Experts discuss the future of digital skills training in Europe at European Digital Academy’s First Strategic Seminar

At the beginning of 2020, DIGITALEUROPE and its partners – European DIGITAL SME Alliance, European Schoolnet, Public Libraries 2030 and Reaktor – launched the European Digital Academy (EDA) project funded by the European Commission and supported by the European Parliament. Its goal: to make basic knowledge of emerging technologies available and accessible to all European citizens and SMEs.

On 19 May, over 40 digital skills experts from all around Europe representing SMEs, civil society, and EU decision-makers joined us to participate in EDA’s First Strategic Seminar. During the interactive session, they learned about key findings that had emerged from desk research and expert interviews conducted by the EDA consortium. 

Current estimates indicate that the digital skills gap counts 1,000,000 missing IT professionals in Europe. At the same time, the skill gap extends beyond specialists – DESI forecasts that 9 out of 10 future jobs will require digital skills. While there is a growing need to equip citizens and SMEs with the knowledge of emerging technologies that shape the modern world, e.g. AI, blockchain or robotics, experts indicate that there is still a significant gap with regard to basic digital skills.

The experts participating in the seminar also analysed various training scenarios and used them to provide input on the direction and the focus of digital skills training development in Europe. 

At the moment, the EDA consortium is reviewing feedback collected during the seminar consultation. The results will complement the findings gathered by the consortium up to date and will be presented in EDA’s final research report in late June 2020. 

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