On the 27th of January the European Commission organized a conference  "Towards a European Quality label for ICT industry training and certifications" as part of the ECs eSkills program. The quality label is seen as an important instrument to contribute to reduce ICT skills shortages and unemployment.

CIONET participates in the eSkills Quality workshops and was asked to take part in the panel discussion. Silvia Leal represented CIONET in the panel. She is a T.I.S. professor and director of the Executive I.T. Program at IE Business School of Madrid, Spain.  Recently the IE Business School was recognized as one of the top 4 business schools for information technology in the world according to a Bloomberg survey. Leal is responsible for the ICT program.

In her presentation and the discussion that followed, Leal called for Clarity and Collaboration. First off all, as we are facing a huge challenge in Europe due to expected ICT skills shortages we need transparency and a common framework in the European labor market. This will allow organizations to source cross border. E.g. the will take down the barriers to bring highly qualified but unemployed professionals in Southern Europe to see work in Northern Europe where we already see a shortage of eSkills. Furthermore, to ensure transparency, accreditation would be recommended. The challenge involves many stakeholders. Organizations which traditionally are each other's, client, supplier or competitor should identify what they have in common. The focus should be on collaboration. Only efficient and true collaboration between Universities, ICT suppliers, ICT users and, of course, the national Governments and the European Commission will allow all organizations to find the eSkills and jobs we are all looking for.

Finally, Leal commented that ICT is still not attractive industry for most women to work in. Where is women have more then enough to offer. See the following article in Forbes India. Making the ICT profession attractive for women might also make it more attractive for men ;-)