Information and communication technologies (ICT): the term ICT covers a wide range of services, applications, technologies, devices and software, i.e. tools such as telephony and the Internet, distance learning, televisions, computers, and the networks and software required to use these technologies, which are revolutionising social, cultural and economic structures by creating new attitudes towards information, knowledge, working life, etc.

The Presidency has tabled draft Council conclusions concerning measures in relation to information technology, motivated by the need to investigate organised crime and prosecute its perpetrators.

10. Calls for a new strategy to improve the quality of employment by investing in health and safety at work, equal opportunities and qualifications, measures to combat illiteracy and to provide a guarantee of training and retraining for young people, in order to provide for a sustainable working life which allows for choice and diversity and permits switching between training and employment; regrets that according to the respective structural indicators little progress has been made to turn lifelong learning into a daily reality; insists that employees should be given the right to vocational training and life-long learning; states that education systems must become more responsive to the needs of people and the labour markets and therefo ...[+++]re calls for more investment and joint actions to improve decisively the knowledge base (especially in the fields of training, lifelong learning, education, innovation and research); primary schools throughout Europe must be supplied with computers and Internet access as quickly as possible; calls for investment in the quality of training to be given priority and for early and targeted measures to train up workers in the IT field;

10. Calls for a new strategy to improve the quality of employment by investing in health and safety at work, equal opportunities and qualifications, measures to combat illiteracy and provide a guarantee of training and retraining for young people, in order to provide for a sustainable working life which allows for choice and diversity and permit switching between training and employment; regrets that according to the respective structural indicators only little progress has been made to turn lifelong learning into a daily reality; insists that employees should be given a right to vocational training and life-long learning; states that education systems must become more responsive to the needs of people and the labour markets and therefor ...[+++]e calls for more investment and joint actions to decisively improve the knowledge base (esp. in the fields of training, lifelong learning, education, innovation and research); primary schools throughout Europe must be supplied with computers and Internet access as quickly as possible; calls for investment in the quality of training to be given priority and for early and targeted measures to train up workers in the IT field;

Calls on the Commission to support proposals and initiatives of Member States and regional authorities to promote the learning of information technology skills, to adopt proposals aimed at defining new basic skills (technical knowledge, foreign languages, etc.) and to define a system for the mutual recognition of national qualifications and diplomas in information technology;

Most of them are centred around learning about information and communication technologies, vocational training programmes devised locally among various partners to cover identified needs, sharing hi-tech equipment, teacher training programmes - with or without distance-learning facilities - advice and guidance services sometimes located in local authority premises.