Greta Bretagne Sud reçoit le Label d'Excellence de l'Observatoire International des Métiers du Web

Le Label d'Excellence de l'Observatoire International des Métiers du Web a été décerné à Greta Bretagne Sud lors de la conférence "Impact des technologies web sur l'activité commerciale des entreprises et évolution des compétences". François Adoue, directeur de l'Observatoire, a salué le travail d'équipe remarquable des formateurs du Greta et les a qualifié de fer de lance de la compétence TIC en Bretagne, seconde région de France en matière de Technologie de l'Information et de la Communication.

Pixelgyar has been labeled by the e-Jobs Observatory platform

Pixelgyar Ltd. is composed of a team of designers and developers focused on Facebook marketing, mobile apps and web design. The Webdesign courses started 2011 january and it is evolving every month.  
Pixelgyar is certificated, gives quality courses, and actives e-professional networks.

All the labeled companies and training institutions
Why should I get the label of the e-Jobs Observatory platform ?

Sustainable growth: for a resource efficient, greener and more competitive economy

The EC and Member States are investing dramatically to overcome the economical crisis and ensure that its economy grows again. In this sense, the EU needs to improve its productivity and competitiveness. It must  maintain its early lead in green solutions, especially in the face of growing competition from China and North America. EU targets for sustainable growth include:

- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% compared to 1990 levels by 2020. The EU is prepared to go further and reduce by 30% if other developed countries make similar commitments and developing countries contribute according to their abilities, as part of a comprehensive global agreement.

- Increasing the share of renewable in final energy consumption to 20%.

- Moving towards a 20% increase in energy efficiency including in a key sector such as ICT.

More information about how EU will  boost its sustainable growth.

Cloud Computing will generate 14 Million Jobs By 2015

According to a recent article published by the Forbes Magazine, Cloud computing will potentially generate at least 14 million new jobs across the globe within the next three years. Moreover, these new jobs may likely be in many areas outside of IT.

Those findings come from new research conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC)  and sponsored by Microsoft Corp., looking at the economic benefits of cloud computing in the years ahead. A couple of months back, a Microsoft-underwritten study by the London School of Economics projected substantial job growth in two industries: smartphones and aerospace.

More informations about  the whole article

Europe is developing cross-border eHealth services

The European Health Insurance Card is being used in epSOS, a pilot project co-financed by the European Commission, which aims at developing cross-border eHealth services to improve the quality and safety of healthcare for citizens travelling to another European country.

The project consists in developing an eHealth framework and ICT infrastructure that enable secure access to patient health information among different European healthcare systems. This includes making patients' medical records (Patient summary) available electronically and using cross-border electronic prescriptions (ePrescription). The European Health Insurance Card is being tested in the project as one of the tools for identifying patients. It allows holders to provide health professionals with the identification data they need to access the patient's electronic medical record or prescriptions when seeking healthcare in participating epSOS pilot countries - whether as tourists, business travellers, commuters or exchange students, for example. (...)"

Europe is also funding project such as CompAAL that aims to develop qualification profiles for jobs in Ambient-Assisted Living or AAL. AAL specialist skills are needed in many professions, in which the job requirements have changed under these fast-evolving technologies. New skills profiles have to be set-up for professionals from various backgrounds, for example architects building AAL compatible homes, staff of ambulatory home care, and most of all IT specialists in order to enable them to design AAL systems and interfaces, to manage interoperability, as well as to create, manage and moderate social networks.

More informations about "Facilitating access to cross-border eHealth services: a task for the European Health Insurance Card ?" on ec.Europa.eu 

More informations about the EU funded project CompAAL

Shortage of ICT workers in many European companies

Europe is facing an “alarming” unemployment level and paradoxically, a shortage of information and communications technology workers. Despite of the crisis, employers are actively looking for technologically proficient workers who also have “soft” business skills and specialized knowledge in areas such as digital media. Recruitment agencies identified this new trend : "Since Mai 2011, the number of job offers posted in our category 'ICT/Software Development' has reached the highest level from 18 months", Hugo Stienstra, Monster Benelux.

