2.4.1 Grand Coalition Pledges
About the Grand Coalition
Following the Employment Package of April 2012 VP Kroes called for the formation of a multi- stakeholder partnership, the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs, to tackle the twin issues of a (depending on the scenario used) projected shortfall of up to 372,000 to 864,000 ICT professionals in Europe by 2015, exacerbated by a decline in computing science graduates. Hence, its aim is to increase the overall supply of digitally skilled professionals and to better match supply and demand of digital skills.
On 4-5 March 2013 the Commission launched the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs at a Conference in Brussels, which was hosted by President José Manuel Barroso Vice Presidents Neelie Kroes and Antonio Tajani, Commissioners László Andor and Androula Vassiliou as well as Richard Bruton, Irish Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.
At the launch conference a number of organizations made concrete pledges to the Grand Coalition. Additional pledges were presented at the Digital Agenda Assembly on 19 and 20 June in Dublin.
Key priorities - Concrete short-term actions
The Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs is supposed to deliver concrete actions, which can be implemented in the short-term and have high local impact. It will build on on-going programmes and best practices that could be scaled-up. The following are some of the objectives of the actions: Improve the image and attractiveness of ICT careers
Offer training packages co-designed with the ICT industry
Offer more aligned degrees and curricula at vocational and university level education that will respond to the needs of the students and the industry
Improve recognition of qualifications across countries by stimulating take-up of a European certification scheme for digital skills of ICT professionals, based on the existing e-Competence Framework
Reduce labour market mismatches by stimulating mobility
Stimulate digital entrepreneurship by liaising with Startup Europe, a single platform for tools and programmes supporting people wanting to set up and grow web start-ups in Europe The Grand Coalition will help accelerate and intensify efforts initiated by European policies, such as the Digital Agenda for Europe, the e-Skills Strategy, the Employment Package, the Opening up Education Initiative, the Rethinking Education Strategy, the Youth Opportunities Initiative and the EU Skills Panorama.
Pledges of stakeholders to the Grand Coalition
During the launch conference of the Grand Coalition on 4-5 March 2013, several pledges were presented by stakeholders. The second milestone for taking stock was 31 May 2013 and further new pledges were presented at the Digital Agenda Assembly in Dublin on 19-20 June 2013.
An overview of pledges of stakeholders to the Grand Coalition submitted by late October 2013 is provided below, pledges are listed by policy theme.
Exhibit 12: Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs - Overview of pledges by late October 2013
No Promoter Pledge Reach / country
1. Training and matching for Digital Jobs
1 SAP Create the Academy Cube, an online learning platform for ICT practitioners open to all ICT companies EU 2 TELEFONICA Create a Career Fair at Campus Party 2013; roll out across
Europe a programme of teaching Digital Literacy Skills and launch a pan-European start-up internship scheme
Spain, UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ireland and Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Chile 3 CISCO_SMART
GRID Develop education curriculum addressing smart gridnetworking skills and enable usage of CISCO Networking Academy programme to train smart grid professionals
EU
4 HEWLETT
PACKARD
Scale up HP programmes to develop up to 1
million students and professionals with entrepreneurial and technology skills by the end of 2015
Multinational
5 MICROSOFT Increase the number of high quality apprenticeships and internships by 50% over 3 years, from the current 9000, thus providing an early career lever to help European youth into digital jobs
EU
6 ACER Offer up to 50 internship in 2013 in every EU country with interns working in ACER and touching all the aspects of ICT industry
Multinational
7 ALTEN Six-month internship programme in Italy or Spain where people will be trained in ALTEN Solution Centres of Excellence; then they will transfer to countries that are
No Promoter Pledge Reach / country lacking ICT skills to work in the Alten Group.
8 DIGITAL SKILLS ACADEMY
Reskill 20,000 jobseekers by 2016 in Ireland and other EU countries experiencing high youth unemployment rates, including Spain, Portugal and Greece.
Multinational
9 TELERIK ACADEMY Offer a free, 1-year professional cutting-edge ICT education program. By 2015: provide online training to 500,000 to 1 million EU people in all MS; create a school training program to include 600 to 2,000 Bulgarian schools, thus increasing the scale of its school edu initiative by 80 times its current size.
EU
10 DC PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT Grant access to their four core online course modules to upto 500 users EU 11 CLOUD
CREDENTIAL COUNCIL
Professional Cloud Training and Certification Program enabling training partners and technology vendors in countries across Europe to ‘Cloud-Ready’ the European workforce.
