AEGEE-Europe is happy to take part as one of the stakeholders of the “eSkills for Jobs” campaign, a multi-stakeholder campaign from the European Commission involving companies, associations, education and training bodies across Europe. The campaign is aimed to raise awareness of the need for citizens to improve their command of ICT skills for work.

According to an estimation of the European Commission, by 2020 the technological sector will lack 825,000 professionals and 90 percent of jobs across all sectors will require some degree of digital skills in the near future. Furthermore, a growing percentage of jobs in all the economic sectors require an understanding of ICT. Yet, half of all citizens in the European Union have no or low computer skill. At the same time, many Europeans and in particular young people are struggling to find opportunities.

The eSkills for Jobs campaign encourages citizens to develop their digital skills and access today’s job market, in order to bridge the skills gap and increase employment rates. The campaign calls for an improvement of the current education system, to include basic digital competences and to combine formal, non-formal and informal learning in order to provide students with practical skills required for employment and life in the digital world.

AEGEE has carried out a research determining the challenges of its members when it comes to transition from education to working life, and recently released its Policy paper on the topic of the Transition from Education to Working Life.The first challenge that was found by the most of members is that nowadays formal education systems are not fully providing the skills needed by the job market. This is why AEGEE welcomes and supports the eSkills for Jobs campaign. We are convinced that it is essential to address the challenge of improving employability at all levels through digital skills, in a context where youth unemployment is the biggest challenge that young people are facing today.

Related links:
The eSkills4Jobs website
The complete list of stakeholders of the eSkills4Jobs campaign
Open call for the video competition (deadline: 31/10)