Cyprus Productivity Centre (KEPA) competition to conduct a research project to explore the digital skills training needs of specific target population groups.
Tendernumber: KEPA 2/2022
Final report on the results of planting research (quantitative and quantitative research)
January 2023
The vast majority of respondents know the CEFR, but the role, purpose and scope of the Centre’s services/programmes are not clear or unambiguous, as reflected in the replies.
Most are aware that the CEFR provides training without knowing the scope, type and level of programmes. A small number of people also related to the completion of the CV in Europass format, while older people identify CEFR with technical skills and qualifications. Reference is also made to third-age education and, to a lesser extent, lifelong learning.
In the groups most relevant to digital skills, i.e. IT and therefore with digital knowledge, it is understood that the CEFR mainly covers basic skills/induction programmes and first and foremost soft skills. They do not link it to technological/IT skills or other relevant skills and consider that the CEFR requires some modernisation and greater adaptability to market needs.
There is a high degree of readability between the social partners and local and regional authorities.
Several interviewees, mainly older age groups, are familiar with and associate the CEFR with the Mediterranean Institute of Management (MIM), some of whom report that they have completed higher education.
1 out of 10 Cypriots (11 % of the total sample) participated in training programmes organised by KEPA, mainly by the provinces of Nicosia and Larnaca, men (14 %) and college graduates (16 %), with secondary school and post-graduate graduates respectively, with 13 %.
The satisfaction of those who participated in the CEFR programmes, both in terms of the content and quality of the trainers and the facilities and duration of the training is very high (fully/very satisfied), ranging from 77-83 %. The rather positive experience is also declared by local authority staff and some IT managers, despite the fact that they have rather questioned the level of CEFR programmes and their ability to provide advanced/in-depth digital skills programmes. Some IT professionals report that infrastructure needs to be upgraded and modernised, in particular as regards Limassol infrastructure. Many participants in qualitative surveys also confuse or cannot dissociate the role of REA from that of the CEFR. It should also be noted that the unemployed who followed the CEFR programmes state that they have been helped to find a job.