Skilled Talent Drives Digital Advancement in the Three Seas Initiative

The Three Seas Initiative’s digital pillar is only as strong as the talent pool in our region. Competence among the general population and access to ICT specialists is one of the key limiting factors affecting the growth of the digital economy in our countries. Yet, 3SI’s countries have an average of 17,4 STEM graduates per 1000 inhabitants, compared to the EU average of 21,9. Indeed, one of EU strategic goals is to increase the number of ICT specialists among the employees from 9,37 million ICT professionals up to 30 million ICT professionals in the EU by 2030. The rapid development of the digital economy, growing number of unicorns in the TSI markets and the rise of generative AI require a deep focus on actions needed to grow the ICT talent pool. While the region stands out in terms of the share of women among specialists in the ICT sector (Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia are the EU leaders in this regard), the developments and the achievements in women enablement in tech differ immensely. In 2023 Women Go Tech (in partnership with Google, OSCE) has launched a research project comparing 3SI countries and Ukraine in terms of their success rate of women involvement in tech, their readiness to facilitate and grow women talent pool as well as barriers and opportunities for women in adoption of generative AI. At the sidelines of 3SI annual Summit and Business Forum, we will take a deep dive into the research findings, discuss the importance of growth of a diverse STEM talent pool of 3SI countries and share recommendations and guidelines for the region. The event is organised by CEE Digital Coalition and Women Go Tech with the partnership of Women4Cyber and INFOBALT.

Agenda:
09:00 – Welcome coffee
09:30 – Presentation of the Women Go Tech’s research into 3SI Markets & presentation by Women4Cyber
10:00 – Q&A
10:15 – Panel discussion (speakers TBA)
11:00 – Networking

Location: Radisson Blu Hotel Lietuva, Konstitucijos pr. 20, Vilnius, Lithuania (conference room - Zeta).