Annual reports Annual Report 2017 | Page 19

19 Ongoing projects Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition period: July 2017 - July 2018 source of funding: Service contract, DG Connect, European Commission coordinator: Digital Europe website: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/ digital-skills-jobs-coalition The Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition (DSJC) is one of the ten key initiatives proposed by the Commission under the New Skills Agenda for Europe. The Coalition works to bridge the digital skills gap in Europe through concrete pledges by stakeholders and strategic actions developed by national coalitions. The Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition grew in mandate, governance and impact in 2017. Actions made through pledges (concrete actions to bridge the digital skills gaps) and national coalitions saw over seven million Europeans trained and reached. ALL DIGITAL continued to support the actions of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition with their pledge engaging members and stakeholders in digital skills through their annual Get Online Week campaign. Whilst our pledge emphasises the potential of digital competence centres in bridging the digital skills gap in Europe, much work remains to be done to see all European citizens included in today’s digital world. Nearly half of Europeans lack the digital skills needed by modern society, while training and education isn’t keeping pace with technology and innovations. ALL DIGITAL, as part of the secretariat of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition, works to scale up national coalitions so every European country has a public-private-and- non-government partnership creating and implementing solutions adapted to national and local contexts. In 2017, national coalitions were formed in Portugal, Slovenia, Ireland, Luxembourg, Spain and France. Also in 2017, a Governing Board has been put together to ensure leadership and continuation of DSJC; ALL DIGITAL is proud to have its President, Mara Jakobsone, involved as a member of the Board. The number of pledges to bridge the digital skills gap rose to 90. The number of organisations who support the coalition by supporting the Digital Skills and jobs Coalition Charter rose to over 300. Digitaal.Talent earned prominent recognition by winning the Digital Skills for All category in the second annual European Digital Skills awards. Their initiative was awarded and recognised by the Commissioner for the Digital Economy, Mariya Gabriel, at the second annual Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition Conference in Brussels.