FUNDACIÓN DÉDALO

Monday April 27, 2015

The FIT4JOBS project also shows how the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs acts at the local level.

The FIT4JOBS partners’ team met in Lisbon April 20-22 to discuss the milestones reached in this European Commission funded project which replicates the FIT (Ireland) training for employment model across five additional European countries: Greece, Portugal, Spain, Latvia and Lithuania.

The FIT4JOBS project team was built through partnerships with major private and public organisations active within the Telecentre-Europe network. All the partners are non-for profit organisations working to reduce the Digital & Social Divide through training and support for marginalised groups. In this particular instance the training is specifically targeted at unemployed people seeking to enter the work place.

All partners are members of Telecentre Europe: a member-based association representing networks and non-governmental organisations in the field of digital skills and social inclusion. The partners include the leading ICT professional non-governmental association promoting the development of Information Society and e-skills in Latvia- LIKTA (Latvian Information and Communication Technology Association) The leading partner in Lithuania is the Association Asociacija „Langas į ateitį” (Window to the Future), a non-profit initiative launched in 2002 by private companies that provides computer literacy and Internet training to adults. The Spanish Association of Telecentre Networks" (ACRT) brings together a number of entities to impulse, activate and maintain public spaces (telecentres) so as to promote the Information Society and provide access to ICT to all citizens. Programa Escolhas, a Portuguese nationwide program, created in 2001 and operating under the High Commission for Migration, works to promote social inclusion of children and young people from vulnerable socio-economic backgrounds. The Hellenic Professionals Informatics Society (HePIS) is a network of all ICT Professionals in Greece advocating their interests at both national and European level. FIT Ltd (Fast Track to IT) is an Irish industry-led initiative working in close collaboration with the (Irish) government departments and national education and training agencies, local development organisations and a host of community based organisations.

All partners reported the completion of phase I of the project. This phase included a busy four months of planning and organising employer meetings, recruitment & selection of job seekers with an aptitude for ICT, specification of courses to meet employer needs and design of a holistic approach to training which will combine training of technical skills, soft skills, employability and a high level of support to the students during and after the training.

Phase II – This is the stage where the project is now, with the actual training period having commenced. Most partners have reported they have exceeded their initial goals in terms of employer engagement & commitment to the project, recruitment of suitable job seekers and selection of course curricula matching employers’ requirements.

A strong thread in the meeting was the high degree to which all partners worked within the FIT4JOBS model yet were able to carefully examine and respond to their own local environments and issues, especially when comparing and adjusting employers needs to the actual availability of corresponding skills. All partners’ share the common problem of an ICT skills gap; however the type of skills did vary country to country. As expected the most common overall skills shortages are related to software & web development. Response rates from job seekers and the overall level of commitments from employers to hire successful students was much higher than anticipated.

Outside of the original partners, there have been organisations from other European countries approaching the project consortium with an interest to adopt the FIT4JOBS model. This fact and the better than expected response in the partner countries led the group to believe that FIT4JOBS initiative has the potential to become a global phenomenon and major contributor to solving the world shortage in ICT skills. Conservative estimates include the potential of placing of 100,000 ICT up-skilled job seekers in Europe in employment by 2020 through FIT4JOBS>

The FIT4JOBS project represents the realisation of the FIT Ireland’s pledge made to the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs, a platform launched in 2013 by Nellie Kroes, former VP, European Commission responsible for Digital Agenda Europe.

FIT4JOBS welcome enquiries from any interested source regarding the roll-out of the FIT4JOBS training model now or in the future. Please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or any of the FIT4JOBS partners (see www.FIT4JOBS.EU)