Go digITal With the e-Skills Week Closing Event!

BRUSSELS, March 8, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- The e-Skills Week closing event Go digITal! took place on Friday 5 March 2010, in Brussels, Belgium. With a diverse programme from high level speakers to student Q&A sessions with ICT professionals, the event was the culmination of the e-Skills Week campaign, which highlights the growing demand for skilled ICT users and professionals in Europe. The event was streamed live online through the e-Skills Week portal http://eskills-week.ec.europa.eu.

Go digITal! presented the results of the activities organised in more than 20 countries by over 200 organisations and industry partners during the campaign, and rewarded the best practices observed. It also formulated recommendations to ensure sustainability of the e-Skills Week action.

Starting with welcome words by Jean-Noel Durvy, Director for Innovation Policy, DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission, Bridget Cosgrave, Executive Director, DIGITALEUROPE, and Marc Durando, Executive Director, European Schoolnet, the Le Square meeting centre hosted a full day of activities focused on ICT skills and careers.

    - The winners of the e-Skills Week competition were recognised
      in the award ceremony, with prizes offered by ACER, Employability
      Alliance, Cisco, CEPIS, Hewlett Packard and European Schoolnet. The
      Full list of winners is available here (
      http://eskills-week.ec.europa.eu/web/guest/competition-winners).

    - Five parallel interactive workshops invited the participants
      to learn more about IT careers through speed dates with ICT
      professionals and students, join the demonstrations of the e-Skills
      Week competition winners, and participate in the debate on girls and
      IT. Also, current projects connecting eSkills with schools and young
      people were presented.

    - An exhibition area with the stands of 16 exhibitors gave a
      practical view of what are IT jobs to young people.

    - The participants could also play with up to date games
      consoles as well as vintage games and explored audiovisual and digital
      art tools in the interactive space. Additionally, an internet cafe was
      provided.

Over 500 students from secondary and tertiary schools, teachers, professionals and ICT practitioners, SMEs, as well as high level figures from companies, from the European Commission and Ministries of education gathered to exchange their experiences and views to build a competitive Europe.

An evening party closed the event in the trendy Halles and Cafe St Gery. Electro DJs and live sets, VJing, digital art, high tech installations and Belgium's first interactive bar kept the mood high to the celebration of the first-ever European e-Skills Week.

Follow the sessions online!

If you were not able to make it to Brussels, you can follow the closing conference online. The different sessions were streamed live and made available online through the e-Skills Week portal http://eskills-week.ec.europa.eu.

The e-Skills Week closing event was supported by Microsoft, ACER, Nokia, European Centre for Women and Technology and Oracle. It was financed by the European Commission and organised by European Schoolnet, as part of the e-Skills Week campaign.

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About European Schoolnet:

European Schoolnet (http://www.eun.org) is a network of 31 Ministries of Education in Europe and beyond. EUN was created more than 10 years ago with the aim to bring about innovation in teaching and learning to its key stakeholders: Ministries of Education, schools, teachers and researchers.

ABOUT DIGITALEUROPE (formerly EICTA)

DIGITALEUROPE (http://www.digitaleurope.org) is the voice of the European digital technology industry, which includes large and small companies in the Information and Communications Technology and Consumer Electronics Industry sectors. It is composed of 61 major multinational companies and 41 national associations from 29 European countries. In all, DIGITALEUROPE represents more than 10,000 companies all over Europe with more than 2 million employees and over EUR 1,000 billion in revenues.

ABOUT e-SKILLS WEEK

The European e-Skills Week highlights the growing demand for skilled ICT users and professionals to drive a competitive and innovative Europe. This exciting campaign seeks to inform students, young professionals and SMEs about the vast range of opportunities that ICT-related jobs present. The awareness campaign is organised by the European Commission's DG Enterprise and Industry and is run by European Schoolnet and Digital Europe. It culminated in a dedicated European e-Skills Week from 1 to 5 March 2010.

Related information:

Interviews: ( http://eskills.eun.org/c/document_library/get_file?p_l_id=10199&folderId=1230 6&name=DLFE-2131.pdf)

Statements by industry partners and the European Commission: (http://eskills.eun.org/c/document_library/get_file?p_l_id=10199&folderId=123 06&name=DLFE-2131.pdf)

(Due to the length of these URLs, it may be necessary to copy and paste this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field. Remove the space if one exists.)

    e-Skills Week National Contact Points

    Austria

    ENIS, http://www.enis.at/
    Reinhold Hawle, [email protected]

    Belgium

    Agoria ICT, http://www.agoria.be/
    Dany Buyse, [email protected]

    Cyprus

    CITEA, http://www.citea.net/
    Michael Michalis, [email protected]

    Czech Republic

    DZS, http://www.dzs.cz/eskills
    Petr Chalus, [email protected]
    Veronika Rehorova, [email protected]

    Denmark

    DI ITEK, http://www.di.dk/
    Ulla Scherfig Gilberg, [email protected]
    Henning Mortensen, [email protected]

    France

    ECWT N-PoC France, http://www.womenandtechnology.eu/
    Eric Chreiki, [email protected]

    Germany

    Bitkom, http://www.bitkom.org/
    Stephan Pfisterer, [email protected]

    Greece

    SEPE, http://www.sepe.gr/gr/eSkillsWeek
    Myriam Vassiliadou, [email protected]

    Hungary

    IVSZ, http://www.ivsz.hu/
    Katai Szabolcs, [email protected]

    Ireland

    FIT Ltd, http://www.fit.ie/
    George Ryan, [email protected]

    Italy

    ANSAS-INDIRE, http://www.indire.it/
    Laura Franceschi, [email protected]

    Lithuania

    ITC, http://www.itc.smm.lt/
    Asta Buineviciute, [email protected]

    Association INFOBALT, http://www.infobalt.lt/
    Vilma Misiukoniene, [email protected]

    Netherlands

    ICT Office, http://ictoffice.nl/
    Wim Pluimers, [email protected]

    Norway

    IKT Norge, http://ikt-norge.no/
    Liv Freihow, [email protected]
    Fredrik Syversen, [email protected]

    Poland

    KIGEiT, http://kigeit.org.pl/
    Jakub Cieplinski, [email protected]

    Portugal

    ECWT N-PoC Portugal, http://www.womenandtechnology.eu/
    Nancy Brito, [email protected]

    Romania

    APDETIC, http://www.asociatiait.ro/
    Valentin Negoita , [email protected]

    Slovakia

    ITAS, http://www.itas.sk/
    Renata Malecova, [email protected]

    Spain

    AETIC, http://www.aetic.es/
    Aida Millan Hidalgo, [email protected]

    Sweden

    IT & Telekomfsretagen, http://www.itotelekomforetagen.se/
    Ulrika Stromqvist, [email protected]

    UK

    Intellect, http://www.intellectuk.org/
    Carrie Hartnell; [email protected]

    For more information please contact:

    Alexa JOYCE - European Schoolnet, Senior Communications & Business
    Development Manager T. +32-2-790-7554 E. [email protected]

SOURCE DIGITALEUROPE