*2.2. E-Skills: Importance for Sustainability and Trends*

In order to obtain a performance and a competitive advantage, sustainable organizations must attract, acquire, motivate, and maintain the skilled and talented people who bring performance into the organizations. Better skilled employees mean better performance. Knowledge is a strategic resource and it is sustainable because it is not easy to imitate or copy [35] (p 161). Thus, these employees must possess skills, competencies, experience, and knowledge bringing improved products and results for their organizations, employees, and customers. The following are among the most wanted skills: essential and occupational skills, cross-disciplinary skills, cognitive skills, problem solving skills, communication skills, foreign languages, and computer skills. Information and communication technology (ICT) skills or e-skills enable an employee to actively participate in a challenging new Knowledge-economy, by using new technologies and e-communication techniques (e-mail, e-conferences, Internet, intranet, databases, and websites).

There are four types of e-skills [36] (p 47) as follows:


Hiring requires criteria beyond any real change in the skills necessary to perform productively [37] (p 116). E-skills usually refer to a broad set of skills necessary in the modern workplace [38] (p 807). The Commission of the European Communities (2007) extended this definition stating that e-skills represent a set of skills, knowledge, and concepts that are needed for effective consumption in terms of accessing, locating, operating, managing, understanding, and evaluating e-services provided in different stages of e-government. There are five levels of e-skills [39] as follows:


skills. They possess a combination of qualifications, certifications, work experience, non-formal and informal learning, as well as can offer high-quality products and services.

Achieving e-skills is not an isolated process but it is tightly linked to the highest national development policies or internationally accepted obligations. E-skills offer some benefits: sharing knowledge, collaborating, using software and learning from others, having fun, being creative, making friends, as well as practical and generally positive skills. In 2003, the European e-Skills Forum was established by the European Commission to promote the effective use of ICT and its successful introduction in all major areas of human activity, especially in the business and industrial sectors.

The need for ICT-related skills (e-skills) has been recognized in 2002 at the European e-Skills Summit. At the 2004 Forum, e-skills were divided into the following three categories: ICT practitioner skills, ICT user skills and e-business skills, which offer the opportunity to exploit the Internet and to ensure effective performance [40] (p 66).

Statistical research on the population has been carried out based on the specific activities related to computer and Internet usage.

The following information is provided to better analyze and compare the evolution of e-skills:

	- about 50% of the population have basic skills;
	- 50% know how to copy and paste tools (in Iceland and Denmark about 65% of the population knows how to do this; and for Latvia, Poland, and Lithuania 30% to 33% know these skills);
	- 4 in 10 know how to send e-mails with attachments (in Iceland the share is 68%);
	- the average level of the way of training e-skills is 28% for EU27; countries such Iceland (51%), Sweden (40%), UK (38%), Estonia and Cyprus (36%), Luxemburg (35%), Latvia (34%), Lithuania (33%), Belgium, Denmark, and France (32%), and Hungary (31%) are over this average, but countries such as Bulgaria and Spain (20%), Romania (17%), and Italy (16%) are under this average [41].
	- Countries such as Luxemburg (83%), Norway (82%), Iceland (80%), Denmark (75%), Germany (74%), and France (73%) have the level of computer skills over the average of the EU27, and Romania (27%) is far from this average (64%).
	- Countries such as Iceland (93%), Denmark and Netherlands (92%), and Luxemburg and Norway (91%) have the level of Internet skills much above the average of the EU27, but Romania (50%) is again below the average of the EU27 (75%).
	- Countries such as Norway (98%), Iceland (97%), Netherlands and Luxemburg (96%), Denmark and Estonia (95%), and Belgium and Hungary (90%) are above the average of the EU27 (87%), but again Romania is much below this average (61%).
	- The average of the EU27 was 99%, and the majority of countries had over 97% (Denmark, France, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Netherlands and Finland had 100%, and Germany, Czech Republic, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia and Portugal had 99%, Hungary and Malta have 97%, only Romania has 92%.

• In 2008, the EU27 average was 93%; countries such as Finland (100%), Slovenia and Netherlands (99%), Austria (98%), and Estonia (97%) were above the EU average, but Romania had 67%, which was much below this average [22].
