ALL DIGITAL WEEK 2021 – Launch Event: Digital Skills for a Stronger Europe

Last Monday 22nd of March YouthProAktiv took part on the Launch Event of the ALL DIGITAL WEEK 2021: “Launch event: Digital Skills for a Stronger Europe”. The event was introduced by Achilles Kameas, Chair of the Board at ALL DIGITAL, with a quick explanation of the projects and activities performed at ALL DIGITAL. All Digital is a leading Pan-European association based in Brussels which carries out three different types of activities: 1- Capacity building activities, 2- Change enabling activities and 3- Research and innovation.
Introduction to the campaign
Next, Peter Palvolgyi, Chief Executive Officer at All Digital, introduced the objectives and reason for organizing the ALL DIGITAL WEEK. He highlighted that the campaign encourages various activities to support the Europeans who do not have enough digital skills to participate fully in society. This year the focus is on education and educators, being digital education key in today’s society.
Stefano Scarpetta from the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) declared that “the digital transformation is spreading fast and jobs are being automated, which means that many tasks will be automated”. In Stefano’s view more digital skill are needed, specifically: technical digital skills, generic IT skills, complementary and soft skills.
Scarpetta made a special emphasis on young people: “A third of the young people entering the labor market today, still have very little digital skills.” Thus, due to COVID-19 crisis, youth have missed out on work experience. Apprenticeships and internships were canceled or put on hold, and work-based learning was disrupted. In order to fix this situation, Scarpetta gives a series of recommendations: “We need to raise training participation, develop career guidance, align the training content with the skills needed in the labor market and improve the quality and impact of the trainings”.
The debate on Digital Education
Next on the event, key stakeholders answered some questions thrown by Achilles Kameas: Veronica Mobilio from the European Comission, Victor Negrescu from the European Parliament, Simon Delakorda from the Institute for the Electronic participation and Angeliki Dedopo, Senior Manager of EU Public Affairs at Huawei provided guidance on the pathway for digital education.
According to Veronica Mobilio “if we really want to transform this crisis into opportunities, this can only be achieved by investing deeply in digital education, quality and inclusive digital education.” Veronica also talked about the Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027) from the European Commission which “is not only a normal policy document, but a call to action also for the whole society”. At the Commission level, they are setting the European Digital Education Hub to stimulate a dialog between the public and the private sector, linking approaches to digital education from the bottom to the top level.
Next, Victor Negrescu stated that digital education needs quality standards and “we need to make sure that Member States listen to the people who want to be part of the process: teachers, students and parents”. Negrescu also highlighted the necessity of spending on education and creating an ecosystem approach on the European level which is homogeneous in every country. For doing so, “We need to work together, exchange with each other and put together local communities”
Simon Delakorda, also focused on the importance of including the citizens into the digital transformation. In Simon’s view, digital skills should address learning and teaching, and specially how to use technology in a smart and wise way.
Finally, Angeliki Dedopo explained that Huawey is already investing in digital project but it is needed that public institutions make major investment in the re-skilling of people. She highlighted the importance of ensuring that those without digital access, the most disadvantaged, can get online.
There are already 311 events and over 80000 participants in this campaign.
You can still be a digital hero by submitting your national event and participate!!
Don’t forget that there will be 3 awards at the end of the campaign for the digital heroes:
- Best e-facilitator
- Best Digital Changemaker
- Best Digital Resource
Written by Maria Lopez