Leading IT industry representatives have agreed to set up a Europe-wide e-Skills Industry Leadership Board, in the fight against digital illiteracy.

The e-Skills Leadership Board will cooperate closely with the European Commission to ensure that every European has the opportunity to become equipped with the basic skills needed in today’s labour market, and in particular the ability to use information technologies, which play an increasing role in business and public sector alike.

IT training company Global Knowledge is one of the founding partners of the group. Richard Pryor-Jones, EMEA President said: “We are delighted to be a member of the e-Skills Leadership Board. Its members are the right mix of academia, IT industry and Government bodies, and are the stakeholders in providing a solution to one of Europe’s critical economic challenges.”

The e-Skills Leadership Board has agreed to focus on the following four objectives:
- inspiring e-skills learning in future generations
- promoting ICT practitioner education, competencies and training
- boosting the employability of the workforce with ICT user skills, including the deployment of multi-stakeholder partnerships
- providing foresight and support for future skills needed in a changing environment with emerging technologies and new business models.

“The board is determined to make an early difference” said Pryor-Jones. “By leveraging the capability of the organisations represented to meet the self-evident need for more e-skills across Europe.”

Other founding members of the leadership board include Cisco, CompTIA, ECDL Foundation, ECONET, EITO, EXIN, HP, INLEA Foundation, Microsoft, Oracle, Pearson, Prometric and Siemens Enterprise Communications.