What is the current situation regarding digital skills on the labour market?

According to the McKinsey Global Institute (2018) on how skills will shift towards automation and change the workforce's future, it is expected that, through 2030, the time spent using advanced technological skills will increase by 41% in Europe. In addition, there will also be a high rise for advanced IT and programming skills, which could grow as
much as 90% between 2016 and 2030. Therefore, people with these skills will inevitably be influenced by these changes. However, there is also a significant need for everyone to develop digital skills that are essential for the new age of automation. This study also found that, among 25 skills, basic digital skills are the second-fastest-growing category in Europe, recording a 65% increase.

Furthermore, the World Economic Forum (2020) showed that over 50% of the current workforce will require reskilling by
2025. Also, there is a need to invest in the development of holistic skills in VET education, which is critical to addressing the root causes of the worldwide skills gap. Thus, preparing the next generation to engage in lifelong learning and
ensuring that future reskilling and upskilling pay off for individuals, businesses, and governments are considered priorities of the utmost importance.

Still, according to the World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Company (2022), in Europe, the demand for physical andmanual skills in repeatable tasks is expected to decline by 30% in the coming decade, while the demand for technological skills, like coding, will increase more than 50%. Moreover, as labor market disruptions alter career paths, there is a growing need for lifelong learning - at all ages, including after the completion of formal education.

Lastly, given the pace of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, there is a short interval available to build the training systems and labor market institutions that are necessary for the development of new skillsets. In addition, a report published by Gartner predicted net job creation through artificial intelligence by 2020 and two million net-new jobs due to the technology by 2025 (Word Economic Forum, 2022). Therefore, gaining formal qualifications alone will not equate to successful reskilling. Thus, one of the solutions lies in lifelong learning opportunities such as modular short-cycle courses, experience on the job, and exposure to new projects are necessary to help people on VET scenarios to gain the required skills that match the labour market's demands.

These are the main parameters that the project PREDICT aims to cross and tackle, focusing on the social and digital
dimensions being critical for future generations and their transition to the labor market.

 

 

Project description

The PREDICT project intends to tackle current and upcoming challenges related to the next generation workforce, mainly those finishing VET programs or found in other similar training scenarios. Therefore, the project team believes that developing innovative and tailored solutions to close the digital mismatch gap of this target group is one of the most critical priorities leading towards a digital society and its needs. Besides, providing valuable tools and adapted curricula on digital skills for those who need or face reskilling is also a vital aspect this project wants to cover. 

On the other hand, PREDICT also wants to build new approaches and methods by defining holistic strategies that
incorporate inclusiveness, lifelong learning, and other mentor-related aspects that are crucial for the career path of this
target group. VET students or pupils must have proper guidance and mentorship to achieve these new skills, mainly digital, properly. The challenges are various, and this project wants to enable the necessary triggers to help these students, pupils, or other people that also suffer from disadvantageous backgrounds and do not have the same opportunities to achieve or develop these skills.

 

 

Consortium

The consortium of the PREDICT project is comprised by 5 organizations which specialise in education and training:

Instituto Politécnico de Santarém: The Instituto Politécnico de Santarém is an institution of public higher education that began its activity in 1979 and consisted of the following five Higher Schools in different scientific areas (Agriculture Sciences; Education; Management and Technologies; Sports Sciences; Health). It conducts its teaching courses of the 1st and 2nd cycle and technological specialization courses (1 year) and post-degree courses. In addition, it has two residence halls with laundry, kitchen and internet wireless, bar and cafeteria in each school, and sporting facilities on all campuses.
The Research Hub' Digital Literacy and Inclusion', based at the Polytechnic Institute Santarém, was created on February 5th, 2020. This center extends the research unit, Centre for Research in Arts and Communication (Algarve), which received a Very Good classification by the Foundation for Science and Technology.

 

Endurae Voice Technology: Endurae Voice Technology OÜ (EVT) is a private, for-profit SME, incorporated in Estonia. Founded in 2018, it is a learning experience design studio and consultancy. The activity of the SME to date has been twofold: 

• As a consultancy for partners who desire to build new or enhance existing engaging and interactive learning experiences in their offerings.
• Assists partners with the technological capacity to develop their own learning experiences by designing appropriate scenarios, user flows, and interactions, especially for privacy-related domains, such as education or other learning applications.

