31 Jul CONVERT asked businesses what they were missing, then built the training for it

31 Jul, 2026

Before designing its training programme, CONVERT went and asked businesses directly what skills they were missing. The project surveyed 627 SMEs across Cyprus, Greece, Italy and France, and ran focus groups and stakeholder roundtables in each country. The answers were consistent. Data analysis and interpretation was the most cited gap, followed by cybersecurity awareness, then social media marketing, cloud computing and web development. Businesses also pointed to a shortage in advanced Excel skills and project management. The main barrier wasn’t a lack of interest in training, it was time and budget, with nearly half of respondents saying they simply didn’t have the hours to spare and a similar share citing cost. 

CONVERT was built directly from those findings. 

The project delivers short, free, certified training modules covering the skills that came up repeatedly in its own research. Social media strategy, data analytics and visualisation with Excel, cybersecurity, AI and machine learning, IoT, CRM, web development with Python, React and Django, UI and UX design, and cloud computing. It’s aimed at recent non-ICT graduates, job seekers, and junior employees with up to two years of experience, people whose degrees or current roles didn’t cover these skills, but who now need them to move into new jobs or take on new tasks. Modules require no prior background and are structured as short-term micro-credentials, so there’s no need for a long return to formal study, which was itself one of the barriers businesses flagged. 

CONVERT is funded under Erasmus+. 

Explore the course catalogue and start training for free on the CONVERT Learning Portal.