E-learning and e-Jobs for Every Generation

1. 2012 EDEN Annual
Conference on Open
Learning Generations
Portugal, 6-9 June 2012

2. Mr. Gyula HEGYI
Member of the Cabinet of Commissioner Andor

3. O homem nao é um animal Man is not an animal
É uma carne inteligente Is an intelligent flesh
Embora ás vezes doente Although sometimes ill
Fernando Pessoa (1935) - (Love is the Essential)

4. Greetings from
Commissioner
Commissioner Ms Androulla Vassiliou Head of Cabinet
Mr László Andor Ms Anabela Gago

5. who should like, but couldn't come to your
beautiful city Porto

6.  The strategic and effective use of information
and communication technologies (ICT) and the
knowledge, skills, competences and
inventiveness of the European workforce and
citizens is one of the conditions for the success
of Europe 2020:
 to raise the employment rate (20-64) to 75%
 to reduce poverty, to have at least 20 million fewer
people in or at risk of poverty and social exclusion

7.  Digital competence is one of the core 21st century skills
that citizens of all ages should acquire through
education
 training for employability
 for being (e-)included in their daily lives (i.e. being able and
competent to use e-health, e-public services etc.).
 Not enough to use:
 people need to be able to make use of new technologies in a
critical, creative, innovative and collaborative way
 Most of the jobs will be related in one way or another to ICT.
Using ICT efficiently, effectively and in a digital competent
way will not be the exception, but the rule

8.  By developing and enhancing digital skills, all
EU citizens, and in particular groups at risk of
socio-economic exclusion
 will be able (should be able) to participate on a more
equal footing in the digital economy.
 Having digital skills, people will have better job
prospects
 enjoy more opportunities for learning, creating,
participating and being confident in the use of digital
tools, media and related content.

9.  Sad numbers:
 30 % of Europeans are digital illiterate
 150 million Europeans have never used the internet
 Who are they?
 Mostly older people, or people on low incomes, the
unemployed, immigrants, and the less educated and
at risk of social exclusion in general
 In many cases their exclusion is due to a lack of user
skills, such as digital and media literacy and
competences.

10.  So the lack of digital skills, the so-called digital divide
will negatively affect:
 Productivity, growth, competitiveness, innovation,
employment and social cohesion in Europe
 Unemployment and lack of working forces go together!
 In Europe we have a shortage of ICT practitioner skills
 Europe risks not being able to fill as many as 700,000 IT jobs
by 2015.
 It is not about only the IT jobs, almost every jobs
require certain kind of ICT knowledge:
 it is estimated that 90% of jobs will require e-skills by 2015.
 Improving the availability of e-skills involves actions:
 both at European and national level, in several areas,
primarily education, training, industrial and labour market
policies

11. European Level – Frameworks: Europe 2020
flagship initiatives
'An agenda for new skills and jobs'
 This Agenda presents a set of concrete actions that
will help:
 Stepping up reforms to improve flexibility and security
in the labour market ('flexicurity')
 Equipping people with the right skills for the jobs of
today and tomorrow
 Improving the quality of jobs and ensuring better
working conditions
 Improving the conditions for job creation

12.  'Youth on the move'
 Goals:
 making education and training more relevant to young people's needs
 encouraging more of them to take advantage of EU grants to study or
train in another country
 encouraging EU countries to take measures simplifying the transition
from education to work.
 See also:
 Youth on the Move website – provides more information and
practical links for young people looking to study, train or work
abroad.
 Youth Opportunities Initiative – actions to drive down youth
unemployment.

13.  'Digital Agenda'
 As part of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF)
 (19/10/2011)
 The European Commission has proposed to spend almost
€9.2 billion from 2014 to 2020 on pan-European projects to
give EU citizens and businesses access to high-speed
broadband networks and the services that run on them
 The funding, part of the proposed Connecting Europe
Facility (CEF), would take the form of both equity and debt
instruments and grants
 It would complement private investment and public money at
local, regional and national level and EU structural or
cohesion funds. At least €7 billion would be available for
investment in high-speed broadband infrastructure.

