Raymond Morel 3829 days ago
The Europe 2020 strategy establishes Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as a core element for five of the seven flagship initiatives to promote growth in the European Union: the European Platform Against Poverty and Social Exclusion, An Agenda for New Skills and Jobs, Youth on The Move, and the Digital Agenda for Europe, and the Innovation Union.
These initiatives all promote the use of ICTs to tackle social inclusion, from young people using ICTs to improve life chances, through raising the skills and working conditions for workers in general and migrant workers in particular, to systems for supporting families balancing work with care for elderly relations and to build industry capable of delivering solutions for the challenges of health and demographic change.
In this context, digital inclusion (including access, skills/competences and usages) are crucial enablers for achieving the above social inclusion objectives, but also for modernising the economy and ensuring Europe has the world's most skilled and productive workforce in the digital age. Particularly important is to focus on the needs of low skilled people, ageing population, unemployed youth and unemployed older workers, and on the mismatch between emerging demands of the Digital Economy and the skills available in the market place.
This policy framework builds on the earlier policy framework “i2010: A European Information Society for Growth and Employment” and the 2006 Riga Ministerial Declaration on eInclusion, which defined eInclusion as both inclusive ICT and the use of ICT to achieve wider inclusion objectives.
The IPTS has been, since 2006, providing specific policy support and research activities to support the implementation of eInclusion policies and more recently the Europe 2020 Strategy, focusing in particular on Digital Inclusion initiatives and the enabling role of ICTs for inclusion and on Social Inclusion initiatives making use of ICTs.
In the following sub-sections, you can find all relevant IPTS projects, publications and events related to each specific area.
Focus on target groups at risk of exclusion: |
Focus on ICT as an enabler for inclusion: |
Focus on ICT for Learning and Skills: |