e-Leadership Skills for Small and Medium Sized Enterpriseseskills-lead.eu/fileadmin/LEAD/Reports/Country... · of e-skills/ICT practitioners and e-leadership in the workforce. The

e-Leadership Skills for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

Country Report Italy A Snapshot and Scoreboard of e-Leadership Skills in Policy, Higher Education and the Labour Market

Contact

For further information, please contact:

empirica Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH

Oxfordstr. 2, 53111 Bonn, Germany

Tel: (49-228) 98530-0 * e-Mail: [email protected] *

Web: www.empirica.com

Bonn and Brussels, March 2015

Authors:

Karsten Gareis Philipp Markus Eriona Dashja Tobias Stabenow

http://www.empirica.com/

Country Report: Italy - e-Leadership Skills for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

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Disclaimer

The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the information provided in this document.

About this document

This document is a Country Report produced in the course of the service contract “e-Leadership Skills for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises”, or short "LEAD”. Services are provided under contract for the European Commission, DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs – Unit H/3 - Key Enabling Technologies and Digital Economy, Tender No. 288/PP/ENT/CIP/13/C/N01C012

About LEAD

LEAD develops targeted actions for start-ups and fast growing SMEs to provide them with relevant e-leadership skills and qualifications for entrepreneurs, managers and advanced ICT users that are recognized trans-nationally.

The LEAD consortium includes the partners: empirica, INSEAD, IE Business School, Henley Business School, Aarhus University, New Bulgarian University, Antwerp Management School, European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), IDC Europe, PIN-SME and CIONET.

LEAD analyses the role of e-leaders in SMEs and entrepreneurial firms based on engagement with SMEs to gain insights into what

kinds of leaders SMEs rely on to ensure they can use ICT to develop, grow and compete, how SMEs use ICT to develop, grow and compete and what kind of e-leadership skills they need to succeed.

This work represents an important step forward towards helping business schools and SMEs collaborate and develop insights and a common language for SMEs to access and foster leaders who are both business and ICT-savvy (“e-leaders”) and who ensure SMEs use ICT effectively. It is laying the groundwork for the planning of targeted educational offers for SMEs and entrepreneurs by business schools and universities, which will be demonstrated within the project duration.

LEAD also engages with other stakeholder groups from education and the labour market, associations representing SMEs, start-ups and gazelles and others to take into account the target groups evolving requirements for e-leadership.

LEAD aims to sharpen the e-leadership definitions and metrics, specify data requirements for establishing monitoring mechanisms which can be used as a basis for policy making and to improve monitoring of demand and supply of these skills. Technology trends are analysed to understand their impact on new business models and organisation of companies and their e-leadership requirements. An overview of the present European e-leadership policy landscape for the different target groups is developed as well as an overview of the present European landscape of

e-Leadership courses and MOOCs. In addition a search and analysis of initiatives from industry, education and training organisations is carried out.

Content

1 e-Leadership Scoreboard 3

2 Policies of relevance to e-Leadership skills development 5

3 Stakeholder initiatives for the promotion of e-Leadership skills development 8

4 Assessment of policies and stakeholder initiatives on development of skills in e-leadership and digital entrepreneurship 11

5 Best practice policy and stakeholder initiatives 12

6 Examples of e-leadership education in Higher Education in Italy 15

Methodology 17

Country Report: Italy - e-Leadership Scoreboard

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1 e-Leadership Scoreboard

The scoreboard offers an approach to monitoring and assessing issues related to e-leadership skills development, such as: education offers, workforce potential, exploitation opportunities, and enabling policies or other driving mechanisms. It compares European Member States, allowing for a comparative assessment of e-leadership performance of Member states. Doing so, it showcases relative strengths and weaknesses of national e-leadership ecosystems, thus informing and enabling policy discussions.

The e-leadership scoreboard comprises four levels: 24 indicators, 7 building blocks, 4 dimensions to be further aggregated to one overall e -leadership Index (eLI).

The “e-leadership skilling” dimension consists of one building block, “Education and Training”. This building block aims to capture e-leadership education and training through four indicators: The number of Master's/Exec Education level programmes with a mix of ICT & business (per population), the number of e-leadership candidate programmes (per population), the share of enterprises that provided training to ICT/IT specialists and quality of management schools. In the second dimension, “e-leadership workforce potential”, the e-Leadership Skilled Professionals and e-Leadership Pipeline building blocks aim to gauge the extent of e-skills/ICT practitioners and e-leadership in the workforce. The expectation is that e-leadership competences, as defined in the context of this study, prevail in or recruit from these two selected categories. Overall this dimension of the

scoreboard looks to offer a proxy for the potential estimates of e-leaders in each country. A third dimension is entitled “e-leadership skills exploitation” and attempts to assess the friendliness of a country’s business framework and extent of its preparedness in exploiting opportunities provided by ICT. It contains three building blocks capturing aspects from Business Environment, Innovation Opportunities and Technology Trends in each country. The fourth dimension: “e-leadership skills promoters” rests on the proposition that countries with efficient enabling mechanisms (policies,

Rank: 27

Index score: 2.40

ValueScore

(0-10)EU 28 Rank EU 28 avg.

Education and training

57 2.84 7 40

- per

100,0- per 100,000 population aged 20-59 0.2 0.40 25 1

2 1.82 6 1

- per

100,0- per 100,000 of workforce with potential e-leadership skills 0.4 1.70 9 0.4

4% 1.33 26 9.6%

-

SMEs - SMEs that provided training to ICT/IT specialists 4% 2.14 25 8.4%

5.0 5.83 14 4.81

e-leadership skilled professionals

37,101 0.6 13 99,726

Line

mana- as % of total workforce 0.2% 0.0 28 1.3%

89,996 2.1 5 63,021

ICT

mana- as % of total workforce 0.4% 1.3 23 0.8%

e-leadership pipeline

154,092 1.8 7 115,205

ICT

practi- as % of total workforce 0.7% 0.2 27 1.48%

1 0.0 28 3.5

8 0.0 28 22.14

Business environment

481 2.7 3 235

%

share - as % of total number of high growth enterprises 4.1% 2.7 13 4.7%

1,451 2.4 3 771

%

share - as % of total number of high growth enterprises 12.4% 5.2 14 13.3%

446,785 5.6 4 154,090

Empl

oyme- as % of total employment 3.0% 3.9 12 3.0%

2,373,412 4.4 4 789,975

Empl

oyme- as % of total employment 15.9% 6.1 12 15.0%

14% 3.2 25 23.8%

% of

SMEs % of SMEs that employed ICT/IT specialists 13% 3.0 24 22.4%

Innovation opportunities

5.5 10.0 1 4.17

4.2 4.4 14 4.22

4.2 0.5 26 5.18

4.1 1.8 24 4.88

Technology trends

5.0 3.2 23 5.65

21% 2.1 22 29.8%

3% 2.9 14 4.14%

National policy and stakeholder initiatives

2.5 2.9 13 2.87

3.5 7.1 3 2.25

2.0 2.0 16 2.45

Employment in ICT sector

e-le

ader

ship

ski

llin

g Master/Exec Ed level programmes with a mix of ICT & business

E-leadership candidate programmes

Quality of management schools

Italy

Enterprises that provided training to ICT/IT specialists

e-le

ader

ship

wo

rkfo

rce

po

ten

tial

Line managers

ICT managers, architects and analysts

ICT practioners - professional level

ICT graduates (per 1000 population aged 20-24)