EU global
12 STICHTING VROUWEN AAN HET WERK
1. Develop the next World Smart College to educate 100 people and match them to ICT labour market, from November 2013 to 2015. 2. Build a Creative Innovation Center at primary schools of disadvantage neighbourhoods with aim to revise curricula.
Netherlands
13 FAST-TRACK TO IT Apply the FIT training and support model to secure employment for 12,000 marginalised job seekers in Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland by 2016.
Ireland
2. Innovative Learning and Teaching
14 European
Schoolnet Create Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) forsecondary school teachers, to support students in acquiring science and technology skills and increase the
attractiveness of ICT jobs
EU and worldwide
15 ORACLE Hold a pan-European roundtable among ICT vendors, Ministries of Education and other stakeholders to share best practices for training in computer science and ICT skills
Multinational 16 THE CORPORATE
IT FORUM
Fund a programme of work in 2013 (120 000 £) that will bring together major employers in the UK to provide input on ICT curricula so as to align education and training with the needs of businesses
UK
17 BCS, THE CHARTERED INSTITUTE FOR IT
Digital Literacy for Life Programme: bring together an alliance of organisations that have a stake in digital literacy in the UK to promote the need for digital literacy in schools, colleges and private training organisations
UK
18 SAMSUNG 1. Provide equipment & solutions for underprivileged children. 2. Provide vocational ICT training designed to increase employability in unemployment hotspots, and to spur entrepreneurship.
Multinational
19 INLEA 1. Increase the use of ICT Industry Education and Certification programs among Vocational and Higher Education institutions. 2. Involve the ICT Instructors community in the Grand Coalition for digital jobs.
Multinational
20 INFORMATICS EUROPE
Platform to share educational knowledge and best practices across different countries and coordinate national
initiatives to finally establish informatics as a compulsory subject in schools.
No Promoter Pledge Reach / country 21 DIDASCA DIDASCA offer free MOOCs - Mass Open Online Courses to
fight digital literacy gap in Italy. Italy 22 GOOGLE 1. Reach 20,000 entrepreneurs across Europe in 2013
through partnerships under the Google for Entrepreneurs initiative. 2.Work with 6 STEM education organisations across EU, to increase their reach from 32,000 to 100,000 young people by the end of 2013(as part of the RISE programme). 3. Launch 25 MOOCs in collaboration with universities across Europe, reaching tens of thousands of people across EU.
EU
23 University of
Piraeus The Department of Digital Systems of the Piraeus Universityoffers updated courses, seminars and curricula on advanced ICT topics based on the requirements of strong industrial companies. The Undergraduate Programme has two main directions: “Communication Systems and Networks” and “Electronic Services”. The Postgraduate Programmes have five main directions: “E-Learning”, “Network-Oriented Systems”, “Digital Communications and Networks”, “Techno-economic Management of Digital Systems” and “Digital Systems Security”.
Multinational
3. Certification
24 EUROPEAN E- SKILLS ASSOCIATION
Set up national roundtables, push for an European standard and a European platform for the e-Competences
Framework governance EU 25 European Computer Driving License Foundation (ECDL)
Launch the new ECDL, a flexible certification that allows the creation of profiles matching individual or organisational needs EU 26 Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS)
Launch the CEPIS e-Competence Benchmark, a free online interactive tool for ICT professionals to identify their competences
EU, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey 27 RETE COMPETENZE PER L’ECONOMIA DIGITALE
Disseminate the European e-Competence Framework, e-CF, all over the national territory, and enhance the culture of competences for ICT within Italian enterprises.
Italy
28 WePROMIS® - ECWT,
PROMIS@Service, BCWT
Offer for free the present WePROMIS solution structuring STEM knowledge to the needs of female entrepreneurs and those who want to be more competitive in the job market.
EU
4. Awareness raising
29 YouRock YouRock is a new employability platform for young people across Europe that will help them to become more employable by encouraging them to use their existing online content creation activities as evidence of their latent skills and aptitudes.
30 CIONET 10,000 hours of passion for ICT: Organize CIO information tours to schools, universities or other relevant places. EU 31 Hellenic
Professionals Informatics Society (HePIS)
HePIS is committed to run the project Getbusy.gr with the aim of benefitting up to 65,000 young people, motivating them to improve their e-skills and employability, increasing their entrepreneurial skills and learning about new
No Promoter Pledge Reach / country technologies.
