040 November 2022

Europe has no more time.

Alejandro Blanco

Bringing together representatives from governments, industry, academia, NGOs and other relevant stakeholders in Europe, they have concluded that digital skills development is necessary to close the current gap, strengthen Europe and win the future.

We live in a smart and connected world. According to Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), the number of Internet-connected devices already exceeds the total number of people on the planet. It is estimated that by 2020 there will be more than 50 billion connected products. This phenomenon is not just about individual uses. We are talking about smart homes, smart cities, driverless cars and even smart factories in what has been called Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution.

Digital technologies are opening the world to European companies and launching Europe powerfully into global markets, competing more efficiently.

With the recent escalation of the new digital revolution, governments, businesses, and educational institutions, need to change their approaches to education, skills development, employability of citizens, developing new models of education and training or even new institutions in the labour market.

Therefore, “Europe has no more time”. Failing now to deal with the tsunami of the new digital revolution pushing the industry, in general, can have dire effects at the EU, national and regional levels, re-launching unemployment and assuming the loss of the benefit to economies of harnessing it.

Advanced economies have shown a correlation between the development of a Digital Economy and GDP. According to the World Economic Forum, a 10% increase in a country’s digitisation rate generates an increase of almost one point in GDP per capita and a decrease of just over one point in the unemployment rate. This is an opportunity that cannot be missed in countries and regions with clear room for improvement. Few bets on improving the welfare of citizens seem safer.

The debate is, therefore, about who will lose or win that future in terms of who will be willing to take advantage of this unstoppable tsunami.

None of the professions we know today will be left out of the necessary development of digital skills. Some professions will disappear, and others will be created as new ones or as a transformation of existing ones, but all those we know today have already been affected.

The EU warns that from 2020, we will have almost 800,000 unfilled jobs due to a lack of digital skills. Only quality training, with a market focus and a vision of the future, can guarantee a professional future already affected by this revolution.

The smart specialisation policies implemented at the regional level will encourage the development of projects and initiatives linked to the idea of Industry 4.0, which represents an unbeatable opportunity for regional industries to surf this wave.

It is a great opportunity for companies, students and workers, which will help to move towards this new value-added industry that requires professionals with the right skills, but do these professionals exist?

The challenge for this new industrial revolution will lie in the development of software, massive data analysis systems and their storage, the incorporation of sensors and electronics in the elements that interact in the production processes and the products derived from them, and the availability of information for better and more accurate decision-making, such as ERP and CRM.

The implementation of Industry 4.0 is a heterogeneous and interdisciplinary subject in which the fields of mechanics, instrumentation, industrial computing, communications and information management systems are intertwined, generating new needs. Therefore, professionals will be required to meet them. And this technology will only be effective if it improves the productivity and results of the companies that adopt it.

An appropriate training process removes the main barriers limiting companies’ access to ICTs. On the one hand, the benefits of technologies in their professional application are identified, recognising the benefits for the business, and providing greater value to the company as professionals from the development of applied technological skills.

On the other hand, knowledge of tools and solutions eliminates inefficiencies in the processes of adopting new management and organisational systems, which can be complex. It reduces internal resistance to adopting new ways of working.

Source: https://industria4.es/formacion/europa-no-tiene-mas-tiempo/