The Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition is a partnership of organisations from the public, private and non-profit sectors that works to tackle digital skills shortages across Europe. The Coalition was formed by the European Commission as part of the Digital Single Market Strategy, and follows on from the earlier Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs, which operated from 2013 to 2016.
ICDL Foundation is an active member of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition. Members of the Coalition can make pledges that commit themselves to taking concrete steps towards raising the level of digital skills in Europe.
We made three pledges as part of the Coalition:
- ICDL Foundation pledged that by the end of 2018, 2 million digital skills assessments leading to certification under ICDL standards will be taken in the EU. This will contribute to reducing the share of Europeans (45%) who lack basic digital skills and increase their employability and mobility in the labour market.
- ICDL Foundation pledged to implement the Digital Marketing module developed and piloted as pledge for the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs in 2015 in at least 5 EU countries by the end of 2017. This pledge is aimed to tackle the problem of a small share of SMEs who sell online (16%) and across borders (7.5%).
- ICDL Foundation pledged to launch an ECDL Computing module which will cover all elements of computing (including, but not restricted to coding) and to pilot it in Europe. The module is aimed at students aged 12 to 16 years, who wish to start learning about computational thinking and coding.
More information about the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition is available on the website of the European Commission.