Northern E-Dimension Action Plan: E-Skills Study in the Baltic Countries and Northwest Russia

Abstract

The study is the first attempt to systematically gather information about what is happening in research and education in the ICT field in the Baltic countries and Northwest Russia, so it is mostly a general investigation and fact-finding project, leading to possible future research and activities in the field. The study will estimate how well the supply of eSkills, that is, educated ICT graduates, meets the requirements of the ICT industry and the needs of the market in Northwest Russia, Kaliningrad, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The main objective of this study can be divided into three tasks: • Surveying educational organisations providing ICT education and training in the region. The main technical universities, high schools and other public and private institutions, as well as research centres, will be examined with the goal of charting what specialists are being produced and what research is being carried out in the universities and research institutions of the region. • Identifying the market needs for ICT competence with the focus on the ICT industry and SMEs. • Highlighting discrepancies between the supply of ICT educated graduates and the demand of the digital economy.

Keywords

• information and communication technology
• eSkills
• ICT competence
• research and education
• digital economy