U.K. calls for EU task force on IT skills

From...

by Laura Rohde

(IDG) -- The U.K. on Thursday called upon the European Union (EU) to establish a Skills and Mobility Task Force in an effort to combat an EU-wide shortage in skilled IT workers.

Speaking at a meeting of EU ministers in Lule, Sweden, U.K. Employment Minister Tessa Jowell, the head of the Department for Education and Employment (DEE), requested the task force, a spokeswoman from the DEE confirmed.

IDG.net INFOCENTER IDG.net's main page Free daily newsletters Computerworld Communities Features Cool gifts for cool nerds! Visit an IDG site Choose a site: IDG.net CIO Computerworld Darwin Dummies.com GamePro.com The Industry Standard ITWorld.com InfoWorld.com JavaWorld LinuxWorld Macworld Online Network World Fusion PC World Publish.com SunWorld IDG.net search

"This Skills Task Force should be a small, dynamic core of business leaders, government representatives and academics meeting to examine the problem of skills shortages in Europe. It is estimated that there will be 1.7 million vacancies in the IT sector by 2003. This European-wide approach is vital if we are to ensure we have a sufficiently skilled work force to meet the needs of the IT industry," Jowell said in a printed copy of her speech.

The European Commission expects e-commerce in Europe to grow from $17 billion at the end of 1999 to about $360 billion by 2003, and by 2006, a full 90 percent of the new jobs created in the U.K. will require basic IT and keyboard skills, Jowell said in her speech.

EU ministers are scheduled to meet next month in Stockholm to review employment targets set during the Lisbon Summit in March of last year.

Group voices concern over EU cybercrime plan
December 5, 2000
Jobs overseas tempt U.S. high-tech workers
September 26, 2000
Poland leads Central Europe's Web migration
April 11, 2000
Hungary: The Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe?
March 17, 2000

EMC sets up certification program for storage managers
(Computerworld)
The hiring and the job-hunting turn to the Web
(PCWorld.com)
Driving home recruitment
(InfoWorld.com)
The new Silicon Valleys
(The Industry Standard)
Can work and learning co-exist?
(CIO)
Linux education: A lesson to be learned
(LinuxWorld)
Should I stay or should I go?
(The Industry Standard)
The fine art of quitting
(The Industry Standard)

The Department for Education and Employment

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.