Business administration graduates (per 1000 population aged 20-24)

Employment in ICT intensive sectors

e-le

ader

ship

ski

lls

pro

mo

ters

ICT Practitioner Skills

Skills for digital entrepreneurship

e-Leadership education and training

Firm-level technology absorption

Impact of ICT on new services and products

% of enterprises using social networks

e-le

ader

ship

ski

lls e

xplo

ita

tio

n

Availability of latest technologies

% of enterprises using RFID technologies

Capacity for innovation

Percentage of enterprises that employed ICT/IT specialists

State of cluster development

High growth enterprises in ICT sector

High growth enterprises in ICT intensive sectors

Country Report: Italy - e-Leadership Scoreboard

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initiatives, etc.) are well positioned to produce the right mix of e-leadership skills in line with the dynamics of the job market demand and talent requirement. This dimension is composed of one building block which looks to capture insights on available programmes and initiatives focusing on e-leadership education and training targeting large companies as well as those targeting digital entrepreneurs and high-growth SMEs (gazelles).

e-Leadership performance per indicatorEU IT

Master/Exec Ed level programmes with a mix of ICT & business



Line managers


ICT core professionals

ICT graduates

Business administration graduates




Employment in ICT intensive sectors % of enterprises that employed ICT/IT specialists





% of enteprises using social networks


National policy and stakeholder initiatives on e-Leadership education and training

National policy &stakeholder initiatives on Skills for digital entrepreneurship

% of enteprises using using RFID technologies

National policy & stakeholder initiatives ICT Practitioner Skills


0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10


National policy and stakeholder initiatives e-Leadership skills






% of enterprises that employed ICT/IT specialists


National policy and stakeholder initiatives ICT Practitioner Skills

% of enterprises using RFID technologies


% of enterprises using social networks

National policy and stakeholder initiatives Skills for digital entrepreneurship






Master/Exec Ed level programmes with a mix of ICT & business

ICT practioners - professional level

Line managers

ICT graduates

Business administration graduates

Performance-based indicator ranking

IT EU

Country Report: Italy - Policies of relevance to e-Leadership skills development

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2 Policies of relevance to e-Leadership skills development

The Agenda Digitale Italia (ADI) was launched on March 1, 2012 by the Minister of Economic Development, in consultation with the Minister for Public Administration and Simplification; the Minister for Territorial Cohesion; the Minister of Education, Universities and Research and the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The Agenda was prepared using a strongly participatory process using various tools of civic engagement: face to face interviews, a public consultation and an online forum on the social web. In this period the opinions and suggestions of thousands of citizens and stakeholders have been received and processed along six strategic goals (Infrastructure and Safety, E-Commerce, e-Gov/Open Data, Digital Skills, Research and innovation (R&I) and Smart Communities). The Agenda was published in Decree Law of 18 October 2012 "Further urgent measures for the growth of the country". For putting the Digital Agenda into practice, the Agency for Digital Italy (AGID) was established in the same year. The Agency is also responsible for periodic updating of the strategy.

An Expert Advisory Team was appointed by President Letta to explore the main challenges to meeting the Digital Agenda's objectives. The team, lead by Francesco Caio, published its report "Achieving the Objectives of the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) in Italy: Prospects and Challenges" in early 2014.1

Eventually the Italian Strategy for the Digital Agenda 2014-20202, containing dozens of individual Actions, was published in April 2014. One strategic goal is called Digital Competences and covers e-skills related policy objectives. In addition to actions which seek to boost digital literacy and ICT user skills of the general population and within companies (e-learning) and public administration, the Digital Competences strategic goal also covers actions of immediate relevance to the present study, including Definition of e-leadership skills and provision of e-leadership training courses to central and local

1 http://de.slideshare.net/Palazzo_Chigi/achieving-the-objectives-of-the-digital-agenda-for-europe-dae-in-italy-

prospects-and-challenges# 2 http://www.agid.gov.it/agenda-digitale/agenda-digitale-italiana

Policy & Stakeholder Activity

Summary Assessment

e-Leadership education and training:

The new Italian Strategy for the Digital Agenda gives a prominent place to the e-leadership skills issue. It foresees measures for definition of e-leadership skills with reference, were possible, to the European e-Competence Framework (e-CF) and calls for e-leadership training programmes especially for public administration staff and SMEs. At the level of the Italian regions, regional digital agendas are currently being drafted. The available agenda for Lombardy also includes dedicated measures explicitly addressing the need for promoting e-leadership skills. Education and training offers have been developed by a number of higher educations providers both from the public and private sector.

Skills for digital entrepreneurship:

The national Strategy for the Digital Agenda and, in particular, the regional digital agendas put some emphasis on the need to support digital entrepreneurship in the country, but there are few concrete actions in operation or planned. Training offers on digital entrepreneurship come mainly from business incubators and start-up accelerators focusing on the digital domain. Universities have set up organisations to promote spin-offs and spin-outs that seek to exploit research outcomes commercially.


e-Leadership education and

training

Policies and Stakeholder

Activities

http://de.slideshare.net/Palazzo_Chigi/achieving-the-objectives-of-the-digital-agenda-for-europe-dae-in-italy-prospects-and-challenges

http://de.slideshare.net/Palazzo_Chigi/achieving-the-objectives-of-the-digital-agenda-for-europe-dae-in-italy-prospects-and-challenges

http://www.agid.gov.it/agenda-digitale/agenda-digitale-italiana


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government staff.

Based on the Digital Agenda, the Guidelines for a National Programme for Culture, Education and Digital Skills are currently being drafted in an open, participatory process coordinated online via the website http://culturadigitale.partecipa.gov.it.

Regional Digital Agendas are being developed by AGID in cooperation with the regions. The work is coordinated by CISIS, the technical body of the regions for the themes of the Digital Agenda. Regional Agendas are available at the time of writing for:

Lombardy: Digital Agenda Lombarda 2014-18 includes "digital competences" as a priority area of intervention. Starting from the observation that Lombardy lags behind the EU average in terms of e-skills development, the document calls for measures amongst others to boost e-leadership skills as a target for professional growth, in order to improve productivity and increase competitiveness of the business system. Concrete actions planned include: a) Set up of an observatory for monitoring and dissemination of professional e-skills standards, in order to observe a more precise pictures of the situation in Lombardy and the actual needs that must be met; b) Improvement of training provision to address identified shortcomings; c) Implementation of new tools and techniques training (including distance learning, discussion forums, "social" Wikis, "training pills" and other web 2.0 tools; d) Creating higher awareness about existing training offers e) Adjustment of professional knowledge, even for those who are already working professionally in the ICT area, in order to foster the development of new professional profiles required by the market.

