EU and industry join up to fill 900k ICT jobs

A coalition between EU governments and industry has been launched to fill the estimated 900,000 jobs in ICT currently unfilled.

Despite the huge number of vacancies, the number of ICT graduates has dropped in the past few years while, at the same time, the number of young Europeans out of work has risen to a quarter on average.

Ireland, which hosts some of the biggest names in ICT, has at least 5,000 unfilled vacancies.

Jobs Minister Richard Bruton joined the European Commission and representatives from some of Europe’s leading ICT employers, including Microsoft, Google, HP, and Cisco Systems, to form what they called a grand coalition for digital jobs.

The coalition aims to better match people to available jobs and to fine-tune the education sector to help fill the vacancies.

The improved training and skills matching will be led by industry, and will be supported by a common EU certification system for ICT skills, assistance services, and funding to help ICT workers to move around the EU to take up work where it is available.

Mr Bruton said: “Making Ireland the most attractive location in the world for ICT skills availability is a key part of the Government’s action plan for jobs 2013. By 2018, we aim to lead Europe in terms of ICT graduates as a percentage of all third-level graduates.”