32 SHEFFIELD COMMUNITY NETWORK
Create a network of community-based Digital Media Centres across the city of Sheffield which will become hubs for digitally-enabled business and job creation.
UK
33 UNIVERITY OF SHEFFIELD
Establish a Computer Science Ambassador Scheme for secondary school pupils, initially for 45 pupils aged 14-15, involving 60 hours guided experience of digital
opportunities.
UK
34 EVERIS-UPF “Noa & Max, stuck in Electronia", a project aimed at 8 to 12 year-old students that involves the production and
dissemination of cross media content designed to promote innovative talent and creative ICT and Science learning.
Spain
35 ZEN DIGITAL Initiate pan-European Digital Woman of the Year Award. EU
5. Mobility
36 MAKE IT IN
IRELAND 100% industry-led programme to showcase opportunities inthe technology sector in Ireland and provide information for people to moving there.
Ireland
6. National & Local Initiatives
37 AMSTERDAM METROPOLITAN AREA (AMA)
Invest €20-50 million to organize Amsterdam Metropolitan Solutions, a design contest for an applied technology institute in Amsterdam, to stimulate economic
development and job creation in applied ICT (also open for organizations outside the Netherlands.
Netherlands
38 TELECENTRE -
EUROPE Lead and facilitate Local Coalitions for Digital Jobs (LC4DJ)across EU (i.e. local governments, industry, employment services, educational and social actors).
EU 39 SPANISH GRAND
COALITION
Launch a coalition for ICT job creation in Spain with public and private actors.
Spain 40 BASQUE EIT
COALITION Launch a Coalition for Digital Competence in Basque regionwith platform of evaluation, certification and recognition of digital competence
Spain
41 DIGITALLY SKILLED AND DIGITALLY SAFE
Year-plan to enhance digital skills of the labour force (Digitally Skilled) and internet safety (Digitally Safe) in public-private collaboration.
Netherlands
Further descriptions of these pledges can be found here: https://ec.europa.eu/digital- agenda/en/current-pledges
2.4.2 Other new and emerging initiatives
As our country-by-country analysis shows, many Member States have shown an increased level of activity in recent years, partly triggered by widespread evidence that the challenge related to shortages in sufficiently qualified ICT practitioners has been little affected by the economic slowdown following the 2007-8 financial crisis. In the present section we are presenting initiatives which have been started recently and which already now seem to have a huge potential for helping to close the e-skills gap. These have not (yet) been included into the group of ‘good practices’ since they first need to demonstrate their potential in real-life and show that they can became sustainable and scalable activities with a potential for being transferred and implemented into other national contexts and countries.
Two new/emerging initiatives which promise to be of major relevance for the discussion in the present report are briefly described below.
École 42, France
42 is a free Web Developer School created in France by Xavier Niel, one of France’s most famous e- entrepreneurs. He created France’s major internet service provider Free. According to him, France is currently the 5th strongest economy in the world, but only on rank 20 in ICT economy. His concept argues that the country will lose its position as a major economic force if it does not invest more in its e-skilled workforce. Nowadays, young people are having difficulties finding employment while the ICT branch cannot occupy its vacancies. In this context, the initiative aims at counteracting skills gap and youth unemployment simultaneously.
It is funded by the enterprises and situated in Paris. It harshly criticizes the ICT education in national schools and offers a concept based on self-study, peer-to-peer education, projects and challenges. École 42 has the ambition to be the best Computer Science school in France and promote excellence in programming. Individuals aged 18-30 can apply, even without a school diploma. During the professional qualification pupils can also deepen their e-leadership skills, attending a two year specialization on entrepreneurship and management. Although the courses do not lead to an officially recognized degree, graduates should not encounter problems in getting employed. Recruiting company Ametix already offered a job to all first 1000 graduates.
Ècole 42 explicitly wants to tackle youth unemployment and skills gap at the same time. For this purpose, it also addresses applicants without a high school diploma. Admitting students according to their talent rather than official credentials, the schools aims at including also disadvantaged groups. Yet, the focus is clearly on sophisticated ICT practitioner skills. 42 gives everybody the chance to apply, but emphasizes that they will have to be very dedicated. This approach is unique, since it combines inclusion and high-profile training.