ICT skills are critical to the global competitiveness of the European economy and Neelie Kroes, VIce-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, has already underlined the importance of sustaining growth in the technology-driven markets of the future. Many workers are increasingly thinking of turning their back on a career in ICT, which requires that educators, employers, government and recruiters act together to deliver an attractive and accessible career pathway.

In according to this need, the e-Jobs Observatory aims at creating a central point of reference for all activities related to research, training, qualifications, standards, norms, certificates and employment in the field of e-Jobs in Europe. We invite you to check out the e-jobs descriptions and provide comments to the authors.

More informations about e-Jobs Observatory.

Source : Inside digital media, 2011 Oct.

EU : ICT is one of the 3 areas with the biggest job potential in the future

"Job creation must become a real European priority" said László Andor, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. While unemployment is hitting records across the 27 EU member states, European Commission presents a set of measures to boost jobs. It also identifies ICT as one of the 3 areas with the biggest job potential in the future. "All together, the green economy, the health and new technology sectors will create more than 20 millions of jobs in the years to come. Member States need to seize these opportunities, mobilize existing resources and stimulate their labour market in close cooperation with the social partners." said Barroso. In pratical terms, members states are encourage hiring by reducing taxes on labour or supporting business start-ups more. The employment package aims to create a genuine EU labour market to restore growth and to face major structural changes and includes proposals such as :

- Exploit the big job potential areas for the future such as the green economy where 20 million jobs could be created between now and 2020 and to include green employment into their’ National Job Plans, strengthening green skills intelligence

- Support an increase in highly qualified ICT labour and promote digital skills across the workforce.

- To improve the matching of jobs with job-seekers, the package proposes to transform the EURES job seeker portal into a true European placement and recruitment tool and foresees (as of 2013) innovative online self-service applications to provide users instantly with a clear geographical mapping of European job offers.

More information on europa.eu

Shut down or restart?: The way forward for computing in UK schools

The report "Shut down or restart?: The way forward for computing in UK schools" is the outcome of the project "Computing in schools" initiated by the Royal Society in August 2010. The project looked at the way that computing is taught in schools, with support from 24 organisations from across the computing community including learned societies, professional bodies, universities, and industry.

The main findings and recommendations of the project are:
1. The current delivery of Computing education in many UK schools is highly unsatisfactory
2. There is a need to improve understanding in schools of the nature and scope of Computing.
3. Every child should have the opportunity to learn Computing at school, including exposure to Computer Science as a rigorous academic discipline.
4. There is a need for qualifications in aspects of Computing that are accessible at school level but are not currently taught.
5. There is a need for augmentation and coordination of current Enhancement and Enrichment activities to support the study of Computing.
6. Uptake of Computing A-level is hindered by
lack of demand from higher education institutions.

Visit the "Computing in schools" project website
Download the report
More reports on e-Jobs

EMF attended the e-Skills Week stakeholders opening conference

EMF as e-Skills Week stakeholder attended on 19 March 2012 the  e-Skills Week stakeholders opening conference in Brussels. The Conference bought together all stakeholders – such as high-level public authorities, key industry representatives and research organisations - to discuss the current situation and needs of the e-Skilled workforce.

The event featured a plenary session on e-Skills policy in practice, as well as panel debates on the topic of e-Skills with both young people and ICT professionals.

More events and activities are foreseen for the upcoming weeks, culminating in a dedicated e-Skills Week final conference on 30 March 2012.

Distinguish your training organization with the e-Jobs Observatory Label of Excellence

The e-Jobs Observatory Label of Excellence distinguishes training organisations proposing Internet-related trainings corresponding to market needs as observed and defined by the partners of the e-Jobs Observatory.

The e-Jobs Observatory labelisation is an independent, stand-alone process that enables applying training organisations to become involved in and associated with the Observatory's network of stakeholders who are striving to improve vocational and educational training in ICT throughout Europe.

