E-skill

The term e-skills is often used as the encompassing concept of all skills related to ICT-activities. This concept, however, is not uniformly applied or understood. E-Skills are defined in different ways across different studies. Most often, e-skills are interpreted more directly as (synonymous with) ICT skills. The European e-Skills Forum has definitions for three different types of skill:

• ICT user skills: the capabilities required for effective application of ICT systems and devices by the individual. ICT users apply systems as tools in support of their own work, which is, in most cases, not ICT. User skills cover the utilisation of common generic software tools and the use of specialised tools supporting business functions within industries other than the ICT industry;
• ICT practitioner skills: the capabilities required for researching, developing and designing, managing, the producing, consulting, marketing and selling, the integrating, installing and administrating, the maintaining, supporting and service of ICT systems.
• e-Business skills: the capabilities needed to exploit opportunities provided by ICT, notably the Internet, to ensure more efficient and effective performance of different types of organisations, to explore possibilities for new ways of conducting business and organisational processes, and to establish new businesses.