Students and entrepreneurs in Romania who want to develop their skills in digital marketing and learn more about how to promote their business on the Internet can now use the Atelierul Digital (Digital Garage) platform, which Google recently launched in Romania.

Atelierul Digital offers training in the digital world with free tutorials. Those interested can learn how to build an online presence, can find out more about social media marketing campaigns, or can find out how to attract more clients using the mobile capabilities. Users can choose the topics they want to learn about, or complete the whole online course, receiving a certification from Google and IAB Europe.

The online course consists of 89 lessons divided into 23 topics. Each of the presented topics consists of several videos, in which experts and entrepreneurs share their experience on how to use digital skills to grow online businesses.

The digital skills gap is one of the biggest challenges in the European Union and Central Europe in particular. According to the European Commission, 47% of the EU population is not properly digitally skilled, yet in the near future 90% of the jobs will require some level of digital skills, reads a Google statement. The Commission estimates that 825,000 jobs will remain unfilled by 2020 because of this skills gap.

According to the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), Romania ranks last in the EU when it comes to digital skills. Only 16% of Romanians have a basic digital knowledge, compared to an average of 30% in the EU15 and 26% in new member states (NMS13), shows a DELab report. Moreover, 43% of Romanians report no digital skills, which is much higher than the regional average of 25%.

Considering the share of individuals with “above basic” skills, which is a valuable asset for enterprises, Romanians are way behind the rest of the EU: only 8% of Romanians report such skills, as opposed to 25% of citizens in the NMS13, and 33% in the EU15.

Google’s programme aims to make digital skills training available to all those interested.

European commissioner: Romanian people need stronger digital competencies

Romania is still last in the EU in terms of digital development, despite progress

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com