The European Schoolnet Academy will be presented at the Opening workshop on Digital Skills for the Digital Single Market which takes place on 17 June in Riga.

The workshop brings together  stakeholders from the fields of education, business and employment (national coalitions, companies, education providers etc.) that can play a key role in developing a digital skills action plan.

Europe will only benefit fully from the Digital Single Market if it has a digitally skilled workforce and digitally empowered citizens. At this stage, however, important mismatches and gaps are noted when it comes to digital skills in Europe. Despite the high unemployment rate in Europe today, companies are struggling to find skilled digital technology workforce. In fact, Europe could be facing a shortage of up to 825,000 unfilled vacancies for ICT (Information and Communication technologies) professionals by 2020. Moreover, there is a need for digital skills for nearly all jobs where digital technology complements existing tasks (see also the infographic below by the European Commission).

Download the infographic in PDF form here

Experience gained through the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs shows that tackling the digital skills issue in Europe is beyond any particular stakeholder on its own. By collaborating with businesses across the economy, education providers employment services, social partners and many more embracing partners, the big skills challenges can be tackled. In fact, four new National Coalitions for Digital Skills and Jobs in Belgium, Cyprus, the Netherlands, and the UK are going to be announced at the Workshop and, in addition, organisations including the BBC, CA Technologies, EMC Academic Alliance, the National College for Digital Skills and Google will announce pledges to the EU Grand Coalition.

The Opening workshop Digital Skills for the Digital Single Market will firstly present the Commission's vision with regard to digital skills development in Europe and, through a panel discussion, explore the identified strands of action. Secondly, during a working session, it will try to explore and come forward with actions and best practices that could help the implementation of a digital skills strategy for Europe. In this context Benjamin Hertz, the European Schoolnet Academy Coordinator, will talk about modernising education and teacher training and will present the results of the first courses on teaching computing for primary and secondary teachers.

Follow the event on Twitter using #DA15eu and #DA15eskills

You can find more information on the new national coalitions and pledges to the EU Grand Coalition in this announcement.