The European e-Skills Career Portal project was launched and is supported by the European e-Skills Association (EeSA) and is managed by the EeSA Career Portal Committee (CPC) as an autonomous and stand-alone initiative under the umbrella of the EeSA.

 

The EeSA contracted European Schoolnet (EUN Partnership AISBL) as service provider to develop and to launch a pilot version of the portal for the European e-Skills Conference 2008 in Thessaloniki on 9-10 October 2008. For key governance principles, refer to the CPC Terms of Reference (ToR).

 

The overall strategic goals of the pilot phase of the Portal are to:

• Lay the foundations for the medium to long term development of market-relevant e-Skills capacities,
• Launch an initial set of activities which can be feasibly established in time for launch at the Thessaloniki conference.

 

Objectives and target audiences

The operational objectives of the Portal itself are summarized as follows:

• For individuals, whether e-citizen users, students, ICT workers or ICT professionals, the Portal should serve as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for e-Skills and Career Guidance.
• For employers, the Portal should: attract people into ICT careers, serve as a point of communication with potential employees / interns, offer information on current status of e-Skills both practically and politically;
• For educators and trainers, to provide an information point for providing appropriate guidance to pupils / students / trainees regarding careers in ICT and to obtain information on where further training can be sought;
• For government and non-Government, as well as third sector stakeholders, the Portal should: be a source for statistical and survey data, promote ICT skills awareness raising campaigns and policy, provide an overview of the supply and the demand skills situation and monitor certain interests such as specific skills sets and education offers.
• For Job and Employment Agencies, the Portal can serve as a source for potential candidates
• For ICT skills providers, the Portal should raise public awareness of the important role of non-formal training and educational channels to provide market-relevant ICT skills through multi-stakeholder partnerships, to promote their skills’ programmes, career options and education programmes and tools, and provide an overview of cross-industry skills; enable them to promote and/or sponsor specific initiatives within the Portal community.

The first, priority target group for the pilot phase is students at the final stages of secondary education and early tertiary education, who will shortly join the workforce. The second target group of importance is ICT professionals.

 

Main sections of the Portal

 

The principal areas of the Portal are:

1. Careers: a section focusing on the variety of ICT careers available throughout the whole of the ICT-embedded industry and society. It will include career profiles, interviews with individuals working in specific careers, tests to self-assess ICT skills and information on ICT qualifications.
2. Infobank: a database of relevant information relating to e-Skills, including news, events, educational resources, publications, courses and information about organisations active in the field of e-Skills.
3. Community: a networking facility where members of the e-Skills community can take part in career of the month events, join online chats and more.
   

   
      

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