With the support of PIN-SME, the European Commission announced the first European conference on skills for digital and key enabling technologies which will take place on 1 and 2 June 2015 in Brussels.

The conference aims to become an interactive platform for exchanging opinions and co-creating solutions on the skills issues in key enabling technologies (KETs) and ICT and to bring together the representatives of all key stakeholder groups. The conference is organised in the context of two initiatives of the European Commission, namely KETs skills and e-leadership initiatives.

The KETs skills initiative, launched in January 2014, focuses on the needs of employers with regard to KETs skills and the ways to best satisfy those needs. The initiative builds on the European strategy for KETs and the work of the High Level Group on KETs and their recommendations on skills.

The e-Leadership initiative, in turn, started in 2013 and focused on the leadership needs of decision-makers and professional leaders at larger enterprises in the digital economy. A complementary initiative on ‘e-leadership skills for SMEs’ was then launched in 2014. It targets SMEs and start-ups.

The conference builds on the synergies between the two initiatives, and brings the worlds of KETs and ICT together by addressing the most relevant skills-related challenges.

Objectives

This conference is organised to discuss with leading stakeholders and experts from government, academia and industry on the latest developments on skills for e-leadership and key enabling technologies.

Day one: Key Enabling Technologies (KETs)

The objectives are to:

• Share best practices from Europe, United States and East Asia aiming to tackle the issue of skills mismatch in KETs;
• Address the issues of the demand and supply of KETs skills and the forecasts till 2025;
• Report about the results of sectoral pilots in three Member States;
• Discuss a list of actions highlighting detailed recommendations.

Day two: Digital Leadership (e-Leadership)

The objectives are to:

• Share the latest forecasts on the demand and supply of e-leadership skills;
• Present the e-Leadership Scoreboard for all 28 EU Member States and best practices;
• Present the European higher and executive education landscape in the field of e-leadership;
• Discuss about new education and training opportunities and concrete policy recommendations.

More information is available on the Conference website: www.leadership2015.eu