The study, “Post Crisis: e-Skills are Needed to Drive Europe’s Innovation Society,” found the percentage of jobs that do not require ICT skills is already low and will continue to shrink.
“ICT skills are vital to the next generation of workers and to build Europe’s innovation society. We know that technology trends will drive the need for better ICT skills amongst the workforce,” said Jan Muehlfeit, chairman of Europe, Microsoft. “Governments must continue to invest in education and training to ensure workers are equipped for meaningful employment.”
The increase in demand for ICT skill sets is not solely a response to the current economic crisis. Long-term technology change is a stronger influence, which means that the skills issue needs long-term planning, rather than a short-term response to fluctuating economic conditions, argues the report.
Across the 13 EU countries surveyed there is very little variation in terms of the need for ICT skills. On a current country comparison, a higher proportion of jobs in central and east European countries than in west European countries require no ICT skills at all. However, in the next five years, Central and Eastern Europe will catch up, indicating that investments in ICT skills development in that region will increase significantly.
At present, west European countries generally attach higher importance to basic and advanced ICT skills than countries in central and eastern Europe.
Receive the Funding Newswire each Tuesday, our Policy Bulletin each Thursday, and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
A unique international forum for public research organisations and companies to connect their external engagement with strategic interests around their R&D system.