14.  A coherent Employment package – tabled by my
Commissioner Andor – has just been adopted
referring explicitly to the huge needs for more ICT
skilled employees and thus graduates
 It has a so-called Staff Working Document on ICT

15.  Some interesting data and conclusions:
There is a real "digital divide" in different Member
States:
% persons employed with ICT user skills
35.0
30.0
25.0
20.0
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
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And, strangely enough, the number of computer science graduates is decreasing in
Europe since 2006
Surprisingly low interest of young people in a career as an ICT practitioner…

16.  More general problem: as former HU Prime
Minister Bajnai said, it is not healthy if more
youngsters want to study psychology then
engineering
Computer science graduates in EU27
140000
120000
100000
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

17. ICT staff retirement forecasts, EU27
140000
120000
100000
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
It shows that more and more skilled people will leave the ICT staff

18.  Virtually all young people now have at least basic ICT
skills and are familiar with a number of internet
applications
 BUT: the number of them who make the jump from
‘cool’ ICT (entertainment) to ‘boring’ ICT (such as
entering a graduate ICT programme, a vocational ICT
education, or creating their own web company) remains
limited
 Despite the good employment prospects in the sector
labour supply is scarce particularly among youngsters
and this reticence to take a career in the field of ICT
remains a serious challenge for policy-makers

19. Regular Internet use in the EU27 in 2010
Sector chart: the amplitude of each sector represents the demographic
weight of each age-education group in total EU27 population while its
height represents the percentage of regular Internet use for that group

20.  Reorientation of mid-career jobseekers -
problem of mobility and cost of the training
 A major alternative source of skilled ICT workers
are:
 unemployed mid-career workers from related fields such
as engineering, mathematics or sciences, with adequate
retraining, as they usually share the same basic bodies of
knowledge
 important role of training centres and non-formal
community groups

21.  However there are ICT vacancies and persistent
unemployment among workers in related fields in the
same time
 Why? geographical immobility, as job vacancies and
unemployed workers may be in different areas, training cost
and adaptation period
 EU commitment is also shown through other numerous
actions
 Member States are supported through the Open Method of
Coordination (OMC) and Lifelong Learning Programme
when embedding digital competences in their teaching,
curricula, learning outcomes, and assessment

22.  Greater use of computers for communicating between
schools and multi-cultural dialogue is encouraged
through the 'eTwinning'[1] of schools (action under the
EU's Lifelong Learning Programme that creates online
communities of teachers and schools across Europe)
 In the beginning of June 2012, the services of
Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou will publish a call
for proposals (“Creative Classrooms”) to support
governments in undertaking policy experimentations
for the development of new learning environments and
of creative and innovative teaching through the use of
ICT
 Later this year, the Commission will launch a
'supplement to EUROPASS on e-skills' to enhance the
recognition of digital competences of each individual

23.  All of these actions and initiatives require good
cooperation between education and business,
governments, schools, companies, organisations and
the European Union as a whole
 A collaborative effort - at Member States Level
 Delivering the right skills and competences to learners
in the 21st century calls for radical pedagogical changes
by education and training systems
 Changes must be learner-centered and focus on
transversal skills such as collaboration skills,
communication skills and ICT skills
 Learning e-skills at an early age will help them to find a
good job and build and follow a successful career

24.  Let's utilize the natural curiosity built in young
children, within and outside the classroom, to
help and enable them to take an active role with
ICT
 The reform of curricula and pedagogical
approaches is a Member State competence and
the Commission is ready to work with you to
make it happen

25.  EU banner kép
 G&G - Grandparents and Grandchildren
 Europe
The Pan-European Grandparents & Grandchildren (G&G) initiative is aimed to
promote and facilitate digital active citizenship of elderly people
The original aspect of the initiative is that the teachers of the elderly are young
volunteer students in the role of “grandchildren” assisting on a one-to-one basis the
“grandparents” in learning very basic internet browsing and e-mail skills

26.  How?
 1. A tutor trains the "grandchildren", the volunteer students
in the schools
 2. Each grandchild trains a "grandparent" - In each
participating school an ICT laboratory connected with
internet is made available for these adult learning classes
 3. "Grandparents" practice in the laboratory – in the school
It is not a new initiative, it was born in 1998 in Italy and since
then it has spread into Estonia, Greece, Finland, Poland,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, France, Germany, Sweden,
Romania and Latvia, but it is a part of the Active Ageing
initiatives

27. Q-AGEING: Quality ageing in urban environment
Germany / Poland / Slovenia / Italy / Hungary
An important part of this project was providing computers and basic e-skills
for very old (mostly over 75) , lonely people with slight mental disorders
After one year of learning and using the internet, e-mailing and visiting the
social media they were re-examined by other doctors, and their mental
disorders HAVE DISAPPEARED

28. And lastly:
Portuguese Platform of Age-Friendly Cities
Portugal / Porto
Around 100 Portuguese municipalities as well as 14 universities and
several civil society organisations committed to joining the project
“cIDADES”
in the 2nd phase of the project each municipality will evaluate their own
friendliness for its citizens over 55 years of age by carrying out a local
survey addressed to senior citizens
Toolkit “Towards and Age-Friendly world”:
the Toolkit will include guidelines with practical examples and resources to
those who wish to become an age-friendly city