Álvarez-Pallete, elected new president of the Employability Committee of the European Business Round Table

MADRID, 30 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of Telefónica, José María Álvarez-Pallete, has been elected as the new president of the Employability, Skills and Impact Committee of the European Business Round Table, the organization made up of around 60 of the largest companies in Europe.

The Spanish director will replace the president of Sonae, Paolo Azevedo, in charge of said commission in recent years, according to a statement.

This committee seeks to reduce the skills gap, build an inclusive business culture and for industries to add value to society as an engine of growth with projects such as 'Reskilling for employment', which seeks to adapt employees to the new world of work.

"Reskilling is the most important challenge that citizens will face in the coming years. Not only for society, but because the ability of global companies to harness the growth potential of adopting new technologies is hampered by the skills shortage," Álvarez Pallete predicted.

In this field, Telefónica launched its Innovation and Talent Hub last year, through which it hopes to train 100,000 people, both company employees and external ones, per year.

Additionally, the committee now led by Álvarez Pallete is working on another diversity initiative to complement its annual report on women in leadership positions.

Its other great way of working is to collect contributions from companies and society to predict what the digital work force of the future will be like.

"Public-private cooperation is essential to create a learning framework that prepares us for digital society and labor markets," added the manager, who assured that it is time to "accelerate" the activity of the committee to promote the social and economic progress.