Veneto and Tuscany: Both the Agenda Digitale del Veneto and the Agenda Digitale Toscana seek to support establishment of new innovative companies in the region and strengthening use of digital technologies for improving internal efficiency of local enterprises; boosting ICT-enabled innovation in products, services, processes and business models; foster relationships between firms and actors in the value chain; enabling successful internationalization. With regard to the digital competence strategic goal, the Agendas do not address e-leadership skills but call for action to monitor and further develop knowledge and expertise in business applications of ICT with a clear focus on increasing the competitiveness of the local economy. The Veneto Agenda also mentions the need to attract ICT practitioners to the Veneto region. Tuscany has a powerful e-learning service in place, i.e. TRIO “the web learning system of the Region of Tuscany”, which is available completely free of charge and offers approximately 1,700 courses and a range of training services. Some of these are of direct relevance to digital entrepreneurship and e-leadership.

Umbria: Agenda digitale dell'Umbria focuses, as far as ICT related education and training is concerned, on measures to support the competitiveness of the region's SMEs, especially the large number of small manufacturing enterprises which form the bedrock of Umbria's economy. The focus here is on equipping companies with basic skills in strategic use of ICTs (e.g. e-commerce, process modernisation). An example of an action is the deployment of "Digital Angels", i.e. students with advanced ICT skills, to enterprises to contribute to a process of acculturation to operating in the digital sphere.

Responsibility for support of (digital) entrepreneurship lies with the Ministry of Economic Development, complemented by the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development. At regional (and municipal) level, Chambers of Commerce play an important role; they offer enterprises services to facilitate market intelligence and skill trainings, to stimulate companies and businesses in innovative efforts and to support internationalisation.

As far as training and education in e-leadership is concerned, initiatives are seen in Italy as under the responsibility of the market itself. Namely, supply and demand (in terms of education and training, the school system, including university and vocational training, as well as ICT professionals

http://culturadigitale.partecipa.gov.it/


7 / 23

and enterprises) have to find common agreements locally to develop proper initiatives answering labour market requirements. Concerning secondary school, the school autonomy allows any of them to identify specific courses and initiatives meeting the companies’ needs, locally. The so called interprofessional funds support vocational continuous training according to companies’ requirements. Recent legislation on apprenticeship regulates it at several proficiency and qualification levels, including the so called Alto Apprendistato (“high” apprenticeship) addressing postgraduate young people. At any levels, it is a two years programme of training and job very similar to the German “dual system”. The Alto Apprendistato is managed by universities together with enterprises and it is built according to the real needs perceived by the business.

Country Report: Italy - Stakeholder initiatives for the promotion of e-Leadership skills development

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3 Stakeholder initiatives for the promotion of e-Leadership skills development

3.1 Initiatives within the established education system

Several universities organize MBA and executive MBA addressing young people, professionals and young managers. ICT training initiatives related to the e-Leadership have been developed as part of MBA courses and in the form of some dedicated executive MBA courses; the “Politecnico di Milano” (the Polytechnic University of Milan) has also some specific courses on e-Leadership skills at Bachelor and Master degree levels. These university courses are included in the standard curricula subject to annual university enrolment fees; MBA and Executive MBA courses are private initiatives with quite expensive rates. The same for any further initiatives from private training institutions addressing professionals and managers.

The University LUM Jean Monnet’s School of Management offers a higher education course (Information Systems – SME / IT4Business) that aims at managers and CIOs in SMEs that want to learn how to effectively implement, use and administer an up-to-date information systems. The course has been selected as Best Practice (see detailed description further below).

The other Italian course selected as Best Practice is being offered at Polytechnic University of Milan. It is a general Master in Management that offers the possibility to specialize in ICT Management (see detailed description further below).

Universities also offer e-leadership related training in the context of spin-off and incubator programmes. For example, I3P is a business incubator established at the Politecnico di Torino, ranked as first in Italy and fifth in Europe by the University Business Incubator Index (UBI), while the business incubator established at the Politecnico di Milano, managed by Fondazione Politecnico di Milano and supported by the Milan Municipality is called PoliHub. Both I3P and PoliHub offer an entrepreneurship empowerment programme, a business network for start-ups, dedicated workspaces and a set of value-added services for start-ups including training and consultancy. Initiatives from the business and start-up community PoliHub is based on the strong experience of Acceleratore d’Impresa del Politecnico di Milano, founded already in 2000 with the support of the Milan Municipality. Politecnico di Milano has been one among the first Italian institutions to support the creation and growth of high-potential technological start-ups, including such successful examples as Neptuny, Fluidmesh Networks and Khamsa.

The CINI Consortium3, which involves 1,300+ professors of both Computer Science and Computer Engineering, belonging to 39 public universities and the Itais4, which involves the prominent Italian professors and researchers in the field of Business Information Systems are working to develop training curricula on e-leadership (applied to different sectors) at universitary level.

The National School of Public Administration (SNA) and FORMEZ, in the context of the National coalition for digital competences, are cooperating with AgID and other Italian universities to define new curricula for public managers, to be officially presented by June 2015.

3.2 Initiatives from the business and start-up community

Business sector initiatives striving to increase understanding of and awareness about e-leadership skills include the following:

3 http://www.consorzio-cini.it/

4 http://www.itais.org/


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RETE Competenze per l’EconomiaDigitale translates ‘Italian Competence Network for the Digital Economy’. The network aims to raise awareness about e-competences and to disseminate the European Competence Framework. It also aims to develop and supply training programmes focused on the 36 e-competences to create e-leadership based culture among ICT-driven SMEs. The network is currently being supported by leading Italian employers' associations, ASSINTEL, Assinter Italy, CNA Communication, Digital and Unimatica Confindustria as well as the Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, through which Italian companies support research and education at the University in Milan.

UNI/UNINFO national standard for ICT Professions is also based on the e-CF. UNI is the federal standardization body; its subsidiary UNINFO is responsible for developing standards in the ICT area. The objective of this initiative is to agree on a reference standard for developing a competence-based ICT culture within SMEs, focusing on e-Leadership skills and proficiency levels. The result is the UNI 11506:2013 that is a standard allowing the Certification of the Personnel based on the eCF professional profiles. The initiatives is related to UNINFO's participation in the CEN international working group "PC 428 - Professions for Information and Communication Technology (ICT)"5.

