High-tech savviness is increasingly required in leadership positions. People who combine business expertise, high-tech acumen and leadership skills are rare. Leaders who can exploit new technologies so that companies and industry can excel in their business operations are crucial for the high-tech economy. In January 2017 at the conference on high-tech and leadership skills, which empirica organised for the European Commission, empirica estimated that there are around 800,000 high-tech leaders in EU.

Using a conservative growth scenario, we believe that an average of 43,000 new digital leaders and 7,000 leaders in the KETs (key enabling technologies) domain per year are needed. Europe needs to generate 50,000 new high-tech leaders per year or a total of 450,000 until 2025. They should be provided with relevant education and training opportunities and exposed to the necessary leadership role and experience. Shortages of high-tech leaders create a severe risk for enterprises and SMEs in Europe of missing out on crucial innovation opportunities and leaving them to be taken up by their competitors.

READ MORE: http://eskills-scale.eu/documents.html and http://www.leadership2017.eu