendations on the basis of discussions and information exchanged. - An additional product of the ICT Skills Council could be the definition of joint studies and analyses to be undertaken by the EU sector council (with the financial support from the Commission via open calls for tenders and/or via calls for proposals and with the financial support from members of the council) 5. Composition of ICT Skills Council - National sector councils: the concept of the European sector councils is to bring into a network national sector councils. Therefore, key participants to an ICT skills council are the representatives of the national sector councils. It may be the case that there are several institutions producing labour market intelligence on ICT skills and the ICT sector (e.g. e- Skills UK, BITKOM etc.) at national and sometimes regional level which calls for a preliminary analysis of what exists throughout the EU). - Sector's representatives, both from companies and workers should be involved and represented in the ICT Skills Council. The model of European sector councils is based on European social partners who have a leading role in the demand for the creation of a sector council for the sector and for chairing the council. The situation for the ICT sector is peculiar in the sense that only the Telecom sector has a European sectoral social dialogue represented by UNI-Europa from the worker's side and ETNO from the employers' side. Given the large scope of the ICT sector, it is necessary to involve also 3

4 other actors. Concerning workers' representatives: the European Metalworkers Federation (EMF) and UNI-Europa are the voice of workers for the sector at the European level. DIGITALEUROPE represents the interests of the European ICT industry. ETNO and ECTA represent the interest of the Telecom employers. The European association of small enterprises (PIN-SME Pan European ICT and ebusiness network for SME) should be also approached. - Education and training representatives: the Industry Education Forum (established by DG EAC), European Schoolnet (for schools not for Universities), ECDL, Certiport, European e-skills Association, Telecentre-Europe. It is however important to limit the number of participants in order to have a working group size. There should be nonetheless at least one representative from those countries where a sector council or equivalent exists. The results of the exchange and outputs should be available to all and there should be also a forum of exchange with a larger circle of interested parties. This could be done during the annual conference of the ICT SeCo. 6. Stakeholders to be consulted On the basis of the possible composition of a European ICT skills council, the following organisations should be informed and invited to a meeting where the Commission would expose its proposal and invite the participants to join their efforts towards the creation of a European ICT skills council on employment and skills. The Commission would indicate the possibility for stakeholders, under the initiative of the sector's representatives (the European social partners for the Telecom sector and the other associations representing employers and employees for the broader ICT sector), to participate in a call for proposals and submit a project aiming at identifying existing national/regional skills councils or equivalent, i.e. phase 1 of the setup of a EU sector council (see infra 9). Stakeholders to be consulted ( as examples) UNI-Europa ETNO (European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association) Digital Europe EMF (European Metalworkers Federation ) EUN Schoolnet European Association of Institutions in Higher Education Association for Teacher Education in Europe European Association of Distance Teaching Universities European Vocational Training Association European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning ECTA (European Competitive Telecommunications Association) PIN-SME (Pan European ICT and ebusiness network for SME) 4

5 ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence foundation) European e-skills Association Telecentre-Europe Certiport The Commission suggests introducing an element of online consultation/discussion with stakeholders and people at large with interest on these issues. The use of those tools would allow all interested actors to work not only through meetings and documents but also online. 7. Target audience The first beneficiaries of such network should be the national sector councils which would benefit from peer-learning. Sectors' representatives and education and training providers should also be important beneficiaries by reinforcing their collaboration and better aligning their objectives and means. Policy makers from different levels should also take an advantage from this platform, in particular from the recommendations formulated. On the other hand companies and workers are only indirect beneficiaries in the sense that they would not benefit in the short run from the existence of this network in all Member States. However, a better alignment of industrial, employment, education and training policies to the labour market needs should in the end meet the interest of both companies and workers. Regarding the promotion activities on digital competences and e-skills, the whole sector would benefit from these activities, but also the society as a whole. 8. Financial support The Commission will publish a specific call for proposals on European sector councils in the first half of The call will give clear indications on the framework European sector councils should follow. A proposal from ICT stakeholders to launch the mapping/feasibility phase of an ICT sector council could be submitted within this call. 9. First phase: Feasibility/mapping project It should include the following tasks: - Identify/map existing national (or where relevant regional and local) sector councils/labour market intelligence for the ICT sector - Identify networks, representative organisations of education and training providers of ICT 5

6 - Discuss with officials from these organisations about their interest in participating in a SeCo. For this, regional seminars could be organised - Discuss and evaluate the needs, type of information to be exchanged, main outputs and expected impacts, value-added from creating such network - Assess the feasibility and interest from stakeholders from creating an ICT Skills Council - Prepare a report, on the basis of this mapping and meetings with potential participants, which assess the feasibility of setting-up an EU sector council for their sector and which sketches its form should the decision by the stakeholders to create an EU sector council be positive. - Include in the report the decision from the sectors' representatives (in particular the European social partners) to go ahead or not with a European sector council on employment and skills. The decision should be substantiated. - If the answer is positive, pre-define roles and responsibilities of each member of the sector council, establish a provisional budget and work programme for the first year of running of the sector council. This task should be performed by the European sectoral social partners in association with other representatives' organisations where relevant and in particular for those sectors for which the scope is larger than the one defined in the sectoral social dialogue at European level. It may also prove useful to associate already at this stage representative organisations of education and training providers. This activity will be supported financially by the Commission via a grant. It should be clearly underlined that the launch of this first phase, consisting in a feasibility and mapping exercise, does not engage the project's participants and any other organisation to the creation of an EU sector skills council. The purpose of this two-steps approach is precisely to assess first the feasibility and value-added of creating such tool. 10. Second phase: first year running of ICT Skills Council If the assessment turns out to be positive, the sector council should start being operational the following year with meetings of the Skills Council and the production of the first reports. This second phase builds on the information collected in the first phase. 6