Some of the industry's initiatives for the promotion of ICT career choices to young Italians have also started to put a special focus on e-leaders, such as Future IT Leaders, an Initiative by the AICA CIO Forum and the Fondazione Politecnico di Milano. The objective is to provide an integrated, very concrete, experience-based picture of the future IT leaders. This is meant to promote awareness about IT professionals and their growing role within Italy's economy. Furthermore the initiative is aimed at professional development of future IT leaders. The initiative started September 2012. Ten e-leadership webinars followed by conversations and discussions in the IT leaders’ web community have been held in 2013. The webinars addressed ICT practitioners aiming to grow and were held by CIOs of large ICT end-user companies in Italy. In 2014 the activities are being continued through four on-site meetings in Milan that, followed by another round of in-depth webinars.

Beside Future IT Leaders, AICA (the Italian Association of ICT professionists) is offering and promoting ICT4jobs, a course oriented to students of high schools. The required skills are wholly e-CF compliant and are in line with the competences defined by the digital agency for the figure of e-leader. The activities carried out by two pilot schools intend to suggest the methodological model that could be used by any other educational institution. The elearning version of the course is actually available in TRIO (“the web learning system of the Region of Tuscany”).

Other Research centres (i.e. Scuola di Robotica di Genova – School of Robotics6), universitary departments (i.e. University of Trento) and voluntary associations (i.e. Wister) are involved in “viral” training initiatives whose aims are to spread the spirit of e-leadership amongst girls and women.

AgID, Assinfor, Assintel and Assinter are working on the second edition of the "Observatory on Digital Skills 2015". A chapter will be focused on e-leadership skills in Italian enterprises. Before summer 2015 the four partners are going to launch the initiative “we are looking for e-leaders!” on their web sites to find - with a bottom-up approach - stories and best practices which can represent models of competences for e-leadership in different economic and public sectors.

5 http://www.uninfo.it/index.php/partecipare/aree/category/attivita-professionali-non-regolamentate

6 http://www.scuoladirobotica.it/


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3.3 e-Leadership training in the context of SME and entrepreneurship support

Offers for training in digital entrepreneurship skills come mainly from business incubators and start-up accelerators focusing on the digital domain. Some of the more successful examples from Italy include:

The Forum Ricerca Innovazione Imprenditorialita (Research Innovation Entrepreneurship Forum) is organizing several activities, forums, workshops, conferences and seminars to support entrepreneurs and promote the entrepreneurial spirit and research. The Forum has its roots as a department of the University of Padua which was set up to promote commercialization of research outcomes through spin-outs and spin-offs;

We Tech Off was a project (2008-2013) that supported the creation of innovative companies through the provision of services and support in favour of business ideas and technology start-ups. It was sponsored by Aster, a consortium between the Region of Emilia-Romagna, universities, public research institutions CNR, ENEA and the regional system of Chambers of Commerce and the Italian Ministry of Economic Development;

Campania In.Hub and its regional ecosystem for the promotion of innovative entrepreneurship support SMEs and entrepreneurs through funding and consultation in the Campania region in Italy. It also brings together incubators, accelerators and business experts to support start-ups and regional SMEs;

Dinameeting 2010 caters to all the micro and small enterprises in Lombardy, belonging to manufacturing, business services, logistics, commerce and tourism who want to implement a growth path through information technology. Experienced professionals help SMEs to invest in ICT to fully exploit its potential;

Polo Innovativo (Coalition for innovation) of Molise is a regional competence centre designed to support the creation of innovative start-ups and increase the technological competitiveness of existing businesses;

PST Business Incubator based in Benevento aims to promote the creation of innovative businesses in the ICT sector. It also works on the development of business networks as well as innovation and technological improvement of the economic system.

Providers of training programmes with an explicit focus on digital entrepreneurship include the Wwworkers Academy, the training school of the organisation of the same name. Wwworkers was established in 2010 by Giampaolo Colletti with the intention to provide a forum by and for people networking in the digital economy. Wwworkers are thus defined as ”those who work thanks to the network on their own farm, in an Italian SMEs, in public administration or in multinationals operating in Italy or abroad”7. The academy programme consists of a series of thematic modules and practical workshops, offered on demand as a service to companies and organisations. The courses are taught by experienced teaching staff for new technologies and are focusing on strategic use of ICT and e-leadership in organisations.

Federmanager Academy8, the management school of the Association of around 31.000 Italian managers in Industry (Federmanager9) in 2014 organized seminars or courses for companies and SMEs, but also for unemployed managers, on issues such as Big Data, Intangible Assets, Smart Working supported by ICT, Demand Driven MRP, and eLearning blended courses in some Italian Regions. In 2013-2014 Federmanager Academy supported around 180 Italian unemployed managers to exploit Social Network and ICT to find a new job.

7 http://www.wwworkers.it/pagine/chi-siamo-cosa-facciamo [emphasis added]

8 http://www.federmanageracademy.it/

9 http://www.federmanager.it/

http://www.wwworkers.it/pagine/chi-siamo-cosa-facciamo

http://www.federmanageracademy.it/

http://www.federmanager.it/

Country Report: Italy - Assessment of policies and stakeholder initiatives on development of skills in e-leadership and digital entrepreneurship

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4 Assessment of policies and stakeholder initiatives on development of skills in e-leadership and digital entrepreneurship

Exhibit 1: High-level assessment of policies and stakeholder initiatives on development of skills in e-leadership and digital entrepreneurship

No / Type Title of policy / initiative Main stakeholder(s)

Stakeholders from: Assessment:

Go

vern

men

t

Bu

sin

ess

Un

ion

s/ N

GO

s

Edu

cati

on

MSP

fit

(0

-2)

Targ

et f

it (

0-2

)

Po

licy

fit

(0-2

)

Sco

pe

/

Co

nti

nu

ity

(0-2

)

Mat

uri

ty (

0-2

)

Policy 1 Agenda Digitale Italia (ADI) Ministry of Economic Development --- --- --- --- --- 1 --- 2 2

Policy 2 Italian Strategy for the Digital Agenda 2014-2020

L'Agenzia per l'Italia Digitale (AgID) --- --- --- --- --- 2 --- 2 1

Policy 3 Digital Lombarda 2014-18 Central Directorate Integrated Planning and Finance, Lombardy Region

--- --- --- --- --- 2 --- 2 0-1

Policy 4 Agenda Digitale del Veneto Regione del Veneto --- --- --- --- --- 1 --- 2 0-1

Initiative 1 RETE Competenze per l’EconomiaDigitale translates ‘Italian Competence Network for the Digital Economy’

Assintel, Assinter Italia, CNA Comunicazioni, Confindustria Digitale, and Unimatica 2 1 2 2 2

Initiative 2 Future IT Leaders [2012-] CIO AICA Forum 1 1-2 1 1 1

Initiative 3 UNINFO National standard for ICT Professions

UNINFO 2 1 2 1 2

Initiative 4 Wwworkers Academy Wwworkers 1 1-2 1 0-1 1

Country Report: Italy - Best practice policy and stakeholder initiatives

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5 Best practice policy and stakeholder initiatives

From the policies and initiatives mentioned above, the following has been selected as candidate for best practice.

