Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs
The European Commission invited IT companies and local initiatives which joined forces to fight the skills gap AND youth unemployment to Brussels on 3rd of October 2013. The meeting after 6 months of activity since the launching event was dedicated to progress reports and the objective to support alliances among the pledges. Commissioner Nelie Kroess discussed with the pledges where they see potential for support from the policy makers. The diverse responsibility of Ministries and regional governments was highlighted as a problem. There should be a central access point for digital society in all member countries. The request for financial support from the EU Commission was raise by several small initiatives and NGOs. Commissioner Kroess promised to bring these arguments on the table when she meets with prime ministers and with the cabinet.
Nelie Kroess blog
In interactive workshops the participants from pledging institutions discussed the progress of their projects and identified areas for potential collaboration. The variety of launched actions under the umbrella of the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs is amazing. The range spans from local job placement and apprenticeship initiatives to ambitious global learning management platforms. At the moment there are 41 pledges listed on the EU Commission website. A new platform was introduced where pledgers can report the progress of their project.
Cisco is one of the members of the Grand Coalition with a high reputation and visibility with the pledges to align the vendor backed certifications with the European e-Competence Framework (e-CF) and the development of learning material for Smart Grid installers. One week before the conference SVP Chris Dedicoat met Commissioner Kroess and briefed her about the progress regarding Smart Grid content development. The EU Commission supports the dissemination of the Smart Grid content to as many European countries as possible. Opportunities to support the dissemination with European grants were discussed. There is a chance that localization and implementation to smaller European countries can be speed up with the support of the EU.
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