The digital revolution will bring about substantial changes, both economic and social, in the Greater Region. The aim of the conference was to consider the effects of digitalisation on the employment market and training in concertation with the stakeholders in the Greater Region. Corinne Cahen, Luxembourg’s Minister for the Greater Region, stressed that “the Greater Region wants to be a player, wants to become a model region in the field of digitalisation. By definition, the digital world knows no borders, hence the necessity of cooperating within the Greater Region”.

The Greater Region’s political, economic and academic stakeholders had an opportunity to discuss the many challenges digitalisation raises and the strategies to be developed.

For some years now, the world of work has been evolving rapidly, with the growth of new technologies. For Luxembourg’s Minister of Labour, Employment and the Solidarity Economy Nicolas Schmit, “the new digital economy is bound to see some jobs disappear, and above all to see many jobs change: training and new qualifications are at the core of policies focusing on the development of competencies. Our aim is for no-one to be left out!”

Faced with a world of work that is dominated by constant change, school guidance is becoming increasingly important. It is essential to step up the promotion of the new technologies, and to adapt the design of the IT syllabuses being taught.

The Ministers for Education in the Greater Region discussed the educational pilot schemes and the actions carried out in their respective regions to provide young people with the best possible preparation for tomorrow’s world of work. For Claude Meisch, Luxembourg’s Minister of Education, Children and Youth, one thing is obvious: “Society has gone digital: schools need to do the same”.

However, competent people need to be found to fill the posts and promote entrepreneurship in this new economic sector. This means that the sustainability of the sector also depends on the ability to develop a pool of skills and human resources.

Given the initial digital initiatives that exist on both sides of the border, all the politicians at the conference stressed the importance of developing synergies and joint projects in the Greater Region.

Alongside the conference, the Greater Region’s third ‘Digital Kids’ schools event took place, bringing together about a hundred pupils from five primary schools and focused on the new digital technologies. During the event, the children had an opportunity to project themselves into the digital world of tomorrow by learning to use a 3D printer, to programme smart fabric, to create light pictures, and to produce content for the social networks.