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Brussels, Jan 2010:   ECDL Foundation has joined the European e-Skills Week 2010 campaign to highlight the importance of e-Skills for the future of Europe.  This pan-European awareness-raising campaign promotes e-skills to the general public, students, young professionals and SMEs and stresses the vast range of opportunities that ICT-related jobs present to encourage greater uptake of ICT studies and careers. The campaign will take place throughout 20 different European countries and will reach over 300,000 people.

Many months of ICT awareness-raising, by dedicated public authorities, ICT companies, informatics societies, schools and ECDL Foundation national partners are already taking place across Europe and will culminate in a series of European activities throughout the week of 2nd -  6th March 2010.   It is expected that hundreds of ICT-related activities will take place during the campaign including training events, competitions, IT camps, and conferences.  

ECDL Foundation supports this ground-breaking initiative of the European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry and is an active pan-European stakeholder in the campaign.

For more on e-Skills Week please click here

Background information:
In EU 27, 33% of the individuals declared have never used the internet(1) in 2008.
In 2006, 19% of Europeans declared that they used internet for educational purposes, although only 8% used it for formalized educational activities(2) .

There is “an important need to address ICT-related skills (e-skills) issues in order to respond to the growing demand for highly-skilled ICT practitioners and users, meet the fast-changing requirements of industry, and ensure that every citizen is digitally literate in a lifelong learning context requiring the mobilisation of all stakeholders,” according to the European Commission’s Communication on e-skills.

Thus, the European Commission Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry is funding the organization of the European e-Skills Week 2010, to raise awareness of e-skills issues, solutions and best practices.