 

ShipCon Limassol Ltd.: ShipCon Limassol Ltd. is a dynamic and fast growing company with emphasis on EU research funded projects and vocational and education training (VET). 
ShipCon strength lies on the expertise of its core team and the partnership with multi-national associates from all over
Europe and beyond. With its Main Headquarters in Cyprus, ShipCon is strategically located in the crossroads of three
continents, where specific economy sectors and activities have their own dynamic prospects for development, such as
energy, environment and transport services. It is important to mention that ShipCon has been selected for inclusion in the 2015-16 European Business Awards sponsored by RSM. 
ShipCon has a long tradition in developing EU research proposals and building successfully bidding consortia for EU
funding in a wide range of thematic fields. Part of its success is due to the large network of quality & trusted partners, both in industry as well as in academia that ShipCon maintains at regional and International level. 

 

Institutul de Cercetare a Calitatii Vietii: Founded in 1990 as part of the "Costin C. Kiritescu" National Research Institute, under the patronage of the Romanian Academy, the Research Institute for Quality of Life (RIQL) is one of the most important socio-economic research institutions in Romania and has solid experience. at the national level, being recognized in the collection, interpretation, and analysis of social data. With a team of highly qualified researchers, the institute conducts basic research on a wide range of subjects, such as quality of life and social indicators; education, health, social policy and social inclusion, employment, social development, social economy, and social entrepreneurship, the capital. As a reference institution in socio-economic research, the ICCV paid special attention to the issue of social development. 
 

IDEC S. A.: IDEC is a training consulting company located in Piraeus, Greece, established since 1989. Its activities consist of training, management consulting, quality assurance, evaluation and development of digital solutions for both private and public sector. Clients of IDEC are both SMEs and the bigger Greek companies from a wide variety of sectors. IDEC co-operates with more than 800 institutes all over Europe and with about 300 experts on specific fields.
IDEC has extensive experience in European projects, either as coordinator or as partner within different European programs and Initiatives. Over the last 18 years IDEC has worked extensively on the area of quality assurance in training and has coordinated the projects EQUAL, Quality.net, BEQUAL and QUADRAT on this topic. IDEC also has consulting experience in developing Quality Management systems in Greek training centres. IDEC is accredited as a lifelong learning centre, organising in-service training courses for teachers and trainers, study visits and informal learning activities for students in initial education and training, and provides training courses and work placements for students in vocational training and people in the labour market.  

 

 

Objectives of the project

The PREDICT project aims to:

• Develop a holistic model that incorporates digital reskilling as a fundamental practice
• Tackle digital illiteracy of VET students or other target groups that face disadvantages
• Create a set of guidelines and mentorship programs that support VET
• Develop activities that raise awareness on green digital tools and ease the transition for the labor market
• Establish a robust and sustainable model that stakeholders can replicate and incorporate into their workflow to tackle similar challenges.

These objectives correlate with the priorities we wish to address and tackle in this project. Since digital content,
technologies, and other ICTs, make this pathway more clear, attainable, intuitive, and accessible. Furthermore, turning
digital transformation into something that everyone can follow and understand at the same pace plus understanding each learning curve within these digital dimensions. Lastly, the PREDICT project intends to provide a higher degree of digital readiness, resilience, and capacity from the target's group point of view, making solutions tailored to their personal, professional, or technical needs.

 

 

Project results

During the three-year project implementation period, the consortium will develop the following materials:

• Green digital tools for innovative jobs that will consist of:
  • A toolkit for VET 
  • Assessment and evaluation models
  • Multimedia content for VET
  • A digital Handbook about green digital tools best practices: A European overview

 

• IA interVEU: Course prototype and platform that will consist of:
  • Instructional design for VET environments
  • User experience: Building content for VET learners and instructors
  • VET Online course

 

• FAB_LAB: Practices to labour market inclusion that will consist of:
  • Concepts and visualization: Collaborative projects for VET
  • Learning guides for prototyping in a collaborative environment
  • AR Technologies for VET development
  • 3D technologies for VET development

 

• Methodological and pedagogical guidelines: Training activities that will consist of:
  • Methodological and pedagogical guidelines on green digital tools for VET
  • Methodological and pedagogical guidelines on AR tools for VET
  • Methodological and pedagogical guidelines on 3D tools for VET

 

The project will also comprise workshops, webinars and VET summits that will deal with the use of digital technologies in VET education for reskilling and upskilling purposes.

 

 

Contact

If you are interested in learning more about the PREDICT project, you can visit its website or follow its Facebook and LinkedIn accounts so that you can stay informed about the events and the progress of the programme.

 

 

Disclaimer: Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Project No: 2022-1-PT01-KA220-VET-000085485

 

 

Disclaimer: EPALE is a community platform with user-generated content. All user-generated content is provided as-is. The European Commission and NSS Greece does not endorse any views, opinions or advice expressed by users to this platform.