Soft skills are not only technical-specialist IT skills. They also include innovative 4.0 management and communication. These soft skills include organizational, social, relational, and communicative abilities. The integration or better known as the hybridization of digital skills with transversal skills is a topic of strategic importance and close to current relevance. It concerns all professions and sectors of economy, and fashion companies in particular, who are attempting to integrate their online and offline retail strategies. The 2019 volume on digital skills highlights the many aspects of digital and related work in Italy. The Excelsior Information System published the study. It was conducted by Unioncamere and Anpal, the National Agency for Active Labour Policies. Since 1997, it has been one the most important sources in Italy for information on the labour market and related issues. It is also included in the mandatory responses surveys of the National Statistical Programme.
Companies seek a combination of digital skills, math and computer skills.
This publication highlights investments in digital transformation in Italian companies, digital skills required for the business world, the process to digital changes in the system professions, the qualifications needed by the world work and ends with an overview of young people.
Digital skills are a major driver of employment for under-30s, as the volume demonstrates. For all digital skills examined, the demand for younger employees is constant. In fact, the value ranges between 26.7 to 28 percent for young people below 30 in the total income for 2019.
The study reveals that digital skills are being emphasized in the Excelsior Information System’s employment programs. This is based on the company’s degree of digitization and the general state of adoption and use of new technologies and new business models.
While some companies require digital skills that are highly important, others consider them less so. There are companies that require more digital skills than others. An eskill mix is a combination of two or more skills, while others seem to be focusing on one skill.
Different companies are on different paths to digitisation. There are many strategies that companies can use to tackle the changes taking place. Excelsior System’s rich data base over time makes it possible for companies to track and analyze changes in demand for skills, paying particular attention to what eskill mix they are moving towards.
Companies are most interested in basic digital skills, which gives them an important role in selecting human resources. These skills are required from 1 029 thousand profiles, which is 22 percent of total program revenues for 2019. They are followed by basic computer skills (requested at 779 thousand profiles; 17 percent of the total), and skills related to 4.0 (528 thousand profiles; 11 percent of total revenue).
In 2019, there were more than 1.42 million job profiles for which companies requested at least one of three e-skills that are highly important. This means that companies will need to fill at least one of three of the 10 job profiles they plan to enter.
Parallel to the increasing digitization in Italy, companies are increasingly looking for digital skills that can face and manage change. Companies are increasingly expressing a need for integrated digital skills, depending on their development plans and investments to capitalize on the changes occurring.
According to Excelsior Information System, most companies require a combination of skills that include basic digital skills as well as mathematical and IT skills. This is required by approximately 270 000 professional profiles. To this mix is added the skill of 4.0.
