Belgium - National Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition
The first Belgium National Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition was created back in 2014. To adapt the Belgian Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition to the changed world, the Coalition was re-launched on 2 November 2020. The multi-stakeholder partnership focuses on tackling the digital skills shortage and aims to upskill and reskill citizens and workforce so as to enable the development of skills for all and the digital transformation of economy and society. National and regional representatives of academia, education sectors, industry, the public service, and the non-profit sector are invited to participate with valuable contributions to ensure that Belgium joins in the European effort to leverage the rewards of digitisation.
The Coalition is coordinated by a Governing Board which includes: Digital Champion Saskia Van Uffelen, the Digitalisation office of the Belgian Federal Government, Digital Minds, Agoria, and UQ.works. The work on digital skills and jobs has been coordinated nationally by Saskia van Uffelen, in her role as Digital Champion for Belgium since 2011.
Digital skills and jobs priorities
In the area of Digital Skills and Jobs, the Coalition created the programme DigitalChampions.be, an alliance, which brought together various stakeholders from the public and private sector, as well as educators. The initiatives target all citizens, irrespective of their age and background, with the aim of strengthening and developing digital skills in a larger segment of the population. Each organisation linked to DigitalChampions.be provides its activities explicitly online so that any citizen can access them. Belgium has 12 DSJC pledges registered already.
The road ahead for the Belgian Coalition: outcome paper
It is within this context that the Belgian Community-led Event sought to address key questions for the growth and evolution of the Belgian National Coalition. With digitalisation impacting both low- and high-skilled labour, estimates of the Belgian National Coalitions show that 4.5 million of the Belgian labour force is at risk if they do not increase their digital competences in the near future.
The Community-led event highlighted the urgent need of fostering basic and advanced digital skills with a horizontal approach. For example, digital skills actions taken in education (which includes training) lead to an impact across all areas. Other findings from the outcome paper, which also charts the way forward for the Belgian National Coalition include:
- The need to align policymaking to best practices through the Coalition: the role of the National Coalition in providing the forum and event space, where members, stakeholders and partners can meet, share knowledge and exchange good practices. Collaborations and joint projects should be encouraged and facilitated within the Coalition.
- Increasing visibility of initiatives: The Coalition presents a structure to promote members to a European network of other Coalitions and projects, especially through the opportunity provided by the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform.
- Collaboration with local, regional and national and federal government is key to ensuring impact. A clearly defined mandate for the Belgian National Coalition is a must, and support from the Government should guide activities and involve relevant industrial and professional associations.
More information on the Community-led events is available on the European Commission's website.
National coalition details
The main priorities identified by the Coalition members are to:
Modernise teaching and training content and pedagogies.
Upgrade trainer and teacher skills and their qualifications.
Cooperation and co-creation between education and industry.
Leverage the implementation of competence frameworks, such as DigComp, European e-Competence Framework (e-CF) and others on a national context.
Upskill and reskill the labour force, introducing co-skilling via peers and mentors.
Stimulate employers’ responsibility and activities to train workers towards both personal and professional growth.
Facilitate access to funding for initiatives and actions.
Promote careers in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector.
Design alternative approaches to career support in information technology (IT), making it accessible and offering a growth track.
The Founding Members of the Belgian National Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition are: Digital Champion of Belgium Saskia Van Uffelen, Several Federal and Regional government departments (Jobs, Enterprise, Well-being, Digital Innovation, Youth, E-Inclusion, Education), professional federations VBO, Agoria and Federgon, training institutions Syntra and Technifutur, and education and human resource-oriented technological companies like UQ.works and Nalantis. The member base of the Coalition was extended over the course of 2021 with initiatives like BeCode, DigitalCities and many others.
