Modern economies are driven by skilled people, who create and use the
technology. e-Skills has been considered as a perquisite for employment in every sectors.
Though the Europe is home to world class technology companies and IT savvy people,
existing studies revealed that there is a widespread recognition in the EU of an expanding
gap between demand and supply of e-Skills. Far from being an ICT sector issue, Europe’s
growing e-skills shortage is affecting productivity and the competitiveness of all types of
organizations. Further, due to lack of e-skills, millions of European citizens are not able to
access ICTs. Their inability to access ICTs deprives them to reap the benefits of ICTs.
Added to these, facing competition from the US and Japan but also increasingly from India
and China, Europe needs more highly e-skilled professionals of its own. Europe’s education
and training systems have not kept up with the exploding demand for e-skills. This has
initiated, at different levels, a policy debate about how to better promote e-skills in Europe,
in order to fully reap the potential benefits of ICTs. In this light, the present paper explore
some key issues related to development of e-Skills, while attempting to provide some
benchmarking tools by which European countries may be able to access their current and
future challenges regarding e-skills.