The school aims at guaranteeing an employment for their young participants and at supplying the labour market with highly skilled professionals. It wants to be an alternative to both public universities and expensive private schools. 1000 specialists are to be educated every year. Computer Scientist programme is going to take 3 years. A further 2 years qualification specializes interested students in ICT research or in innovation entrepreneurship. The latter focuses on developing business ideas related to ICT. In this way, the MSP is innovative in its goals: it delivers a solid ICT education which can be combined with e-leadership topics. The school was created in march of 2013 and has not acted yet.
The school was created by major entrepreneur Xavier Niel. Other companies have been expressing their support, but are not contributing financially yet. Since the campaign is heavily criticizing the national education system, there are no such stakeholders involved. Thus, since the school is operated by one entrepreneur only, it cannot be considered a MSP yet.
With its plan to supply the French labour market with young developers, the initiative actually ties in with the national Digital Roadmap. The project, however, is completely independent from government policy.
Founder and major entrepreneur Xavier Niel funds the school personally. He is reported to have invested about € 70 million private capital in the project, and has announced that he is going to invest his personnel savings over the next ten years into it.
Ècole 42 has a frequently updated a very informative website directed at candidates, parents and entrepreneurs. Students can apply to the school directly online. It is also networking on Facebook and YouTube. National and international have been intensely featuring 42’s opening.
The school is led by five directors for different sectors. A further staff of 42 individuals ensures the day-to-day business.
The initiative is being met with enormous interest, since the program received more than 50,000 applications for this year. 1,000 students will start their first year in November, when the school will officially open. Two assessment centres with a 4-weeks-duration where conducted. In this intense test phase, the 42 team wants to select the final participants who will be entirely accepted. For this purpose, participants completed long rows of programming examinations.
Since the initiative is not operating yet, this point is difficult to access. The schools premises are very sophisticated and well equipped. Every student is provided his or her own Apple PC. Until now, one major critique point is that the graduates will not receive a diploma that is recognized by the French education system. Critics reflect, that graduates might be fine in the short term, but might have difficulties because of their lack of certification later.
The school is just about to enter the operational phase by the end of 2013. Xavier Niel has been emphasizing that 42 has a solid financial foundation, given his personal support. It still has to be seen whether this is enough. Yet, it is likely that the school’s new concept might put pressure on the traditional education system and thus contribute to a more dynamic ICT education in France. In any case, the following years will have to show the school’s impact and potential sustainability. On the long run, the lack of skilled workers only might not be enough of a pull factor to keep the school working.
Academy Cube, Germany
Academy Cube is an online platform targeting academics, young professionals and job seekers from across Europe. The platform provides job offers and information about what courses will qualify them best for their desired job. Immediately they can attend those courses online, for free. In particular, e-learning-based training courses for professionals in the ICT and engineering area are provided. The Academy-Cube initiative is an alliance of international companies, e.g. DFKI, BITKOM, EIT ICT Labs, Festo Didactic GmbH, Society for Computer Science e.V., LinkedIn Germany GmbH, Microsoft Germany, Robert Bosch GmbH, SAP AG, Software AG, ThyssenKrupp AG, University Duisburg-Essen etc. and public institutions, e.g. the Federal Employment Agency.
Academy Cube explicitly targets unemployed graduates especially from southern Europe. It wants to improve job matching on a European scale. It focuses on ICT, but addresses STEM professionals in general. Qualified applicants can register to the platform from their home countries and prepare for the needs of the job market. This approach is innovative, since it reacts to the current economic crisis in some member states. Academy Cube’s target is to provide relevant qualifications to 100,000 young people. The target for 2013 is to enrol 250 students in the online courses. The e- courses are available in English and cover the following areas: 1. Big data, 2. Data management and business analytics and 3. Enterprise resource planning, logistics and production organization. Academy-Cube involves international companies, e.g. DFKI, BITKOM, EIT ICT Labs, Festo Didactic GmbH, Society for Computer Science e.V., LinkedIn Germany GmbH, Microsoft Germany, Robert Bosch GmbH, SAP AG, Software AG, ThyssenKrupp AG. Other partners are public institutions and universities both in Germany and in southern European countries as well as chambers of commerce. Academy Cube ties in with the German policy to counteract the gap of ICT and STEM professionals. It also relates the efforts of the European Commission to reduce youth unemployment in southern Europe. SAP contributed to the program with € 3 million.
The core of Academy Cube is its online platform. It informs on the campaign and offers the job