The initiative, which is backed by the European Commission and Amazon Web Services, brings together a range of public bodies including the ministries of labour and education, Digital Luxembourg, Luxinnovation, the Chamber of Commerce and representative organisations for sectors such as skilled trades, the state Employment Administration, the Luxembourg Institute for Science and Technology, the University of Luxembourg’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust, the House of Training and the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT).

Private sector partners include global technology groups (Google, Microsoft, Amazon), IT firms from the grand duchy and the wider region such as Luxconnect and NumeriCALL, and industry bodies including CIONET and ICTluxembourg.

Introducing the conference, prime minister Xavier Bettel said that with the digital economy growing at an unprecedented rate, and young people increasingly familiar with smartphones and communication tools such as Instagram, Luxembourg’s education and training system must deliver the required skills to the labour market at all levels for the country to maximise its opportunities.

Initiatives are already underway with both government and private-sector backing to provide the skills in demand by business. Minister of Labour Nicolas Schmit notes that following the launch of the Fit4Coding computer programming training programme by the Employment Administration, 85% of participants were able to find a job within three months. Claude Meisch, Minister of Education, Children and Youth, points to projects such as the Digital4education.lu website, which provides students and teachers with access to a wide range of online tools.

Technology groups active in Luxembourg stress the importance of creating local expertise in IT and digital technology areas as the expansion of the digital economy creates new demand, pointing out that recruitment from abroad is not only more costly but misses out on one of the country’s key competitive advantages, the prevalence and range of language skills.

By connecting stakeholders from the public and private sectors, the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition aims to develop concrete measures to instil digital skills and capabilities at all levels of the economy and society, as well as helping participants to identify and share best practice. Marc Ant of the Luxembourg Institute for Digital Training says that over time the coalition will create working groups capable of tackling large-scale projects.
Prime minister Bettel sees the creation of the coalition as a critical step toward making digital skills a central component off Luxembourg’s education and training infrastructure and ensuring that companies can draw on the human resources they need to innovate and expand. “Collaboration is needed, ” he says. “The government cannot move forward alone.”