The first European Conference on Digital and Key Enabling Technologies skills was held in Brussels on 1 and 2 June 2015. The conference was a two-day event, with day 1 being dedicated to the skill issues of KETs, and day 2 focussing on the skills related to e-leadership. The programme featured multiple high-level speakers representing industry, academia and policy makers. Furthermore, the conference offered a chance to get acquainted with the latest research findings on the skill situation in Europe.

All presentations and a conference report can be downloaded from the conference website: http://leadership2015.eu

The event was organised in the context of two major initiatives. The first aimed to produce a “vision and sectoral pilot on skills for key enabling technologies” (hereafter “KETs skills Initiative”). The KETs skills initiative, launched in January 2014, is focusing on the current and anticipated needs of employers with regard to KETs skills and the ways to best satisfy those needs. The initiative builds on the work of the High-Level Group on KETs and their recommendations on skills. The e-leadership initiative, in turn, started in 2013 and focused on the leadership needs of top decision-makers and business leaders at larger enterprises. A further initiative on “e-leadership skills for SMEs” was then launched in 2014. It targets SMEs and start-ups. These initiatives have been launched DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (GROWTH) of the European Commission.