WHY THE DITEM PROJECT

Digital Transformation for European Micro Enterprises (MEs)

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In today’s global economy MEs need now more than ever a way to access and exploit digital tools to support business processes and to improve competitiveness. They need ‘dual thinkers’, people with a combination of technical skills on the one hand and business skills and an entrepreneurial mind-set on the other; they need to be e-leaders. DiTEM aims to address this challenge by training personnel from MEs as e-leaders.

In 2015, there were an estimated 625,000 ‘innovative e-leadership’ positions in Europe. Furthermore, by 2020, it is estimated that demand will reach 776,000. Europe requires an additional 200,000 e-leaders by 2020, representing 40,000 per year (Source:  European Commission, European e-leadership initiative). Without further action, Europe will not be in a position to meet this demand. In light of the contribution that small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and especially MEs, make to Europe’s economic performance (often referred to as ‘Europe’s backbone’), addressing this need in MEs is imperative.

DiTEM will create an Open Educational Resource with a specific focus on the digital needs of MEs which will be freely accessible and available online.