Page 31 - COMPASS - COMPETITIVENESS REPORT 2021 | COUNCIL OF COMPETITIVENESS IN GREECE

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SOCIETY AND TALENT

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

• Digital transformation accelerated in the public sector, and civil servants’ digital skills have been gradually developed in
response to the needs created by the pandemic
• Vocational education and training (vocational secondary schools (EPAL) and vocational training institutes (IEK)) have been
restructured with Law 4763/2020
• Legislation for the assessment of educators implemented, starting in the 2021 academic year
• Progress made towards the inclusive growth of digital skills, through the Ministry of Digital Governance’s National Digital
Academy free learning platform

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Despite the large percentage of tertiary education graduates, education is missing tools necessary for the job market – in
particular, advanced digital skills. Moreover, skills and job positions are mismatched, and the brain drain phenomenon is
troubling, as many young, highly skilled Greek graduates have immigrated abroad. In terms of technology skills in the general
population, the percentage of people with at least basic digital skills is lower in Greece than the EU average, and a large number
of people are either not habitual users of the Internet or have never used the Internet.
Moreover, the employment landscape in Greece is limited in its provision of general or specialised training by companies. The
COVID-19 pandemic has led to an acceleration of financial automation, which requires retraining the labour force in, among
others, digital skills in order to increase and promote employee mobility between different areas of commercial activity.
On the other hand, Greece has performed comparatively well in terms of social integration. The country seems to provide
adequate access to basic and higher education, has relatively high gender integration on the political stage, and affords equal
political power to the various groups within society, regardless of their socio-economic position.

*The index rank in question is negative – that is, the higher the position, the lower the performance.