The purpose of granting the e-Jobs Observatory Label of Excellence is to promote the development of Europe-wide, agreed standards for Internet-related trainings.

Get the Label!

CERT-IT a new partner of the e-Jobs Observatory network

CERT-IT, the German accredited certifier in the area of IT and Education has recently joined the e-Jobs Observatory network by supporting the e-Jobs Observatory platform. CERT-IT appear now in the "about" section of the site together with other supporters and will participate in the restricted collaborative working groups of e-Jobs supporters.

If you are interested in supporting e-Jobs please fill in the form.

Implementing eCompetence Framework into ICT SMEs

As a result of the "eCF into SMEs" project, the document “Implementing eCompetence Framework into ICT SMEs” focuses on the issues raised by the implementation of the eCompetence Framework in ICT SMEs. It also addresses the issue of moving SMEs towards a greater awareness of their e-competence needs and e-certification opportunities. The document has been carried out in the framework of the CEN WS ICT Skills with funding from the European Commission.

The document contains the following outcomes:

-The current set of ICT SME e-CF competences and levels with possible language simplifications
-A tool for e-competence need analysis within ICT SMEs that will replace the semi-structures questionnaire as new release shared and adjusted with SMEs
-An e-Certification chart example based on e-CERT method connecting ICT SMEs e-DF competences to e-certifications available on the market (both proprietary and open source)
-A synthetic document with conclusions of interviews within SMEs
-Overall considerations on costs of e-competence formal recognition (i.e. e-certification) for SMEs.

Download the document

More trainings about e-jobs

Trainings in the field of e-jobs are increasing each day. More and more students are trained in this field, nevertheless on the companies side (specially SME under 20 employees who represent more than 80% of non-public employment ) still express difficulties to recruit employees they need !

Universities and training organisations teach mainly knowledge, which is of course the basics of the work. But in addition, in a recruitment process candidates have to show and to prove that they have more than knowledge ! they have to prove that they can increase the revenue of the company. Key points for recruiting, on the company side is a balance between the "best employee" and the less risked one ! Recruiters make arbitrage between those two main issues ! For that they evaluate things such as team spirit, attention to details and precision, communication and cooperation with members of the team and with custommers and partners. To have, and to show effectivly a "custommer orientation" is decisive according to the results of the studies of the E-jobs-Observatory. More detailled issues are available in french language on Le Cerle Les Echos.

François Adoue
Credit photo http://www.photo-libre.fr

Report on ICT Professionalism and Training Programmes for ICT Managers in Europe

In the context of the e-Skills and ICT Professionalism project, CEPIS and the Innovation Value Institute (IVI) have published a synthesis report on "State of play regarding ICT Professionalism and Training Programmes for ICT Managers in Europe”. The objective of the research initiative is to support the development of:

-a European Framework for ICT Professionalism with the goal of enhancing ICT professionalism and mobility across Europe,
-a European Training Programme for ICT managers to promote new competences with a view to better address the challenges of ICT driven innovation and the future Internet.

The European Commission Directorate General Enterprise and Industry launched the project "e-Skills and ICT Professionalism" with the aim of supporting the development of a European Framework for ICT Professionalism, and a European Training Programme for ICT Managers, with the goal of improving ICT professionalism and mobility across Europe. This synthesis report marks the halfway point of pioneering research which is due to be completed in January 2012 and also signifies the end of Phase I of the project.

Download the report

The Information and Communications Technology Industry in Germany, Issue 2011

The following link directs you to an interesting study on the ICT industry in Germany conducted by Germand Trade and Invest: http://www.santiago.diplo.de/contentblob/3082330/Daten/1148251/GTAI_ICT_DD.pdf

Lack of educational software and support staff to foster ICT in Education

The new report “Key Data on Learning and Innovation through ICT at School” published by the European Commission examines the evolution of ICT infrastructure in schools in terms of networks, hardware and software.

The document looks at how ICT is being used in educational processes and incorporated into curricula before focusing on its role in enabling the development of innovative teaching methods. It also examines the promotion of transversal as well as job-related key competences, and the role of ICT in this process.

