Representatives from almost two dozen informatics associations, members of the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS), met to underline the importance of professionalism in IT and other key CEPIS strategic activities that help promote the development of the information society in Europe.
ICT professionalism is a necessary development for Europe, as creating a competitive and innovative economy depends increasingly on ICT. Worryingly though, ICT professionals suffer from skills shortages, a somewhat rigid output of ICT graduates from university, a lack of a common career path, and a need for harmonisation around the definition of an ICT professional in Europe.
With the support of its Member Societies, representing over 350,000 professionals in Europe, CEPIS’ broad network incorporating the expertise of European industry, academia and individual professionals will develop the professionalism domain. In conjunction with IVI, CEPIS has undertaken the ICT Professionalism and e-Skills project funded by the Directorate-General Enterprise and Industry.
Europe’s future as a competitive and digital economy can only succeed when its ICT professionals are equipped with the right skills to be able to fill new jobs. Keynote speaker at the 46th CEPIS Council, Mr. John Ambrogio from the eSkills Alliance Malta, also stressed the importance of matching skills to jobs.
To get a real view of the actual competences held by ICT professionals in Europe today, CEPIS is conducting a pan-European Professional e-Competence Survey, which analyses the digital competences of ICT professionals and how they comply with labour market requirements. The research is conducted via a web questionnaire based on the European e-Competence Framework (e-CF), developed by the CEN (European Committee for Standardization) Workshop on ICT Skills and supported by the European Commission and the Council of Ministers.
To date 2,000 professionals from across Europe have participated, and the first draft country-level report was presented in Malta to the acclaim of all of the ICT experts in attendance. A pan-European report will be compiled to provide analysis of the competences needed at a European level and will provide a clearer picture of the reality of ICT professionals in Europe today, help identify the gaps and provide the first pan-European picture of Europe’s ICT professionals.
The Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS) is a non-profit organisation seeking to improve and promote a high standard among informatics professionals in recognition of the impact that informatics has on employment, business and society. CEPIS (cepis.org) is comprised of 36 national informatics associations representing over 300,000 informatics professionals from 33 countries across greater Europe. It provides a coordinated voice on the views of European informatics professionals on major issues to European Institutions. CEPIS is also responsible for the highly successful ECDL and EUCIP Programmes and produces a range of research and publications in the area of skills.
Members of CEPIS
Oesterreichisches Computer Gesellschaft (OCG)
Federation of Belgian Informatics Associations (FBVI-FAIB )
Association of Informatics in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Union of Automation and Informatics (UAI)
Croatian Information Technology Association (CITA)
Cyprus Computer Society (CCS)
Czech Society for Cybernetics and Informatics (CSKI)
Finnish Information Processing Association (FIPA)
Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V - (GI)
Informationstechnische Gesellschaft im Verband der Elektrotechnik Elektronik Informationstechnik (VDE)
Hellenic Professionals Informatics Society (HEPIS)
John von Neumann Computer Society (NJSzT)
Icelandic Society for Information Processing (ISIP)
The Irish Computer Society (ICS)
Associazione Italiana per l'Informatica ed il Calcolo Automatico (AICA)
Associazione Informatici Professionisti (AIP)
Latvian Information Technology & Telecommunications Association (LIKTA)
Lietuvos Kompiuterininku Sajunga (LIKS)
Association Luxembourgoise des Ingenieurs (ALI)
Computer Society of Malta (CSM)
Drustvo Informatičara Crne Gore (DICG)
Vereniging van Register Informatica (VRI)
Nederlands Genootschap voor Informatica (NGI)
Den Norske Dataforening (DND)
Polskie Towarzystwo Informatyczne -Polish Information Processing Society (PTI-PIPS)
Associação de Profissionais de Informática (PROFIN)
Asociatia Pentru Tehnologia Informatiei si Comunicatii (ATIC)
Serbian Information Technology Association (JISA)
Slovak Society for Computer Science (SSCS)
Slovenian Society Informatika (SSI)
Asociación de Técnicos de Informática (ATI)
DF Dataforeningen i Sverige (Swedish Computer Society).
Swiss Informatics Society (SI)
Informatics Association of Turkey (IAT)
British Computer Society (BCS)