Last year, it was my great pleasure to become a founder member of a panel of leaders in information and communication technology forming the e-Skills Industry Leadership Board (ILB).

This was in the context of the latest challenging statistics, which show that more than a third of EU citizens have no basic ICT skills; the demand for these skills is growing quickly while supply is declining; fewer students are committing to ICT courses, and IT is still considered a minor career choice for women, with females accounting for less than 20 per cent of ICT practitioners.

Two thousand and seven, therefore, was clearly the right time for the major industry stakeholders to come together and raise the visibility of the ongoing fight against these worrying trends. Founder ILB members include European chairmen, CEOs and high-level executives of IT companies such as Microsoft and Oracle, training companies such as Global Knowledge, and skills-testing and certification leaders such as CompTIA and Prometric.

All these members of the board share a trans-national outlook: while the measurable research points to the demand for more digital learning, IT certification itself is growing worldwide, as noted by organisations such as IDC*. It is also diversifying throughout the world of work, which means that increasing numbers of professional arenas require workers to hold a recognisable qualification in IT disciplines.

This is an obvious trend, as it is in line with the rate at which digital technology is pervading every aspect of our lives.

Most of the ILB’s founding members offer certification programmes within the EU, so there are mature programmes that have a lot of credibility in the fight against digital illiteracy.

The ILB has pledged to cooperate closely with the European Commission to ensure that all EU citizens are equipped with the basic skills needed in today’s labour market, and to strive to encourage and help workforces and populations improve their careers and lives through learning.

The ILB is focusing on four objectives:

• motivating and empowering future generations with e-skills;
• promoting ICT practitioner education, competencies and training;
• boosting the employability and productivity of the workforce with ICT user skills, including the deployment of multi-stakeholder partnerships; and
• providing foresight and support for future skills needs with emerging technologies and new business models.

Who better to ensure Europeans get these skills than the leaders of the IT industry itself? The ILB will take the sector’s lead in contributing towards the development and implementation of a long-term e-skills and digital literacy agenda. Between us we can offer strong leadership, clear coordinated industry advice and a vast pool of resources and expertise.

We have declared our support for EU member states’ policies and actions to vigorously promote e-skills, and the European Commission underlined its reciprocal spirit of cooperation when its vice president, Günter Verheugen, joined the ILB launch meeting in Brussels last summer.

Since its foundation, the e-skills ILB has already taken action to extend its initiatives into more member states and to ensure that it is recognised at the top level as the representative industry body for skills in ICT. Each member has pledged to deliver on the actions that arise and, with this commitment, the world of ICT will become a more inclusive and accessible one.

By helping our citizens increase their competencies in this area, we are confident that Europe will continue to be competitive on a global stage, both in industry and in social cohesion.

The e-Skills Industry Leadership Board welcomes additional members from among ICT industry stakeholders that share the same objectives and are able to contribute resources and expertise in support of European e-skills policies.

Reference
* Worldwide IT Certification Training and Testing 2006-2010 Forecast, IDC December 2006

David Grinham is vice president and general manager for Europe and the Middle East at Prometric, which specialises in technology-enabled assessment services, providing paper-and-pencil, internet and computer-based testing solutions. He can be contacted on +44 (0)20 7213 0139 or at david.grinham@prometric.com

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