The first ever European e-Skills Week will take place between 1 st and 5 th of March 2010. European e-Skills Week highlights the growing demand for skilled ICT users and professionals to drive a competitive and innovative Europe. This campaign aims to inform students, young professionals and SMEs about the vast range of opportunities that ICT-related jobs present.

The European e-Skills Week 2010 is expected to involve 300,000 participants in more than 100 activities. The events will take place across Europe with more than 20 participating countries. This collaboration ensures that the European e-Skills Week 2010 will be one that is both informative and memorable for a wide and diverse audience.

In September 2007 The European Commission presented a long term e-skills agenda for Europe and proposed key action lines at EU level. Further developing the long term e-skills strategy to encompass higher level innovation skills is a necessity and a logical next step for supporting European growth and competitiveness.

Stakeholders also welcome the intention of the Commission to organise a major European awareness campaign. European Union is inceeding in the importance of new skills to improve worker's competitiveness in labour market, and it has recently celebrated a conference entitled "New skills for new jobs".

After some years of relatively high growth and job creation (8 million new jobs alone in 2006-2008), the economic crisis has hit labour markets in Europe and affected the prospects and livelihoods of Europeans. In response, the European Commission launched a recovery plan to tackle the effects of the crisis and set three priorities for safeguarding jobs. One of them is upgrading and maintaining the level of skills in Europe.