Press Release: EU ministers meet to tackle skills gap – Luleå, Sweden 15-16 February 2001

Europe's growing skills problem, most of all, its large and growing IT skills Gap, were urgently discussed at the first ever Joint Informal Council Meeting between Employment and Telecommunications Ministers, held in Luleå on 15-16 February 2001under the Swedish Presidency. Ministers aimed to identify the roots of the problem and discussed both immediate, short-term solutions and longer term policies to bridge the skills gap. Inadequate provision of digital skills at all levels, both in education and in the working environment lie at the heart of the problem. Failure to tackle the growing IT skills bottleneck could derail the European Union's declared goal of turning Europe into a world class competitive, dynamic and inclusive knowledge economy.