5.1 Italian Strategy for the Digital Agenda 2014-2020

The Italian Strategy for the Digital Agenda 2014-202010, containing dozens of individual Actions, was published in April 2014. One strategic goal is called Digital Competences and covers e-skills related policy objectives. In addition to actions which seek to boost digital literacy and ICT user skills of the general population and within companies (e-learning) and public administration, the Digital Competences strategic goal also covers actions of immediate relevance to the present study:

Definition of ICT Professional skills that are emerging on the market, referring to the European e-Competence Framework (e-CF). This is expected to ensure recognition of professional profiles, e.g. in ICT related procurement contracts; better match between supply and demand for ICT skills on the labour market;

Definition of the level of school, college and vocational education and training required to equip the newly emerging ICT professions with adequate skills;

Definition of e-leadership skills, including ICT but also soft skills, which everybody who is responsible for "imagining, proposing, promoting, animating" digital innovation is required to have – in any organization, public and private, large and small. E-leadership skills are described as the expertise of that allows an individual employee to look ahead and to introduce digital innovation within the context in which they operate (marketing, finance, logistics, public administration, environment, tourism and cultural heritage);

Provision of e-leadership training courses to central and local government staff;

Following the example of the "Great Coalition for digital jobs" at EU level, constitution of a national coalition on digital competences, composed of the stakeholders already involved in the Digital Agenda for Italy, with the objective to set targets for the impacts of the Agenda on the labour market and in particular employability of young generations.

Based on the Digital Agenda, the Guidelines for a National Programme for Culture, Education and Digital Skills are currently being drafted in an open, participatory process coordinated online via a dedicated the website http://culturadigitale.partecipa.gov.it.

The objectives behind the Guidelines are to:

Propose a shared definition of e-skills, including those related to ICT professionals;

Initiate a mapping of already existing offers related to e-inclusion, digital literacy, ICT professional training in the country, and identify good practices;

Define the objectives and modalities of implementation for a "National Program for Culture, Education and Digital Skills";

Choose a method for a campaign to build upon and go beyond existing initiatives;

Define how to promote and finance selected new initiatives;

Initiate a multi-stakeholder discussion and collaboration on projects and initiatives to be driven forward;

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Ensure integration between the activities of the programme and the guidelines of the other strategic priorities of the Digital Agenda for Italy (e-commerce, e-government, open data, research and innovation, smart cities).

The preparation of the Guidelines has been entrusted to five working groups:

Digital literacy, e-inclusion and basic ICT user skills;

ICT Professional skills;

Horizontal digital skills required by all employees (non-professional ICT) and e-leadership skills;

Digital skills in Public Administration;

Communication and promotion of the Guidelines (e.g. through a series of online seminars (webinars) free and open to all, scheduled to take place at the time of writing.

The working group on horizontal and e-leadership skills has published some first results11 according to which the policy objective should be to "develop a culture of e-leadership and spread it not only across the most advanced economic sectors, but also in central and local Public Administration". The working group also suggests seeking systematic ways in which to provide "the largest possible number of persons, at school or at work" with e-leadership skill, with the goal to generate new jobs through a combination of digital skills with competences for mastering change and pushing through innovation.

5.2 Digital Lombarda 2014-18

Digital Agenda Lombarda is an initiative promoted by the region of Lombardia to direct and support the growth of technological innovation in Lombardy, as part of the European 2020 Strategy and the European Digital Agenda in particular. Lombardy region, first in Italy, adopted in late 2011 the Digital Agenda Lombarda 2012-2015 to promote, guide and support the growth of technological innovation in the Lombardy region, with the purpose to define a digital strategy in line with the European Union 2020 objectives and in particular the European Digital Agenda.

In continuation of this path and within a policy framework consistent with the new EU programming 2014- 2020, the new Digital Agenda 2014-2018 aims to address and best support digital growth in Lombardy, in close synergy with the regional strategy for smart specialization. Digital Lombarda aims to facilitate change and modernization of economy among sectors, from the most specialized to the more traditional ones and particularly in the manufacturing sector.

Digital Agenda Lombarda 2014-18 includes "digital competences" as a priority area of intervention. Starting from the observation that Lombardy lags behind the EU average in terms of e-skills development. The document calls for measures amongst others to boost e-leadership skills as a target for professional growth, in order to improve productivity and increase competitiveness of the business system. Concrete actions planned include: a) Set up of an observatory for monitoring and dissemination of professional e-skills standards, in order to observe a more precise pictures of the situation in Lombardy and the actual needs that must be met; b) Improvement of training provision to address identified shortcomings; c) Implementation of new tools and techniques training (including distance learning, discussion forums, "social" Wikis, "training pills" and other web 2.0 tools; d) Creating higher awareness about existing training offers e) Adjustment of professional knowledge, even for those who are already working professionally in the ICT area, in order to foster the development of new professional profiles required by the market.

For collecting the actual needs regarding retraining and re-skilling, it is important to encourage the direct involvement of the companies and other employers. The Digital Agenda Lombarda represents a multi-stakeholder initiative with involvement and active participation of citizens, businesses,

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universities and research centres, schools, representatives of the productive sectors, consumer groups, and the third sector.

Country Report: Italy - Examples of e-leadership education in Higher Education in Italy

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6 Examples of e-leadership education in Higher Education in Italy

Title of study Program Information Systems – SME

Level of degree Higher Education Course

Name of programme provider

School of Management

Responsible institution

Università Lum Jean Monnet

URL http://management.lum.it/corsi87f1.html?id=14

Target group CIOs

Prospective systems managers

Payment / fees 2400 € plus VAT

Duration 3 years - 80 hours (meetings will be held on Friday from 14-18 and Saturday from 9-13)

Learning outcomes The aim is to update the knowledge of CIOs and those who want to approach the role of systems manager in a scenario handled constantly changing and subject to continuous specializations.

