Go digITal With the e-Skills Week Closing Event!

BRUSSELS, March 8, 2010 - 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 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 (
      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
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 (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 (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: (
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:
(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, www.enis.at/
    Reinhold Hawle, Reinhold.Hawle@bmukk.gv.at

    Belgium

    Agoria ICT, www.agoria.be/
    Dany Buyse, Dany.Buyse@agoria.be

    Cyprus

    CITEA, www.citea.net/
    Michael Michalis, michalis.michael@citea.net

    Czech Republic

    DZS, www.dzs.cz/eskills
    Petr Chalus, petr.chalus@naep.cz
    Veronika Rehorova, veronika.rehorova@naep.cz

    Denmark

    DI ITEK, www.di.dk/
    Ulla Scherfig Gilberg, usg@di.dk
    Henning Mortensen, hem@di.dk

    France

    ECWT N-PoC France, www.womenandtechnology.eu/
    Eric Chreiki, ech@victoya.eu

    Germany

    Bitkom, www.bitkom.org/
    Stephan Pfisterer, s.pfisterer@bitkom.org

    Greece

    SEPE, www.sepe.gr/gr/eSkillsWeek
    Myriam Vassiliadou, myrvas@sepe.gr

    Hungary

    IVSZ, www.ivsz.hu/
    Katai Szabolcs, katai.szabolcs@ivsz.hu

    Ireland

    FIT Ltd, www.fit.ie/
    George Ryan, georgeryan@fit.ie

    Italy

    ANSAS-INDIRE, www.indire.it/
    Laura Franceschi, l.franceschi@indire.it

    Lithuania

    ITC, www.itc.smm.lt/
    Asta Buineviciute, asta.buineviciute@itc.smm.lt

    Association INFOBALT, www.infobalt.lt/
    Vilma Misiukoniene, vilmam@infobalt.lt

    Netherlands

    ICT Office, ictoffice.nl/
    Wim Pluimers, wim.pluimers@ictoffice.nl

    Norway

    IKT Norge, ikt-norge.no/
    Liv Freihow, lf@ikt-norge.no
    Fredrik Syversen, fredrik.syversen@ikt-norge.no

    Poland

    KIGEiT, kigeit.org.pl/
    Jakub Cieplinski, jakub.cieplinski@kigeit.org.pl

    Portugal

    ECWT N-PoC Portugal, www.womenandtechnology.eu/
    Nancy Brito, nancydebrito@gmail.com

    Romania

    APDETIC, www.asociatiait.ro/
    Valentin Negoita , negoita.valentin@asociatiait.ro

    Slovakia

    ITAS, www.itas.sk/
    Renata Malecova, itas@itas.sk

    Spain

    AETIC, www.aetic.es/
    Aida Millan Hidalgo, amillan@aetic.es

    Sweden

    IT & Telekomfsretagen, www.itotelekomforetagen.se/
    Ulrika Stromqvist, ulrika.stromqvist@almega.se

    UK

    Intellect, www.intellectuk.org/
    Carrie Hartnell; carrie.hartnell@intellectuk.org

    For more information please contact:

    Alexa JOYCE - European Schoolnet, Senior Communications & Business
    Development Manager T. +32-2-790-7554 E. alexa.joyce@eun.org

For more information please contact: Alexa JOYCE - European Schoolnet, Senior Communications & Business Development Manager T. +32-2-790-7554 E. alexa.joyce at eun.org