Letter to President Juncker - Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs

Dear President Juncker,

Europe is at a turning point. Its economy is struggling to recover from the worst recession in living memory and growth remains sluggish with unemployment still unacceptably high in many EU countries. Despite this, employers are scrambling to find candidates with the necessary digital skills.

This shortage of people with digital skills will result in a shortage of almost 900,000 ICT practitioners by 2020 in Europe. This problem is felt not only by technology companies, but also in the wider economy, as non-ICT industries, the public sector and NGOs try to harness the benefits of digital technology.

We urge you and your college to continue the significant efforts undertaken by the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs launched by the Commission last year.

The Grand Coalition is an excellent initiative that has done much to address the shortage of people with the required digital skills, both at the European level and within Member States.

We in the technology industry have supported many grass roots campaigns under the Grand Coalition banner and we intend to continue this support. We need a digitally literate workforce in Europe in order to grow.

Our interests are entirely aligned with Europe’s own, broad economic interests. Digital technologies have huge potential to deliver both jobs and economic growth in Europe. Research shows that investing in high-tech jobs has benefits for the whole economy. For every high tech job, up to four non high-tech jobs are created in the local economy.

We echo the message of Europe’s Digital Champions who have called for EU policies that will accelerate Europe’s performance on digital advancement.

In the coming years the technology sector is set to grow seven times faster than the economy as a whole. If Europe is to succeed in breaking away from continued sluggish growth and high levels of joblessness it must embrace the job-creating potential of technology and invest in digital skills.

A continued commitment to the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs would be an excellent starting point.