Title of study Program Master in Management

Title of study degree Master

Level of degree Master

Name of programme provider

Polytechnic University of Milan

Responsible institution Polytechnic University of Milan

URL http://www.mip.polimi.it/mip/it/Master/Master-in-Management.html

Target group

Managers who wish to broaden their education in the areas of competence typical of the General Management

Professionals who wish to deepen their training on specific areas (for example, by dialling the Master Executive with a path in the first year and a management training on issues transversal the second year)

Managers or entrepreneurs willing to hold positions of responsibility within their own company or who have the desire to "make the system" what they have learned during their professional career, or wish to build the skills to realize their entrepreneurial dream

Payment / fees €16.500 (+ VAT)

Duration 2 years, part-time (1-2 days per month)

Learning outcomes

22 Modules, each 1 to 3 days. The modules belong to the following thematic areas:

Corporate Strategy

Energy Management

Entrepreneurship

Finance

HR and Organization

ICT Management

Innovation and Project Management

International Business

Country Report: Italy - Examples of e-leadership education in Higher Education in Italy

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Marketing and Sales

Operations and Supply Chain Management

Risk Management

ECTS credits / other credits

120 ECTS (60 ECTS are studied at a partner university

Country Report: Italy - Methodology

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Methodology

European e-Leadership Scoreboard

The scoreboard attempts to offer an approach to monitoring and assessing issues related to e-leadership skills development, such as: education offers, workforce potential, exploitation opportunities, and enabling policies or other driving mechanisms. It compares at Member State level the e-leadership “performance” of EU28 Member states across several building blocks, thereby allowing for comparisons on relative strengths and weaknesses of e-leadership ecosystems between countries, with the major goal of informing and enabling policy discussions at national and EU level.

The e-leadership scoreboard is an evolving model to be further refined through input from academic / experts debates and feedback from other interested parties. It comprises a series of indicators using data from both primary and secondary sources. It is based on a straightforward yet comprehensive framework for measuring determinants of demand and supply for e-leadership skills in each country. Conceptually, the e-leadership scoreboard comprises four levels, 28 indicators; 8 building blocks; 4 dimensions, which can be aggregated to receive an overall e -leadership Index (eLI).

The overall e-leadership performance in each of the country has been summarized into a scoreboard, and further on into a composite indicator (e-leadership index). These raised a number of challenges related to the quality of the data selected and to their combination into a single indicator. A number of steps were taken to assure the quality of the data and the reliability of the e-leadership index. The steps followed are explained in more details below:

Step 1: Identifying and addressing outliers

Mean and standard deviations have been calculated for all indicators among all countries included in the scoreboard. Outliers have been identified as the absolute z-values larger than 3. Relative to the case, the values distorting the variable distribution (positive/negative outliers) have been replaced by maximum/minimum values observed in each single indicator. Beforehand, some indicators have been standardized using population data in order to avoid any country-size effects in the dataset sample.

Step 2: Setting reference year

A reference year is set depending on the data availability of each indicator for each of the countries considered. Overall, for most of the indicators the reference year is lagging 1-3 years behind the timing the e-leadership scoreboard refers to. In this case, the reference year for most of the indicators of the 2014 e-leadership scoreboard will be lying between years 2011 to 2013.

Step 3: Treatment of missing data

When dealing with the missing values, we distinguish among two different cases which influence data imputation procedure:

Missing at random: If data is not available for a year-in-between, we replace data using the value for the previous year / latest year available.

Missing completely: For countries which data is completely missing for the entire time series, no imputation is effort carried out. In these cases the indicator is left empty, marked as not available (‘n/a’), and not considered in the calculation of the county scores.


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Table 1: e-Leadership scoreboard indicators

Indicator Definition and scopeLatest data

availableSource

Number of Master's or Exec Ed level

programmes with a mix of ICT and

business

Definition: combination programmes that have as target group specialist or junior / middle management are professional-

oriented and have a mix of business and IT. Either at regular consecutive MSc level, or are aimed at specialist subjects only (e.g.

new media, marketing, logistics, communications, e-health etc.

Measure: per 100,000 population aged 20-59

2013 empirica


Definition: E-leadership candidate programmes - programmes that are clearly aimed at experienced professionals with leadership

roles, which usually already expect a high level of IT skills and significant business experience.

Measure: per 100,000 of workforce with potential e-leadership skills

2014 empirica

Enterprises that provided training to

ICT/IT specialists to develop/upgrade

their ICT skills

Definition: Enterprises who provided training to develop/upgrade ICT skills of their personnel: for ICT/IT specialists (NACE Rev. 2).

Measure: % of enterprises2012

Eurostat Information society statistics

Code: isoc_ske_ittn2

Quality of management schoolsDefinition: In your country, how would you assess the quality of business schools

Measure: [1 = extremely poor—among the worst in the world; 7 = excellent—among the 2012–13 weighted average2013 World Economic Forum, Executive Opinion Survey

Line managersDefinition: ISCO-08 (1211, 1213,1219, 1221, 1222, 1223)

Measure: as % of total workforce2013 LFS

ICT managers, architects and analystsDefinition: ISCO-08 (1330, 2421, 2511)


e-Leadership pipeline 1:ICT

practitioners - professional level

Definition:ISCO-08 (2152, 2153, 5356, 2434, 5212, 2513, 2514, 2519, 2512, 2522, 2523, 2529)


e-Leadership pipeline 2-1: ICT

graduates

Definition:Count of first degrees in ISCED 5A and first qualifications in 5B. The number of students entering the labour force in a

given year does not equal but is approximated by this number of graduates, as many will go on to second or further degrees

(master, PhD).

Measure: per 1,000 population aged 20-24

2012Eusostat

Code: [educ_grad5]

e-Leadership pipeline 2-2: Business

administration graduates

Definition: Count of first degrees in ISCED 5A and first qualifications in 5B in business and administration.

Measure: per 1000 population aged 20-24 2012

Erurostat

Code: [educ_grad5]

High growth enterprises n ICT sector

Definition: High growth enterprises (growth by 10% or more) and related employment by NACE Rev. 2 sectors: Information and

communication (J).

Measure: Number of high growth enterprises measured in employment (growth by 10% or more)

2012Eurostat

Code: [bd_9pm_r2]

High growth enterprises in ICT

intensive sectors

Definition: High growth enterprises (growth by 10% or more) and related employment by NACE Rev. 2 sectors: Manufacture of

computer, electronic and optical products (C26), Manufacture of electrical equipment (C27), Manufacture of machinery and

equipment n.e.c. (C28), Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers (C29), Manufacture of other transport

equipment (C30), Professional, scientific and technical activities (M).

Measure: Number of high growth enterprises measured in employment (growth by 10% or more)

2012Eurostat

Code: [bd_9pm_r2]


Definition: Number of persons employed in the following NACE Rev. 2 sectors: Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical

products (C26), Information and communication (J).

Measure: as % of total employment

2011 Eruostat


Definition: Number of persons employed in the following NACE Rev. 2 sectors: Manufacture of electrical equipment (C27),

Manufacture of machinery and equipment n.e.c. (C28), Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers (C29),

Manufacture of other transport equipment (C30), Professional, scientific and technical activities (M).

Measure: as % of total employment

2011 Eruostat

Enterprises that employed ICT/IT

specialists

Definition: Enterprises that employed ICT/IT specialists (NACE Rev. 2)


Eurostat

Code: [isoc_ske_itspen2]


Definition: In your country, how widespread are well-developed and deep clusters (geographic concentrations of firms, suppliers,

producers of related specialized institutions in a particular field)?

Measure: [1 = nonexistent; 7 = widespread in many fields] | 2012–13 weighted average

2013 World Economic Forum, Executive Opinion Survey

Capacity for innovationDefinition:In your country, to what extent do companies have the capacity to innovate?

