Has Europe already reached its demographic tipping point and what does this mean for productivity?
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Articles and Resources of the week
Has Europe already reached its demographic tipping point?
The EU’s population seems to be shrinking faster than expected, straining government finances and leading to the potential for sector wide unfilled jobs. Whilst the increased participation of immigrants and women in the labour force has been compensating for the accelerating fall in the EU’s working age population, soon these factors ‘will not be enough’. Declines in working-age populations are expected to lead to particularly severe shortages in some sectors e.g. in areas such as engineering, science, tech & care. It is expected that major investments will be required for the enhancement of the human resources that we have.
AI products like ChatGPT much hyped but not much used, study says
A survey from the Reuters Institute and Oxford University found that only 2% of British respondents used AI products, like ChatGPT, on a daily basis, despite their ‘hype’. It also found that young people, aged 18-24 were bucking the trend, as the most eager adopters of the tech. The respondents hopes and fears for the tech were also found to vary significantly depending on the sector, e.g. people were generally optiministic about its use in science, but they feared its potential impact on job security.
Why moving beyond ‘STEM’ might hold the key to bridging the global skills gap
The term STEM, which originated in 2001, has since been used to describe the skills needed in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. In this article, we see an argument for moving away from this, with Tim Slingsby suggesting that instead, educators and employers should be collaborating to match skills and jobs, with more targeted training programs, with STEM in fact potentially pushing policy investment away from more targeted opportunities to reduce skills gaps.
Investment news
Zen Educate, a marketplace connecting teachers and schools has raised $37M led by Round2 Capital, with participation from Adjuvo, Brighteye Ventures, FJ Labs and Ascension Ventures.
Spanish Bcas, a flexible student finance provider, closes a €17M round led by MyInvestor and Actyus (Andbank Group’s venture debt fund).
Language learning tool Praktika has raised a $35.5M round led by Blossom Capital.
German job platform for construction professionals, Crafthunt, has raised a €3M Seed round from UVC Partners and Redstone.
Digital learning platform SimpleClub has raised €4M from 3VC, HV Capital, 10X Founders and Bonsai Partners.
Jobs in Edtech
Visibly is hiring a Head of Operations (London, UK/Hybrid).
Crafthunt is looking for an Account Executive (Munich, Germany).
Female Invest is hiring an Email Marketing Specialist (Denmark).
Shakers is hiring an SEO expert, TikTok/Youtube experienced (Spain).
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed it, share it with your friends, colleagues and everyone interested in the European Edtech ecosystem.
Onward & upward!