A new website has been launched by the European Commission to look at the continent's IT skills shortages.

The new site, www.career-space.com has been put together as a collaboration with leading IT firms and universities as part of an initiative backed by the European information and communication technology industry association (EICTA) to help to identify the needs of the ICT industry in Europe and to establish a framework of skills and competencies for education and training institutions to use. The 'Career-Space' Consortium will work with 20 universities across Europe to develop new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) curricula.

The site says that the ICT industry in Europe is experiencing a severe shortage of skilled personnel, with around 500,000 ICT job vacancies at the end of 1998. It warns that if action is not taken the number could reach 1,600,000 by 2002, despite the fact that there are over 18 million unemployed with in the European Union.

Among the companies involved with the project are IBM Europe, Microsoft Europe and Nokia Telecommunications, who are helping to create generic job profiles to provide students and training course designers with information about what is required. These can be found on the website.