35% of the population of the Canary Islands lacks basic digital skills, which represents one of the biggest obstacles when looking for a job, explained the Canarian Minister of Employment, Elena Máñez.
Training in these skills, Máñez said in a parliamentary committee, is "the most important challenge" of the Canarian Digital Agenda, whose other two pillars are competitiveness and connectivity, and which for the moment has identified 455 projects for a total amount of almost 800 million euros.
"Technology is a means, but without people with skills" to take advantage of digital tools "we will generate new social gaps", Máñez proclaimed. "Hence, there are several lines of work to guarantee this training, through the Canarian Employment Service and the educational system, where digital skills are a transversal element and that children leave school with them already acquired," she specified.
Máñez emphasized that "the labor market is changing" and that "for any sector, activity, digital competence is fundamental".
She also pointed out another "worrying fact": the lack of digitization in SMEs and the consequent lack of profitability of businesses.
"Even the first entrepreneurship is born with low digitization," emphasized the minister, who declared herself "obsessed" because in the environment of people and companies there is "an important qualitative leap" in this regard.
Canary Islands is the third region with the highest internet access
The minister detailed that the Canary Islands is the third autonomous community with the highest connectivity in homes: 96.7% have internet access; and it is above the average in telematic access to the administration: 75% compared to the 72% state average.
The connectivity of Canarian educational centers with broadband is 92.4% compared to 40.5% of the state average, although classrooms with interactive digital systems are at 54% in the Canary Islands compared to the national average of 61%.
Regarding companies with less than 10 workers, less than 85% have a computer, and those that have internet stay at 81%.
Elena Máñez indicated that there is "a wide margin for improvement" both in the use of social media, ICT security measures or specialists in this field in companies.
The minister stressed that the Canarian Digital Agenda "is a living document", and as such, subject to constant updating, so that opportunities continue to be identified, such as the European Retech funds, to which the Canary Islands has presented itself together with other communities with artificial intelligence or cybersecurity projects.
One of these lines of work, she explained, aims to achieve for the archipelago a tourist innovation center through the use of disruptive technologies.
In the same parliamentary committee, Máñez pointed out, in response to questions from the deputy of the Gomera Socialist Group, Jesús Ramos, that training in digital skills must be one of the priorities in the training and retraining of the unemployed population over 45 years of age.
"Public employment services value senior talent"
She indicated that "stereotypes weigh" in the hiring processes by companies, given the belief that those over 45 are "less flexible" and their knowledge "obsolete" compared to younger candidates, and there new technologies represent "an added difficulty".
Also the workers themselves sometimes end up "losing self-esteem" and see themselves unable to adapt to the changes imposed by the labor market, added the minister, hence the need to act in employment offices and in companies, to prevent this lack of retraining from ending in dismissal.
Máñez highlighted at this point the "profound change" operated in the model of public employment services, since now visits are made to companies "to know their needs and the profiles" they demand, and, incidentally, to "value senior talent".
On the other hand, she assured that the Comprehensive Employment Plan of the Canary Islands (PIEC) "is guaranteed" in the REF, after being questioned by Cristina Valido, deputy of the Canarian Nationalist group, who asked her to support an amendment from her party to the next Employment Law in which an explicit recognition is requested for the Canarian singularities.
