The Slovenian National Coalition for Digital Skills and Jobs has successfully finished the development of its national website, which is linked to the Digital Skills & Jobs Platform (DSJP), and over the last 2 years has helped to shine the light on a range of excellent initiatives, programs and trainings that aim to bridge the digital skills gap, and up- and re-skill citizens, workers, educators and students, and ICT specialists themselves. The project may have come to an end, but this does not mean activities on the ground in Slovenia are grinding to a halt. 

A key partner of the Digital Skills & Jobs Platform – today, and tomorrow

The Slovenian Digital Skills & Jobs Coalition is proud to showcase the successful realisation of this innovative national initiative, created under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme and part of the EU’s DIGITAL Europe Programme. You can visit the website of the Slovenian Coalition to know more about its purpose, aim, and how it fits into the larger DSJP Community. 

The Digital Skills and Jobs Platform has become an indispensable hub for promoting and enhancing digital competences and work opportunities in Europe. Through a wide range of high-quality information, resources and opportunities, the platform has helped bring digital skills closer to society – from people encountering digital technologies for the first time to experienced professionals looking for targeted content for their field of expertise. Visit the community on DSJP to see how countries from all over the world connect, cooperate and engage in knowledge-sharing. 

Added value of the Slovenian project

The project has brought remarkable advances in digital skills and work opportunities in Europe. It has helped to foster digital competences, thereby increasing the competitiveness of the EU labour market. It is also an evidence of an increased cooperation between EU Member States and has contributed to an interactive community that enables knowledge-sharing and growth. 

Women and girls in ICT is a key topic for the Slovenian Digital Coalition. The joint events “Girls & ICT vol.1” and “Girls & ICT vol.2”, organised together with National Coalitions in the Czech republic and Slovakia, supported the DSJP autumn campaign to motivate more young people, and especially girls, to embark on careers in tech. And this is far from all. Slovenian good practice initiatives like “Female Engineer of the Year” made significant impact on promoting engineering professions amongst women and girls, and demystifying the engineering profession. Women & ICT was a topic also at the Women for Digitalisation event. During the Open Forums ran by the Slovenian Digital Coalition, other key digital topics like AI, cybersecurity, and digital law were also discussed. 

The Slovenian Digital Coalition supports other groups at risk of social exclusion too. Symbiosis Mobiln@, the first travelling classroom for grown-ups in Slovenia, aims to bring IT tools closer to adults older than 50. A range of other tools aim to give a good overview to the Slovenian digital skills landscape and a way for upskilling to all: from the annual survey on the need for digital profiles in Slovenian companies,  through the self-assessment tool for digital competences developed by DIH Slovenia, to the overview of study programmes, which makes it possible to predict employment trends across digital profiles.

The role of Slovenia in closing the digital skills gap: highlights from the last 2 years 

Slovenia actively contributed to the project, providing more than 400 different content items in less than 2 years to promote digital skills and showcase good practices in bridging the digital divide. And this is not all – the Slovenian Digital Coalition for Digital Skills and Jobs played a key role in sharing national policies, practices and trainings on the platform, bringing its strategies and programs’ overview straight to people from all over Europe, adding a European flair to national and regional policies. Its cooperation has made an important contribution to the overall success of the project and to strengthening digital competences in Slovenia, Europe, and beyond. 

As the Slovenian National project is coming to an end, we want to warmly thank all partners, community members and representatives from other National Coalitions in EU Member States: for the collaboration on the way to boost digital skills and grow job opportunities throughout Europe.

Together, we have made a solid mark and a sound foundation for future development and progress in a world, increasingly touched by the rapid pace of the digital transition. 

About the author

Ana Pejić is Project Manager at the Digital Innovation Hub of Slovenia. Ana’s main focus falls on the topic of digital competences and encouraging young girls and women to pursue careers in STEM and ICT.

About DIH Slovenia 

The vision of the Digital Innovation Hub Slovenia is to provide, connect and support business and technological knowledge, technologies, experimental and pilot environments, best practices, methodologies and other activities that are necessary to enable the Slovenian economy to build digital competences, model innovations and processes and strengthen their digital competitive advantages. In order to realize this vision, the DIHS institute formed cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary partnerships with universities, research and business institutions, companies, ICT providers and business support organizations.
 

Image credits: Tierney via AdobeStock