Leonardo-Network "ProInterNet"

FOM Project lead: Prof. Dr. Uwe Kern

Funded by:

Timing: 01.01.2010 – 31.10.2012

Summary: The fast evolving ICT sector is one of the most promising and economically important business sectors in the EU, contributing to a large extent to the major objective of the Lisbon agenda.

The most recent OECD report on IT reveals that "ICT skills are an important contribution to growth […] Over 4% of total employment is in ICT specialist occupations, over 20% in intensive ICT-using occupations.[...]"

By now employment opportunities are plentiful, but vacancies are difficult to fill as qualifications often do not match with the requirements in the companies. In recent years, most projects aiming at the promotion of VET standards in the ICT sector were initiated and run by large companies. However, 80% of all non-public employment is generated by companies with less than 20 employees and that skills requirements of SMEs can differ significantly from skills required in large companies.

The PIN network will tackle this problem by creating a network of key players in the area of Internet-related skills in SMEs involving: 1. industry intermediary organisations; 2. VET institutions; 3. public authorities and, 4. a leading certification institute in order to set-up a holistic approach of assessing, standardising and certifying job qualifications and profiles for internet-related jobs in SMEs.

Project objectives: The outputs, results and products will be:

1. strong and lasting links between complementary institutions;
2. normalised job profiles / qualifications / educational content definition processes;
3. a supporting web-based information exchange platform;
4. recommendations to stakeholders.

PIN will improve employability, reduce skills shortages on the EU labour market, improve the quality of VET and make VET in the field of ICT more transparent and comparable at European level. Thus, all target groups addressed by the network project will benefit. By continuously involving relevant stakeholders throughout the project phase, a true critical mass will be reached.

FOM role description: FOM will provide input to the project from the perspective of a higher education institution that has considerable coverage in the training scene in Germany, also through its parent organisation Verwaltungs- und Wirtschaftsakademie (VWA). FOM will have as its main task to coordinate the state-of-the-art study (WP 1).

It will, furthermore, organise two Roundtables in Germany, identify key stakeholders (industry, VET organisations and public institutions) and participate actively in all other project activities as specified in the work package description.

ProInterNet (PIN) e-jobs-observatory
The International Internet Jobs Observatory aims to provide harmonised job descriptions for internet related jobs. Descriptions are based on tasks, knowlege, skills and competences.Training providers are invited to take these needs into consideration. Target groups are : Training organisations, Institutions, companies, students / professionals in these jobs as well as decision-makers. In order to achieve this goal, we need your cooperation, and we would be grateful, if you could fill in the questionnaire corresponding to your actual status.