18 Mar Get Online Week 2013 has started!
18 Mar, 2013
On March 18th at 00:00 CET the Get Online Week 2013 (#GOW2013) campaign counter was set to zero. In a joined effort to empower people to use technology to find a job or get more out of life, thousands of Europeans will be reached during the Pan-European campaign that will end on March 24th, at 24h CET.
Together with public authorithies & ICT companies, national campaign partners from almost 30 countries are organizing a whole week of exciting events, training sessions and competitions, taking place in approximately 10.000 European ICT learning centres (also known as telecentres) at public libraries, schools & municipal organisations, located in both urban and rural areas.
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- Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Digital Agenda.
This is the fourth edition of the annual Get Online Week campaign organized by Telecentre-Europe – an umbrella organisation that represents 37 local network organizations from 27 European countries. Initially, the campaign was focused on bringing new people online, but now the focus has moved to upskilling and reskilling people.
Over 20% Europeans are young, unemployed, and mostly unaware that by 2015, up to 800.000 vacancies [1] for ICT-related jobs may remain open if jobseekers do not acquire the right digital skills. That’s why this year the campaign has a strong focus on youth and will make use of innovative employability tools that will test young people’s digital skills, inform them about ICT certification schemes and encourage them to take up a career in ICT.
This year’s Get Online Week also has a strong focus on educating young people to manage their online reputation and digital identity, as this is becoming increasingly important for young people to realize when applying for universities or jobs.
Get Online Week 2013 still aims at enaging new internet users online, because in 2012, 23% [2]of Europeans aged 16-74 still had never used the internet. Especially in countries like Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, digital inclusion is still extremely important. During the campaign, exciting intergenerational learning activities will encourage first-time users and beginners to use technology and the internet with the confidence and skills that will allow them to benefit of the online world of opportunities
Get Online Week 2013 is actively supported by the Get Online Week Alliance – formed by Accenture, Liberty Global and Microsoft, who contributed with an equal financial investment to the campaign’s budget and provided in-kind support for the campaign.
» Read the Press Release: Europe-wide Get Online Week will digitally empower thousands of Europeans – Brussels, BELGIUM | 18 MARCH 2013
[1] Towards european e-skills quality labels for ict industry training and certifications, p4 & p6
[2] Internet use in households and by individuals 2012 – Eurostat, p5
