eSkills Competences

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2nd IT STAR Workshop UNICTRY 2007
Universities and the ICT Industry
e-Skills Competences vocational education and
training the call for multi-stakeholder
partnerships
Hugo LUEDERS e-Skills
Competences Consortium, Europe
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Multi-stakeholder Partnerships/MSPs Concept and
Implementation

• Two steps approach to present the e-skills
  challenge
• The conceptual and political challenge
• Tunis WSIS outcome and the call for
• e-Skills Capacity Building worldwide
• The implementation
• European Alliance on Skills for Employability

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MSPs in the UN ICT4D context

• A multitude of ICT MSPs in international
  development
• Partnerships between business, government
  and civil society are a growing feature of both
  industrial and emerging economies. Such MSPs are
  necessary because it is increasingly clear that
  no one sector in society alone can any longer
  deliver the complexities of sustainable
  development and education in the Information
  Society
• An abundant literature has emerged to prove this
  case (UN, WSIS, GKP/Bali principles, WEF, WBCSD,
  IBLF, ICC/Basis, ICWFD, etc.)
• The challenge is to apply the lessons learned on
  e-Skills Capacity Building for sustainable
  education and labour competences

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WSIS follow up Towards a GAID e-Skills Agenda

• Enable local undertakings to contribute to
  capacity building for the
• knowledge-based society, drawing fully on
  own sources and expertise
• GAID ICT human capacity agenda elements
• ? Cooperation between major actors
  institutional, business and third sector (ICWFD,
  ICC, e-SCC, GKP, UNESCO, ILO, UNDP, EAEA, etc.)
• ? Global network of multi-stakeholder
  partnerships to provide ICT training,
  multi-cultural competences and industry-based
  certs worldwide
• ? MSPs in multiple forms can help to make a
  serious inroad into
• unemployment, and to foster Adult and
  Continuing Education (ACE), media
• literacy, professional ICT qualifications,
  knowledge and linguistic diversity
• MSP process confirmed to deliver on the GAID
  skills and competence goals

How to deliver for university education in Europe?
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The European Industry Approach to e-Skills
Learning

• What is the issue? Solve a real problem people
  have.
• To insure that e-skills solutions offered in
  universities and ACE have the credibility and
  standing to accurately validate the knowledge
  required for the ICT-embedded economy and society
  at large
• This is only achieved in the knowledge-based
  economy with industry participation and
  endorsement as well as development of a standard
  that meets the expectations of all stakeholders
  industry, government and third sector ACE
  players, like universities and education partners
• MSPs to aggregate the various competences and
  resources of each stakeholder, business, public
  institutions, and third sector

How to achieve that in an environment of
constant and dramatic changes (Web 3.0 services
mega-trends)?
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Market-ready workforce through MSPs

• Start Existence of parallel universes
  between public or government-
• supported, VET/ACE
  education/training and industry-based e-skills
• training, validation and
  certifications (often not publicly endorsed)
• Problem Due to speed of tech development
  public education/training
• modules often lack
  professional qualifications in line with demand
• and new market trends (FLOSS
  assumed self-learning effects )
• Solution MSPs identified as main tool to
  bridge parallel universes
• through integration/inclusion
  of industry-based certifications
• into traditional, State
  recognised training, and Portals/Frameworks
• Outcome MSPs ensure inroad into unemployment
  through VET/ACE
• qualifications that meet tech
  requirements in the society

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Partnerships on three different levels

• Individual product cooperation
• Corner stone cooperation between partners
  of various sectors to develop jointly
  industry-based curricula, certifications, and
  training material, either vendor-specific or
  vendor-neutral (example e-Security
  certifications)
• Institutional partnerships
• Strategic and other alliance-based
  partnerships through the whole ACE value-chain
  for content, training, and/or labour monitoring
  and placement
• (examples incl. ETPs, LLs, CCs, Europ.
  Alliance on Skills for Employability)
• Associative interaction of social actors within
  the society at large
• Constitutional pattern allowing for
  associative economics through financial autonomy
  and functional competence of social segments
• (key basic income through financial/fiscal
  support schemes)