Measure: [1 = not at all; 7 = to a great extent] | 2013 World Economic Forum, Executive Opinion Survey

Firm-level technology absorption Definition: In your country, to what extent do businesses adopt new technology?

Measure: [1 = not at all; 7 = adopt extensively] | 2012–13 weighted average2013 World Economic Forum, Executive Opinion Survey

Impact of ICT on new services and

products

Definition: To what extent are ICTs creating new business models, services and products in your country?

Measure: [1 = not at all; 7 = a significant extent] | 2011–2012 weighted average2012 World Economic Forum, Executive Opinion Survey

Availability of latest technologiesDefinition: In your country, to what extent are the latest technologies available?

Measure: [1 = not available at all; 7 = widely available] | 2012–13 weighted averageAvailability of latest technologies2013 World Economic Forum, Executive Opinion Survey

Enterprises using social networksDefinition: Use social networks (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing, Viadeo, Yammer, etc.)


Eurostat

Code: [isoc_cismt]

Enterprises using RFID technologiesDefinition: Enterprises using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies


Eurostat

Code: [isoc_ci_cd_en2]

ICT Practitioner Skills

Definition: Level of national policy and stakeholder activity on ICT Practitioner Skills

Measure: 1 - 5 (1 = "No relevant policy or stake-holder activities of significant scope and size have been identified."; 5 = "A master

strategy is in place.)

2013 empirica

e-Leadership e-Leadership education

and training

Definition: Level of national policy and stakeholder activity on e-Leadership education and training



2014 empirica


Definition: Level of national policy and stakeholder activity on Skills for digital entrepreneurship



2014 empirica

National policy and stakeholder initiatives

e-leadership skilling

e-leadership skilled professionals

e-leadership pipeline

Business environment

Innovation opportunities

Technology trends


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Step 4: Calculating re-scaled scores

Min-max normalisation method was adopted to adjust for differences in terms of units of measurement and ranges of variation. All 28 variables have been normalised into the [0-10] range, with higher scores representing better performance for the indicators.

The following normalisation formula has been applied:

Where:

Xi = country score

XMin = sample minimum

XMax = sample maximum

Xi, 0 to 10 = the data point i normalized between 0 and 10

Step 5: Calculating composite e-leadership index

The e-leadership Index for each country is calculated as a weighted average of the rescaled scores for every indicator included in the scoreboard. The weighting approach used distributes different weights to each of the building blocks, based on the results obtained from a regression analysis which assesses relationships between each building block indicators’ (independent variable) and estimated number of e-leaders for each 28 Member States (dependent variable). The rationale behind this analysis is to explore and assess relationships between indicators’ performance and potential presence of e-Leaders.

Identification of policies and stakeholder initiatives on e-leadership skills

To gather information on and evaluate the current e-leadership skills policy and initiative landscape and try to assess the impact of relevant policies at EU and national level, a significant amount of information needed to be systematically collected. The challenge has not only been that the information owners are heterogeneous (including actors in the public sector, the private sector, e.g. the IT industry, and educational organisations), but also the geographic scope of the exercise, as the study focused on activities in all 28 Member States (and major regions, if relevant). The collected information included, in particular, factual information about ongoing and completed activities at the European level and in EU Member States (e.g. information about the types of initiatives, the stakeholders involved and the governance model applied), as well as views of stakeholders and experts that have been involved in such activities regarding the outcome of these activities.

Our activities consisted mainly of:

a survey of relevant national policies in the e-leadership skills domain, and

a survey of initiatives and multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) at Member State level in this domain, with the focus as before.

The data was collected with the support, where found appropriate, of a network of national correspondents covering all 28 Member States of the EU.

Information gathering using templates where appropriate is divided into three steps.

In a first step it focused on the general policy context in the different countries. The aim has been to give a brief overview of the overall structure of the policy system and programmes and the key stakeholders active in this area. In this section, national correspondents were guided to refer to and


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mention the policy programmes of relevance for e-leadership skills and to provide an overview of how these are embedded and integrated in the overall policy context.

The work built on already existing literature and studies available from previous projects, statistical sources and the proposers’ expertise and experiences gained in the precursor and previous projects and service contracts. The analysis was enhanced by most recent literature and studies.

In a second step, more in-depth data has been gathered on the major policies and initiatives targeting creation of e-skills and e-leadership skills which had been identified in the previous step. The template was brief, with the following points to be addressed:

Name of policy, programme, initiative

Overall objectives

Specific objectives

Targets

Main characteristics

Policy evaluation: Monitoring and measurement system in place

Results achieved (versus objectives and targets)

The output of this activity included descriptions of the respective policies and initiatives on the basis of a standardised template, consisting of about 5 pages of text in tabular format and a preliminary assessment with regard to some benchmarking indicators (see below for a description of the benchmarking approach).

At an early stage of the project (Phase I) empirica developed a data gathering guide and template for use by national correspondents to gather the relevant information. This was followed by contacting national correspondents and providing them with a Guide / Toolkit containing background information, guidelines and instructions for how to conduct the research, and the data capture instruments (description templates and questionnaires, as applicable). National correspondents in each Member State were asked to identify key actors and experts in the fields of e-skills and e-leadership skills and to interview them, as well as to undertake desk research.

In order to avoid work duplication and to achieve best value for money, national correspondents were supplied with pre-filled data templates wherever available based on the instruments used for precursor studies, which they were then asked to validate, update and complement as appropriate.

Benchmarking and assessment of policies and stakeholder initiatives on e-leadership skills

Indices for Member States' level of policy activity

National policy activity was explored through an investigation on national policy and stakeholder initiatives that have a bearing on skills development in the e-leadership and digital entrepreneurship area. Findings are summarised in the form of two indices for policies & initiatives addressing e-leadership skills of SMEs and skills for digital entrepreneurship, respectively. Index values have not been mechanistically derived using checklists but rather through a qualitative assessment of the significance and importance of each policy and activity.


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Index values are to be interpreted as follows:

Table 2: Scoring format for assessment of national policy and stakeholder activities

Score

National policy and stakeholder initiatives on e-Leadership Skills for

SMEs

National policy and stakeholder initiatives on Skills for Digital

Entrepreneurship

No relevant policy or stakeholder activities of significant scope and size have been identified. Policy debate is non-existent or sketchy.

No relevant policy or stakeholder activities of significant scope and size have been identified. Policy debate is non-existent or sketchy.

There are little policy or stakeholder activities which explicitly deal with e-leadership skills, but related topics have entered the policy debate. Measures are in place, e.g. training of SMEs in strategic use of ICT for innovation. Education providers show clear signs of awareness.

There are little policy or stakeholder activities which explicitly deal with skills for digital entrepreneurship, but related topics have entered the policy debate, e.g. in the context of efforts to boost entrepreneurial skills and attitudes. Education providers show clear signs of awareness.

