Digital skills round table: a call for leadership
As one of the European social partners CEC European Managers participated in the discussion on how to enhance digital skills of European employees in the future. Commissioner Günter Oettinger (Digital Economy and Society) called for better cooperation to encourage investments of member states for the new skills. The discussion was the starting point of the new Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition to be launched in December.
The participants of the round table that took place in the Berlaymont Commission building in Brussels on September 20th, organised by the European Commission, underlined how the digital transformation would affect their specific sector and activities they will have to perform. The president of CEC European Managers Ludger Ramme pointed out that “managers will play a key role when it comes to visioning strategic opportunities in their organisation. Responsible leadership is essential for facilitating the development of new skills, business models and innovative policies in Europe. The best leaders will win the global competition.”
With the growing automatization and integration of information technologies there will be a shift towards jobs that require a different set of skills and social competences. The globalised labour market is likely to demand skills related to communication, social abilities, creativity, taking new initiatives and personal development. Apart from enhancing a more collaborative and inclusive working culture and establishing new educative institutions such as life-long learning programmes, it will be necessary to invest in transversal skills of managers that will facilitate these changes.
Managers will be the first to seize and implement opportunities that the digital transformation will bring. Above all, a visionary leadership has to account for and make use of the specific skills needed in the organisations. In times of great uncertainties and unprecedented acceleration of decision-making, being able to analyse present developments and creatively engage with the new opportunities will be of utmost importance for the European economy and society. Managers will play an active role in constructing new societal and economic models that are more than a reaction to global market developments.
CEC European Managers welcomes the round table as an opportunity to lead a discussion on how to generally improve skills in leadership. CEC also calls for accounting for social diversity regarding the access to new education measures.
