On 30 June Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen presented the European Digital Skills Awards at the Digital Skills EU Days to projects dedicated to empowering individuals with essential competencies in digital tech.
The event, open to the public, also saw the launch of new digital skills academies in virtual worlds, quantum and artificial intelligence to bridge critical talent gaps. Equipping citizens with digital skills is a core component of Europe’s Digital Decade, which aims to provide 80% of adults with basic digital skills and have at least 20 million information and communication technology (ICT) specialists in Europe by 2030.
The latest state of the Digital Decade report, published on 16 June, showed that while more than 60% of Europeans now have basic digital skills, more needs to be done to boost the number of ICT specialists in Europe, particularly women in the field.
The Digital Skills EU Days will also mark the launch of a Cybersecurity Skills Coalition European Digital Infrastructure Consortium to support the work of the existing Cybersecurity Skills Academy. This is increasingly important as recent EU data found nearly 4,900 significant cybersecurity incidents were recorded in a single year.
Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen (pictured) said: “Digital skills can unlock the many opportunities created by tech. Opportunities that should be open to everyone. We are investing in Europe’s Digital Decade, but the digital transformation does not come without investing in people’s digital skills.”
The Digital Skills EU days took place between 29 June and 1 July in Brussels.
