What are e-skills?

E-skills are fundamental to the innovation strategies of the future

One of the most fundamental resources for innovation strategies are e-skills in processes and reconfiguration of value chains in ICT software and services. Therefore, it is crucial that the EU-Commission and the EU-countries find responses to global competitors (for example Asian companies that are climbing the value chain).

As a result, Europe's competitive edge could be determined by factors other than the quality and volume of R&D. Europe must dare to initiate forward-looking systemic reforms in our education and lifelong learning systems so that our workforce acquire skills and mind-sets that will enable us to take the lead in new and more open forms of market and user driven innovation. This could be critical to a competitive and creative Europe of the future.

European ICT companies must recognise that even the highest level of education is not a one-time event. Indeed, learning can and must occur in all kinds of contexts and throughout life to enable Europeans to create products and services that are not easily replicated The future innovation strategy for the European ICT software and services sector is a skills- and learning-intensive strategy.