Josephine Shillito: Employers still demand high levels of university-level qualifications in the ICT sector, according to your recent survey “”. Does this pose an obstacle to vocational training?

Marc Kieffer: The need for ICT skills is becoming more specific and concerns all companies and sectors, so training must keep pace with the evolution of technology, whether at secondary school, university or continuing professional education level.

Do you believe companies will have to revise their expectations of bachelor’s level training in order to get candidates?

Companies are looking for the skills that will enable them to make a successful digital transition and ensure their competitiveness. Unfortunately, these skills are not created overnight but are the result of higher education or university-level studies. In the meantime, reskilling programmes and continuing education can also help to fill the gap.

You hope the survey will guide young people and their parents towards a vocational orientation corresponding to the needs of the market in their field of study. In what other ways can you do this?

Fedil takes every opportunity to promote technical and scientific jobs to young people. Whether through the HelloFuture project [a Luxembourg initiative to bring young people and industry representatives together], participation in student fairs or our regular contacts with secondary schools, this awareness-raising is at the heart of our approach.

Recent studies

This article first appeared in the June 2022 of Delano magazine.