CCIFER: 478 employees of SMEs benefited from free digital education courses for 1 year

102 small and medium enterprises (SMEs), from economic sectors with competitive potential (such as tourism, manufacturing, food industry or trade), operating in different regions of Romania, accessed DigitON for free, a program of courses and consultancy that helps SMEs to grow their business through digitalisation, adopting the skills of the future.

Following the courses, consulting and mentoring sessions, 478 key employees from SMEs had access to digitization knowledge by acquiring work skills in the digital environment, which contribute to business performance by streamlining and digitizing work processes and reducing costs , eliminating unnecessary expenses from the traditional work process.

For 52% of the SMEs enrolled in the program, digitization is essential, and over 40% of them want to make the necessary investments for the future.

Throughout the duration of the program, 2,550 people from companies and organizations participated in over 17 digital events or conferences, open to a wide audience, with various themes around the future of work and digital skills.

DigitON is a program with European funds, implemented between October 18, 2022 and December 31, 2023, by the Association of the French Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in Romania (CCIFER), consortium leader, in partnership with HUMANISTIC through Poliac Development SRL.

92 hours for a digital learning path and mentoring

The participants benefited from a complex training program that combined theory with practice. Time for a year, they learned, using technology, to carry out digitization projects, to improve and streamline work processes and develop an organizational culture based on hybrid collaboration, optimization and improvement of internal and external relations. The courses were held online and were held by trainers trained in the field.

Digitization, essential for business transformation

According to the study conducted within DigitON and addressed to SMEs enrolled in the program, before

start of courses:

• 40% say they want to make investments in the future
• for 52%, digitization is essential in the future
• for 67% of them there is a need for learning and specialized courses
• 30% need information about the digitization model from other companies
• 42% want a dedicated internal resource
• only 7% are almost completely digitized

The DigitON program covered the concrete need for specialization, but also the mentoring component and dedicated consultancy. Each participant had access to individual training sessions and collective courses, such as:

• Awareness of the importance of digitization
• Basic digitization for work efficiency
• Digitization of performance
• Digital transformation
• Competitive digitization

Within the DigitON project, event campaigns were organized in addition to the courses educational and awareness-raising about the need for digitization, addressed to the general public. Over 2,550 participants learned from digitalization experts in companies how they can grow their business, what it means modern working or how digital invoicing takes place. In total, they participated in more than 17events organized online or at media conferences with themes about the future of work.

All information about the content of the courses and conditions of participation were public on the website www.digiton.ro.