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The implementation the European Alliance on
Skills for Employability
MSP process the e-skills access value chain
Access to work jobs monitoring placement
Access to technology
Access to certification
Access to training and content
Donation of software and networking equipment
easier access to computers
Link with demand in the workplace, job
monitoring support to placement
Low or no fee access to certification, test
centers, (self-) certificate of Completion, etc.
Skills training grants for indiv., SMEs NGOs
etc. and provision of online content
Based on pre-selected target
groups unemployed, elder and disabled persons
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Goal of the Alliance on Skills for
Employabilityto provide access to technology,
access to content, and access to jobs to help
train people in ICT and other skill-sets required
by current and future economic and social
developments (e.g. Web 3.0 and media
competences!) Focus is on- elder people in
need for re-training- people with disabilities
- young unemployedFounding members- CISCO,
CompTIA, ECDL EXIN, Microsoft, Randstad, -
State Street CorporationEU Member State
Chapters- example Belgium (with a multitude of
local partners Belgacom, Techno.bel, many
NGOs, NPOs, etc.)
The Skills Employability Alliance
VET/ACE goals, focus and partners
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Different Roles of e-Skills Stakeholders

• The role of ICT industry training channels
• To ensure that the VET/ACE performance
  standards and validation
• support workability by closer alignment to
  industry requirements
• The role of academic and AL educational
  institutions
• To ensure - beyond public needs of general
  ACE education goals
• that learning offerings and credentials
  they confer remain relevant
• to industry and other stakeholders and the
  society at large
• The role of governments and public institutions
• To ensure a tech-neutral enabling
  environment to provide
• individuals with the opportunity to attain
  real valued workable
• e-skills through self-training or other VET
  learning modes

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e-Skills Training Financial Support Schemes

• Financial Schemes Better allocation of
  existing public resources to
• fund needed e-skills capacity building to
  leverage the existing
• knowledge, experience and energy of the
  commercial training market,
• and stimulate private investments to advance
  public goals in VET/ACE
• Global discussion on education and other
  basic income support
• schemes (US BIG, EITC Brasil Renda
  Basica, Germany Grund-
• einkommen, etc.) or other commons-based
  socially mutualised funding
• BI/BIGs and similar financial/fiscal schemes
  are tools to guarantee in the
• public/private education sector individual
  autonomy to select from
• various MSP (self-) training and e-skills
  certs/validation offerings
• Need for better insight into best practices
  of fiscal and other
• financial support schemes for e-skills
  training, incl. education
• vouchers, and training checks, Social Funds,
  BI/BIGs, tax credits,
• e-skills VET/ACE training support model
  laws, etc.

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Summary Questions

• How to enhance public support and recognition
  and/or endorsement of industry-based e-skills
  training and validations to bridge formal and
  non-formal ICT education, self-training, diploma
  and certifications?
• How to provide urgently needed fiscal incentives
  or other forms of financial basic income support
  options, to encourage the pursuit of e-skills, in
  particular for VET/ACE, that are tested,
  recognized and certified?
• How to encourage EU Member States to remove any
  barriers in their funding for education and
  training that impede third sector actors and
  commercial trainers offering industry-based
  curricula and certifications?
• How to support and endorse multi-stakeholder
  networking that promotes e-skills
  capacity-building and partnerships throughout the
  learning value chain to ensure a range of
  choices?

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References

• Contact
• Hugo Lueders, Secretary General, e-SCC
• 6, Rond Point Schuman, B - 1040 Brussels
• tel [phone] mail hlueders_at_comptia.org
• web www.e-scc.org and
• www.e-scc.org/alliance/default.aspx
• e-SCC issue paper on MSPs for skills
• www.e-scc.org/docs/PPP_eSkills_Forum_Final.doc