1. Challenges and opportunities of SMEs in the context of future of work and digitalization: Session 4 – Examples of good practices
6 /12/2018
Vice President European DIGITAL SME Alliance
Mr. Jose Luis Pancorbo
© 2017 – European DIGITAL SME Alliance All rights reserved.
European DIGITAL SME Alliance
123 Rue du Commerce| 1000, Brussels, Belgium |

2. The European DIGITAL SME Alliance is the largest network of ICT SMEs in Europe, representing about digital SMEs across the EU.
Our members are national SME associations and ICT clusters of digital SMEs.
Digital SMEs are providers of digital solutions and enablers of digitalization.

3. Skills Gap in Europe – Affecting SMEs

4. Digitalisation will affect any SME
Need of digital skilled workers: 9 out of 10 will require some level
European ICT job numbers will grow by more than 670,000 by 2020
According Eurostat 40% of companies trying to recruit ICT professionals (in ICT sector and other sectors) reported difficulties in finding skilled workers
e-Leadership skills gaps exist for both technically skilled personnel as well as managers. These skills are needed across the company to implement ICT innovations
Insufficient participation of women to ICT workforce:
Almost 9% of women with tertiary education leave ICT jobs to take care of their children. This costs 16.2B€/year in productivity loss
In 2018, only 11.8% of workers in digital jobs with ICT-related studies are female, while in 2011 women were 14% .
Digitalisation is key for flexible work patterns that attract and retain more women to the workforce

5. Digital SME Alliance initiatives
#digitalSME4skills
Our contribution to the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition.
It is a campaign to equip workforce with digital skills. In exchange, companies were offered pledger’s label and visibility.
The campaign aimed to get 5,000 ICT professionals trained by The goal has already been achieved, and more than 40 participating SMEs from 13 different countries trained around 7,000 ICT professionals.
skills.digitalsme.eu: Supporting specialised skills development: Big Data, Internet of Things and Cybersecurity for SMEs
This EU-funded initiative supports technological skills development in all sectors.
The main objective is to research, design, test and validate specific measures (e.g. specialized trainings, certain policy initiatives, etc.) supporting the development of before-mentioned skills.

6. Key take-aways
To bridge the skills gap, we need a better architecture of public-private engagement
A key feature should be to strengthen industry involvement across all sectors
Focus on SME involvement, as they are the main source of employment and economic activity in Europe

7. Best Practices: CONETIC

8. CONETIC: the experience for more than a decade Promoting Digital Skills and Contributing to increase the competitiveness of the SME
Public-Private model of collaboration with the commitment to job placement
1317 ICT job seekers in ICT have been successfully trained
1111 successfully trained
725 have been employed by our spanish ICT companies
64 ICT training specialities (key: training programs designed to the real needs of the companies) 65,25%
330 companies have benefited from these programmes

9. KEY FINDINGS Training programs aimed at real needs of the market
Required professional profiles by the companies
Training programs designed with the contracting companies
Coaching: Soft skills, Orientation and Services for Employment throughout whole education process
Training placements before the recruitment
The hardest thing: FIND PROFILES WITH A TECHNICAL BASE: WE NEED ACT IN EARLY STAGES OF EDUCATION TO FOSTER STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN ICT
EMPLOYABILITY

10. Best Practices: La Rioja

11. IT JOB OFFER vs DEMAND - LA RIOJA - Spain 2018
DIAGNOSIS OF THE PROBLEM
Unbalanced job offer and demand, specially profesional training and development
Existing IT technics need update on most demanded technologies
Unbalanced training offer and market demand
Number of training vacancies & knowledge areas and geographic zones
IT skills not enough presence during school & college
Not enough talent management inside the company
Size of the company
Training is made without the intervention of the company
Talent attraction and retention is achieving increased popularity, not enough budget yet
IT JOB OFFER vs DEMAND - LA RIOJA - Spain 2018
AREA
Tittle required
# Job offers
# Graduates
Difference
Tech support and systems
Computer degree or equivalent 17
-17
Professional training 62
116 54
Not required
Developme nt 72 34
-38
100 55
-45
JOB OFFER PROFILES
Developer
24,64%
Systems administrator
20,29%
Web developer
14,49%
Technical programmer Analyst
8,70%
Technical support
Telco. Installer
7,25%
Project manager
5,80%
Big Data
2,90%
Junior developer
Consultant
1,45%
Mobile Dev.

12. OUR SOLUTION Diagnosis of the problem Continuous training
14 Focus Group with students & teachers
Analysis of job offers & available research data
40 Interviews with companies
Continuous training
We gather our workforce needs, design courses and run them collaborating with others: Red.es, CNFNT, FER
Promoting digital skills for other sectors
Digital transformation office
Dissemination of technology
Assessment for manufacturing companies
Increase IT vocations
11 IT Entrepreneurs in schools
Promote IT events: Arduino day, Codeweek…
3 Tier collaboration: government, academy, business
Dual professional training: 4 new degrees
Design of Internship offering
Increase IT positions graduates in university
Actions to increase talent acquisition and retention
Results
3 Tier design of all education plans
90% of new graduates hired
training hours planned
80% more university graduates
200% more university applicants
30% more professional training graduates

13. Conclusions
Public-Private model of collaboration can help to bridge the skills gap and promote employment
A key feature should be to strengthen industry involvement across all sectors, with focus on SMEs
A leading role of ICT industry, in particular SMEs, as providers of knowledge and training

14. Thank you for your attention!