Approximately half of the current jobs worldwide, and 30% in the European Union, will disappear over the next 25 years with the emergence of new professions requiring advanced digital skills.
The Digital Skills Shortage
The technological transformation across industries means that digital tools are frequently used even in traditionally non-technical professions, with 9 out of 10 jobs in the near or immediate future estimated to require digital skills. Digital technologies, according to the European Parliament, should be an integral part of a learner-focused education, whereas adults who are out of work or in jobs that do not require digital skills tend to fall quickly behind their more digitally proficient peers, thus hampering their job prospects and exacerbating social and economic disparities.
These are the reasons why the European Parliament Committee on Culture and Education at the end of November, wrote the motion for a European Parliament Resolution on education in the digital era: challenges, opportunities and lessons for EU policy design. They recognize that the digital society and economy are now a fact of life, meaning that digital skills are essential for successful professional realization, whereas digital competence is a key competence for lifelong learning. Moreover, the Committee also underlines that digital skills acquisition requires a coherent, lifelong-learning approach, pointing out that the complex digital skills required for the efficient use of ICT depend on the acquisition of basic skills; calls for a shift towards more non-formal learning and workplace training opportunities and insists on the need for high-quality, inclusive and well-resourced education and training systems; emphasizes that recommendations for a minimum level of digital competence to be acquired by students during their studies should be drawn up.
The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy also stresses that the education system should support a balanced set of skills and competences boosting individuals’ resilience, critical thinking, well‑being, and innovation potential; underlines the vital role of cybersecurity, blockchain and artificial intelligence as the backbone of future education and training schemes and, nevertheless, the urgent need to develop the full range of digital skills that individuals and companies will require in an increasingly digital economy.
Yana Toom, Rapporteur, stresses in particular that the acquisition of digital skills goes hand in hand with a lifelong learning approach and that a harmonised method for the assessment of digital skills should be developed in order to be able to test the actual level of digital skills.
Underpinning these opportunities needs to be high-quality, inclusive and well-resourced education and training systems including partnerships between public and private partners and academic and research institutions. “This is the way we normally work”, says Richard Pharro, CEO of APMG International, “we are a member of the European Commission Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition and work with leading organizations such as the Venice Cà Foscari University to produce an in-depth report on the skills and competences required to drive digital transformation in business and Computerworld University to develop the CWU Business IT qualification to help organizations deliver a sustainable digital transformation that includes everyone.”
“From big corporations to schools, we are all entering the digital age with digital rules and a digital language”, says Marlon Molina, Director of Computer World University. “Everyone needs to speak the digital language understanding not only the definitions of the most disruptive technologies, but the impact they will produce into the business and the society.”
