Cyprus Productivity Centre (KEPA) competition for conducting a research project for exploring the needs of training in digital skills of specific target groups of the population.
Tendernumber: KEPA 2/2022
Final Report on the Results of Plantation Research (Quantitative and Quantitative Research)
January 2023
The large majority of respondents are aware of 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 offers training without knowing the scope, type and level of the programmes. A small number have also linked the CEFR to completing the CV in Europass format, while older people identify the CEFR with technical skills and qualifications. References are also made to education in the third age and to a lesser extent for Lifelong Learning.
In the groups most relevant to digital skills, i.e. IT and thus having digital knowledge, the CEFR is understood to cover mainly basic skills/induction programmes and primarily for soft skills. They do not link it to technology/IT or other relevant skills and consider that the CEFR needs some modernisation and more adaptability to market needs.
A high degree of readability is observed between the social partners and local and regional authorities.
Several interviewees, mainly older age groups, know and associate the CEFR with the Mediterranean Institute of Management (MIM), some of whom stated that they are graduates.
1 out of 10 Cypriots (11 % of the total sample) have attended training programmes organised by the KEPA mainly by the provinces of Nicosia and Larnaca, men (14 %) and graduates of colleges (16 %), high school and postgraduate graduates, with 13 % respectively.
The satisfaction of those who have participated in CEFR programmes, both with regard to the content and quality of trainers and the facilities and duration of the training is very high (fully/very satisfied), ranging from 77-83 %. Rather positive experience is also declared by local authority staff and some IT officers, despite the fact that they have rather questioned the level of CEFR programmes and its ability to offer advanced/in-depth digital skills programmes. Some IT professionals report that infrastructure needs to be modernised and upgraded, with particular reference to Limassol infrastructure. Also many participants in the qualitative surveys confuse or cannot dissociate the role of REA with that of the CEFR. It is also worth noting that unemployed people who have followed CEFR programmes declare that they have been assisted in finding a job.
Cyprus Productivity Centre – Final Report of Results