One of the key findings of the report shows that there is not a great disparity between schools in availability of ICT equipment but that there is still a lack of educational software and support staff. Teachers usually acquire ICT-related skills during their initial training, but further professional development is less common but needed.

Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner responsible for Education, Culture,Multilingualism and Youth indicates that “The solution to an effective use of ICT in education, however, is not technology itself. Most European countries have made significant investments over the last years with a view to ensuring universal access to ICT, with considerable success. The focus of today's policy in the field should now move to advancing our understanding of how the new technologies are and can best be used in schools to support learning, and what are the barriers in the way of success.”

Download the report

Bursting the 9 Myths of Computing Technology in Education

In a thought provoking article by Kentaro Toyama published in ICT Works, the author argues that "technology in education has a poor historical record; that computers in schools typically fail to have positive impact (with the rare exceptions occurring only in the context of competent, well-funded schools); that information technology is almost never worth its opportunity cost; and that quality education doesn’t require information technology".
Having put forward a point-by-point refutation of frequently heard sound bites extolling technology in schools, he concludes that "underperforming school systems should keep their focus on improving teaching and administration, and that even good schools may want to consider more cost-effective alternatives to technology when making supplementary educational investments".

Professional e-Competence - CEPIS Self-assessment Tool

This online tool is based upon the European e-Competence Framework (eCF). It allows IT professionals to assess their competences in view of their dominant profile (e.g. IT Manager, IT Project Manager, Business Analyst, IT Systems Architect, Software Developer, etc.). The survey generates a personal competence profile providing feedback with regard to competencies that should be developed and competencies that are possessed in greater depth than required. It takes about 15 minutes to complete. It can be recommended as a useful self-assessment tool.

Seal of e-Excellence

The e-Jobs Observatory is supported by the largest cluster of SMEs in ICT.

For more than 9 years,  the cluster headed by EMF has awarded the European Seal of e-Excellence to promote the marketing of innovation in the ICT and digital media sector across Europe and worldwide.

The Seal of e-Excellence Award Ceremony will take place at CEBIT, in Hanover on 1 March 2011.

This year 3 special seals will be awarded: "Green ICT", "Language Technologies", "Latin America".

Applications for the European Seal of e-Excellence  are open at http://www.seal-of-excellence.org/

ProInternet launches a new network of key players in the area of e-Jobs

The Pro-Internet (PIN) project aims at creating a network of key players in the area of e-Jobs and Internet-related jobs converging around a web 2.0 platform: the e-Jobs Observatory.

Through its activities, PIN hopes to contribute improving the employability of job seekers, reducing the e-skills shortages on the EU labour market, improving the quality of Vocational Education & Training (VET) in the field of e-Jobs and making VET more transparent and comparable at European level.

PIN is a concrete answer to the opportunity indentified by The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in its 2008 ICT Report: "ICT skills are an important contribution to growth […] Over 4% of total employment is in ICT specialist occupations, over 20% in intensive ICT-using occupations.[...]". The PIN partners believe that the opportunity is even larger if one takes into account the knock-on benefits that can be reaped from training a broad section of the workforce in low/medium level ICT and media skills.

At the begining of the second decade of the 21st century, employment opportunities requiring ICT competencies are already plentiful, but vacancies are difficult to fill as qualifications do not match with the requirements of the employers...

The PIN network will contribute to addressing this challenge by fostering better interaction between key stakeholders involving:

1. industry organisations which have in-depth experience of e-Jobs and Internet-related jobs and direct access to ICT SMEs (suppliers and users of technologies);
2. VET institutions with a focus on e-Jobs and Internet-related jobs;
3. relevant public authorities and intermediary organisations.

By a contributing to a better interaction and information exchange, it is expected that all target groups addressed by the network will benefit in their various approaches of the e-Skills gap.

The network will concentrate on state of the art information sharing, notably through the e-Jobs Observatory, a targeted effort to streamline the interaction between employers (particularly SMEs) and VET providers and a number of round-tables and events to gather the various stakeholders.