AI the next big challenge for the digital skills gap, EU’s Schmit says

Artificial Intelligence and related fields like cybersecurity will further fuel the growing need for highly qualified talents and basic digital skills in the European Union, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit, told EURACTIV in an interview.

The shortage of ICT experts is a widespread problem affecting most European companies, with larger companies often more in trouble in filling in the vacancies, according to data recently released from Eurostat.

For Schmit, this talent shortage is related to a multiplicity of factors, ranging from demographic trends, as Europe’s population is rapidly ageing, a mismatch between the skills acquired in education institutions and those required from the labour market, and the fact most jobs now require some sort of digital skills.

“That's the big challenge of the digital skills shortage. Hundreds of thousands of vacancies in the area of the digital economy, but also in many other companies where digital skills are also required and needed,” Schmit said.

Cyber skills gap keeps widening, report warns

A new report on the Global Approaches to Cyber Policy, Legislation and Regulation gets to the bottom of the cyber skill talent gap, which increased in the EMEA region by almost 60%.

The European Commission estimates that, in the future, up to 90% of jobs will require digital skills. Currently, one-third of Europeans lack the digital skills required in most jobs, and over 70% of companies report a lack of staff with adequate digital skills as an obstacle to investment.

The EU executive has put forth a digital skills strategy to improve the situation, striving to train more people, and offer training for re-skilling and upskilling workers, even with short-term courses of a few weeks.

The Commission is also testing a European Digital Skills Certificate with several EU countries to help people get their skills assessed and recognised by employers, trainers and public authorities across Europe.

At the same time, the world of work is being rapidly transformed by the uptake of disruptive technologies such as generative AI, Artificial Intelligence-powered models able to produce human-like content based on user input.

Cybersecurity sector braces for tug-of-war over AI

The continued development of AI brings both challenges and opportunities to the cybersecurity sector, a series of experts told EURACTIV, who highlighted that while risks will increase, avenues for defence will too.

Asked how he thinks AI will affect the world of work, Schmit said that the picture is still to be fully defined but that his preliminary assessment is that Artificial Intelligence will mostly transform existing jobs rather than making them redundant.

“We cannot just say, let's push AI aside. That's too dangerous. We have certainly to create the right frameworks in which AI work functions,” he explained.

“If we want to recover a strong industry in Europe, we have to use the most efficient technologies. Otherwise, we will not have the relocation of industries to Europe.”

The Commissioner stressed that, to be able to use AI at its full potential, organisations will need highly qualified workers. Meanwhile, the broader workforce will also need to be trained in using AI, which can bring major productivity gains.

“What we see is a change in the role of humans in dealing with AI. A change of the qualifications, the skills you need to deal with AI,” he added.

“This is the big challenge. We will have to train and educate sufficient people to handle AI. This also applies to many other issues linked to AI, like cybersecurity," he said.

The top EU official pointed to cybersecurity as one of the fastest expanding fields, growing at the pace of thousands of jobs, as the digital transformation makes more and more sectors of the economy vulnerable to cyber-attacks - from hospitals to banks.

In this context, the Commission has recently launched a Cyber Skills Academy. On this platform, people can get informed on the kind of profiles and skills needed to become a cybersecurity expert, the learning possibilities, jobs available and qualified training providers.

EU seeks to bridge cyber-skills gap with new 'academy'

The European Commission launched Cybersecurity Skills Academy on Tuesday (18 April) to close the cybersecurity sector's ongoing skills shortage and develop the EU's cyber resilience.

“This is something which has to be permanently updated because we are not in a situation where you will be a cybersecurity expert for the next ten years. You probably need to rescale your expertise, perhaps even every six months,” Schmit said.

A key aspect of the Academy the Commissioner points to is that it includes several cybersecurity certificates that the EU recognises as meeting certain quality criteria and international standards of the field.

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]