Based on the Sustainable development goals focus area on Education and Lifelong learning, and its emphasis on integration of relevant knowledge and skills in education curricula including ICT skills, mainstreaming the e-skilling initiatives and exploring the impact of new trends being showcased in the world today is highly topical. Although access has improved over the years, not all people are able to benefit from it. It has also been acknowledged that the new divide that has emerged is a skills divide, hence the importance of embarking on programmes and initiatives that ensure that e-skilling is as all inclusive as possible. These programmes need to be taken at national level, supported by robust policy frameworks that guarantee the coverage of all facets of economic and social life, and driven by a multi-stakeholder approach at implementation. At the same time, new approaches to e-skilling are emerging and growing rapidly to be modes of information exchange and repositories of ideas in the informal stream. These new approaches need to be mainstreamed for capacity building purposes.
For the above reasons, the session on “Mainstreaming e-Skilling: The ICT Runway” will look at the policy formulation and strategies and program implementation, of streaming for e-skilling at country, region or global level through governments, private sector or partnerships. Programs being implemented will be used as case studies from which lessons can be shared and learnt. Emerging knowledge exchange platforms and e-skilling methodologies will be analyzed and the impact of these on current capacity building developments will be evaluated. A panel of experts with diverse backgrounds from Academia, Governments and the Private Sector across the globe will exchange knowledge, ideas and experiences, and formulate recommendations for capacity building. The session will be led by a moderator.
Session's link to the Sustainable Development Process
Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all
Target 4.4: By 2030, increase by x% the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship
Under the framework of Action Line C4, the pursuit of building human and institutional capacity is achieved developing high quality training materials, releasing publications on intensively researched topics and delivering internationally acclaimed training programmes - done through a variety of channels including partnership with training providers like universities across the world. Knowledge exchange is facilitated also through the organization of regional and global capacity building events. These initiatives are targeted towards increasing the number of youth and adults with telecommunications skills, to facilitate employment and entrepreneurship in the ICT sector.