Some major policy and stakeholder activities, but coordination/integration, scope and sustainability are limited. Policy debate is well developed but still limited to insiders rather than the main target groups. Education providers offer relevant courses/programmes.

Some major policy and stakeholder activities, but coordination/integration, scope and sustainability are limited. Policy debate is well developed but still limited to insiders rather than the main target groups. Education providers offer relevant courses/programmes.

Training for e-leadership is fully embedded in policy strategies (e.g. e-skills or SME strategies) and action plans are in place. The policy debate is well developed and involves all key target groups. SME demand for training courses is met by supply. Some shortcomings e.g. in terms of sustainability, monitoring, scalability, coverage.

Training for digital entrepreneurship is fully embedded in policy strategies on entrepreneur-ship, and action plans are in place. The policy debate is well developed and involves all key target groups. Entrepreneur demand for training courses is met by supply. Some shortcomings e.g. in terms of sustainability, monitoring, scalability, coverage.

A master strategy is in place and there are not only various relevant policies and stakeholder initiatives, but these are also well integrated at national and sectoral level. Buy-in from all relevant stakeholders has been obtained.

A master strategy is in place and there are not only various relevant policies and stakeholder initiatives, but these are also well integrated at national and sectoral level. Buy-in from all relevant stakeholders has been obtained.

Preliminary results, as reproduced in the present document, will be validated through a major online survey using a sample of >300 stakeholder representatives and experts covering all 28 EU Member States.

Methodology for Benchmarking policies and initiatives

For identification of existing policies and initiatives that are of relevance to the e-leadership issue we have made use of a SWOT analysis approach (strengths – weaknesses – opportunities – threats). A SWOT analysis combines the assessment of external developments that cannot be directly influenced by the organisation in focus (e.g. the overall market development) with an analysis of its internal specific situation (e.g. its capabilities, product quality and price, market position). Factors specific to the firm are classified as strengths (S) or weaknesses (W), depending on how the situation is in comparison to key competitors with regard to the selected evaluation criteria. External developments (e.g. market trends) are then matched with the organisation's specific strengths and weaknesses, which leads to conclusions on opportunities (O) or threats (T). A SWOT analysis helps organisations allocating their resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which they operate. As such, the instrument is often used for (longer-term) strategy formulation.


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The unit of observation in the present study is policies and stakeholder initiatives. The methodology for benchmarking these is described below. The analysis of strengths and weaknesses was conducted in a multi-step process for which various sets of criteria are being applied. In order to arrive at a shortlist of candidates from the initial total set of up-and-running policies and stakeholder initiatives identified by the National Correspondents, an evaluation scheme based on the following criteria was used:

Table 3: Criteria for selecting outstanding policies and stakeholder initiatives for shortlisting

Selection criteria Evaluation scheme

Partnership

approach of the

policy or

initiative

(“MSP fit”)

To what extent does the policy or initiative make use of a "multi-stakeholder partner-

ship" approach?

Each case is given a score on a scale of 3 values:

HIGH (2) The policy or stakeholder initiative fully complies with the MSP definition, i.e. it

engages all main stakeholders that are of relevance for a certain e-leadership

skills related issue. The partnership involves all or most of the following:

government (at national, regional and/or local level), business, education

providers, social partners and possibly the civic sector (e.g. NGOs).

MEDIUM (1) The policy or stakeholder initiative has some involvement of several partners

from the government, business, social partners and/or education sector, but not

all main stakeholders which are of relevance for a certain e-skills related issue

are engaged.

LOW (0) The policy or stakeholder initiative is initiated and operated mainly by one / only

a few partners from only one, at most two sectors (government, business, social

partners, education) and it appears that some key stakeholders who are of

relevance for the e-skills related issue in question are not involved.

Target and

approach of the

policy or

initiative

(“Target fit”)

To what extent does the policy or stakeholder initiative target skills development in the

e-leadership and digital entrepreneurship area12

?


HIGH (2) The policy or stakeholder initiative has a clear focus on skills development in the e-leadership and/or digital entrepreneurship area

MEDIUM (1) The policy or stakeholder initiative addresses skills development in the e-leadership and/or digital entrepreneurship area, but its main focus is more traditional (e.g. on general leadership or entrepreneurship skills).

LOW (0) The policy or stakeholder initiative deals with “digital literacy” of the

general population or subgroups hereof (e.g. unemployed, disabled

people), but does not address ICT practitioner skills and/or e-Leadership

skills.

Embeddedness in

the general policy

context

("Policy fit”)

To what extent is the policy or stakeholder initiative embedded in a broader policy

context?


HIGH (2) The policy or stakeholder initiative is strongly embedded in a relevant

national or regional policy context (such as a skills strategy or an

innovation action plan).

12

Rather than entrepreneurship skills in general, or leadership skills in general


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Selection criteria Evaluation scheme

MEDIUM (1) There are some links of the policy or stakeholder initiative to general

skills and innovation related policy programmes.

LOW (0) The policy or stakeholder initiative is poorly embedded, i.e. links to

general skills and innovation related policy programmes are very limited.

It is likely to remain a one-off activity of limited duration.

Size and scope of

the policy or

initiative

("Scope and

continuity”)

Are the size and scope of the policy or stakeholder initiative sufficient to make it

relevant to national skills development in the e-leadership and digital entrepreneurship

field?

Each initiative is given a score on a scale of 3 values:

HIGH (2) The policy or stakeholder initiative has a size (in terms of budget,

number of stakeholders involved, target group reach, or similar) and

scope (e.g. sectors and occupations covered) which makes it highly

relevant to related developments in the whole country. Its duration is

not limited to a one-off project, but there is (planned to be) a continuity

of activities over many years.

MEDIUM (1) The policy or stakeholder initiative has a size and scope which means it is

of some relevance to related developments in the whole country. Its

duration may be limited to a one-off project, but its goals are continued

through other means.

LOW (0) Size and scope of the policy or stakeholder initiative are a too limited to

make it relevant to related developments in the whole country, or its

duration is limited to a one-off project without any continuation or

follow-on activities.

Level of

experience with

the policy or

initiative

("Maturity”)

Has the policy or stakeholder initiative been in operation for long enough to make it

possible to assess performance and to learn from its experience?


HIGH (2) The policy or stakeholder initiative has achieved a major part of its

operational goals already, i.e. it has been in operation for long enough to

allow for assessment.

MEDIUM (1) The policy or stakeholder initiative has commenced already but is at an

early stage of implementation.

LOW (0) The policy or stakeholder initiative is still at the planning stage, i.e. no

experience is available yet.

Documents

e-Leadership Skills for Small and Medium Sized Enterpriseseskills-lead.eu/fileadmin/LEAD/Reports/Country... · of e-skills/ICT practitioners and e-leadership in the workforce. The