On 25th January, EU Telecoms Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, announced a deal with 10 technology and telecom firms, including Hewlett-Packard and O2 parent company Telefonica, to fill 700,000 new high technology jobs by 2015, one million by 2016 and two million by 2020, a fifth of which will be in the UK. This is good news for Europe as the 27-countries that make up the EU now face a record joblessness total of 26.1 million, 10.7% of the working population.

The European Commission’s statistics show a 4.3% decrease a year in employed persons working in high-tech manufacturing jobs between 2008 and 2010, with the service sector showing no growth where before it generated new jobs at a pace of 2% a year.

The aim of what has been called the “grand coalition” is to tackle the issue faced by many companies of the lack of qualified job seekers, fluent English speakers and job seekers with universally recognised qualifications, by pledging aid in acquiring these skills. This includes training, free online university courses, internships, more and closer collaboration with existing university courses, such as design modules, and start-up funding. The larger goal, however, is to create economic growth and make Europe more competitive.

As Kroes said of the deal, “the digital skills gap is growing, like our unemployment queues. We need joint action between governments and companies to bridge that gap.” She went on to say that “the ICT sector is the new backbone of Europe’s economy, and together we can prevent a lost generation and an uncompetitive Europe”.

Kroes’ insistence on the need for improved language training in the ICT industry to create “more and better English speakers” has caused controversy among some EU countries. Warren East, chief executive of ARM Holdings, one of the companies involved in the deal and the firm which designs the electronic chips for Apple’s iPhone, came to her defence, however, emphasising the importance of English to the industry, saying that “even in Asia, it is used as the lingua franca for business”.

The final details of the scheme will be finalised in March.