Young Spaniards need to brush up their computer skills

ACCORDING TO a survey published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which represents the 34 most-developed economies on the planet, young Spaniards and Italians fall behind others in the area of computer skills.
When you compare these youngsters with their peers, the results speak for themselves, with almost 50 per cent of Spaniards aged between 16 and 29 showing a lack of experience in the use of computers in their jobs, says the OECD.
The survey looked at more than 35 million young people, who neither work nor study, from countries such as South Korea, Norway, Australian, Japan, the United States and Canada, and the EU member states. Italy was the only country which came in lower than Spain. Interestingly, when the question is about experience of computers in daily life and not in relation to work, Spain’s score comes in closer to those from the rest of the developed world.
The data can be found in the Skills Outlook 2015 report, which was presented in Berlin in May by Ángel Gurría, the secretary general of the OECD.
The figures are particularly worrying for countries such as Spain and Greece, where, in 2013, more than 25 per cent of young people were neither in work nor education.
“Dealing with this matter is not just a moral imperative, but also one of economic necessity,” said Gurría at the presentation of the report. Regarding the data on young Spanish people’s computer abilities, the secretary general of the organisation said this was a fact that was “whispering in our ears,” and called for action to deal with it.