Skills for Employability

Building the foundations of employability through the development of IT, technical and other employability-related skills, curriculum, support to job placement and mentoring is the main focus of this Laboratory.  Through partnerships between businesses and with national and local governments, this Laboratory will achieve enhancement of opportunities as well as improved social inclusion of the people who are deemed ‘at-risk'. The partnership is based on a specific "value chain" approach in which each partner experiments and brings its core competencies, expertise and programs. 

 Leaders      
 Microsoft  State Street Randstad  Cisco 
Facilitators    
 CSR Europe  ECONET

Project Description

The European Alliance on Skills for Employability, launched in 2006 by Microsoft, Cisco, State Street and Randstad together with the ECDL Foundation, Exin and the eSCC, has the objective to contribute to build the foundations of employability and inclusion in Europe by providing access to IT, technical and other employability related skills to current and future generations and groups at risk.

This Europe-wide campaign will help to enhance access to technology opportunities and the provision of basic and more advanced IT, technical and other complementary skills, curriculum, support to job placement and mentoring for 20 million people across Europe by 2010.

The partnership is based on a specific "value chain" approach in which each partner experiments and brings its core competencies, expertise and programs.  The total is greater than the sum of the parts.

Key beneficiaries are low-skilled and young unemployed; workers in declining industries, people from underserved communities, people with disabilities; older workers and tomorrow's workforce. Cooperation among companies and on the ground partnerships with local and national governments and local business and community groups are a fundamental part of this initiative.

Activities are run and implemented at national level. Currently there are three active projects in Belgium, Scotland and Germany. A close cooperation with the European Commission, DG Employment and DG Enterprise has been developed and maintained since the launch of the Alliance. Specific studies on the relevance of IT skills for jobs and growth have been commissioned to IDC and released in January 2007.

In general, this Laboratory seeks to contribute to enhancement of opportunities for employment and thereby to promote social inclusion and cohesion.

This Laboratory invites other companies to familiarise themselves with this Europe-wide initiative and to join the initiative in some of the prospect countries of expansion or existing ones.

Main Project Objectives and Targets

Objectives:

  • Distil key learnings on the basis of best practice exchange in the area of skills for employability
  • Develop joint operational projects to scale up industry contribution to skilling and employability
  • Establish broader partnerships that create pathways from skills training to better access to jobs
  • Expand from IT and finance to other industry's competencies to strengthen the pathway from training to jobs

Deliverables:

  • Creation and set up of the Skills for employability Alliance in at least six other countries; Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Italy and Finland over the next year.  Goal is to extend and scale up by building upon the current experiences in Germany, Scotland and Belgium.
  • Cross-sectoral expansion of the ‘Skills for employability Alliance.  The Lab aims to establish synergies with the automotive and telecommunications industries to further integrate and develop training on technical skills.  In addition, synergies could be found with the retail and service sectors to develop training aspects in soft skills and interpersonal life skills.
  • Raise awareness on the need for skills at the EU level and demonstrate how industry can support training programs in collaboration with stakeholders.  To this end, there will be cooperation with the EuroSkills initiative and conference in Rotterdam Sept 2008, together with Toyota and to be further elaborated.

Lab Leaders

Microsoft, Cisco, State Street and Randstad

Facilitators

Co-ordination is undertaken by partners independently in the form of a Secretariat of the European Alliance and 2 national co-ordinators in Belgium and Germany supported by member companies (1 in close co-ordination with Business in Society Belgium). Liaison and exchange with CSR Europe and Business in Society happens on a constant basis

Company Participants

Participating companies welcome interest and engagement by companies and national partner organisations wishing to get involved in the next phase of implementation

Proposed by CSR Europe and Business Europe: Arcelor, KPMG, Suez, Cannon, Intel, Telcom Italia, IBM, Volkswagen, Bayer, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bahn, Elefsis Shipbuilding & Industrial Enterprises, Ford-Werke, Randstad Germany, Randstad Belgium, Shell Hellas

Contact Information

Ben Davies, CSR Europe
+32 2 541 16 16
bd@csreurope.org

Milestones

Incubation Phase

  • January - December 2006: Project scoping, strategy definition and partnership building

Kick Off

  • 30 January 2007:  Scottish Launch, Edinburgh.  EC endorsement by Commissioner Verheugen at the Employability Alliance one year anniversary.
  • 27 March 2007:  Launch of the German ‘IT fitness' project

Implementation/Extension

  • April 07-March 08: 5 June 07, Luxembourg launch
  • November 07: Poland launch
  • December 07: Spain/Portugal launch
  • Winter 07: Italy launch (other countries to follow)
  • 2008, Euro-skills competition in Rotterdam:  Supported by Microsoft, Toyota, Cisco, EC DG Education.

Evaluation

  • Ongoing: Started discussions with EABIS and other academic institutions to develop employability impact assessment.