Best practices
Targeted Digital Skills Training for Job Seekers in Cyprus
Users: Training providers (public) | Training providers (private) | Theme: Reskilling and upskilling | Action: Education programmes/courses | Beneficiaries: Industry | SMEs | Learners (STEM background) | Learners (non-STEM background) | Labour force (employed) | Labour force (unemployed)
The Level Up project supports the upskilling and reskilling of 15,000 business leaders or managers, SME professionals and job seekers in advanced digital skills. It provides industry-relevant, short training courses across Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, Finland, Hungary, and Poland.
The business model of such courses is built around practicality, relevance, and wide accessibility, but also requires high engagement rates and meaningful career impact, to ensure they are sustainable in the long run.
The challenge?
GX set out to train 1,510 people in digital skills from the project’s target audience. However, reaching the final target required a differentiated approach, as the project operated in a competing digital skills training landscape.
The main challenge was ensuring high engagement and meaningful participation, despite numerous competing free and paid online training programs. Simply offering digital skills courses was not enough—they needed to be distinctive, highly practical, and directly relevant to participant needs.
As revealed through a detailed needs assessment conducted by GX and the Careers Office of one of Cyprus’ largest universities, some of the major barriers to effective digital upskilling included:
- Existing digital skills training was too broad and lacked practical, industry-specific applications.
- Many available courses were not offered in Greek, making them less accessible to local professionals and SMEs.
- Job seekers and SME employees/owners strongly demanded specialised training in AI applications, digital marketing strategies, and no-code development tools.
Our solution
To address these challenges, Level Up conducted an initial assessment of digital skills gaps within SMEs, identifying thematic areas with the most urgent need for specialised training, i.e. data analytics, social media marketing, advanced Excel, cybersecurity, and Artificial Intelligence (AI), among others.
Those thematic areas informed the design of targeted training courses, ensuring alignment with real-world industry demands. The project also incorporated a hybrid learning model, combining online and in-person instruction to maximise accessibility.
GX proceeded with launching three targeted digital skills courses, delivered online via Zoom, focusing on:
- AI fundamentals
- TikTok marketing for SMEs
- Website development using no-code tools
Outcomes
400
Registrations
per session
150
Active participants
per session
60
Asynchronous learners
watched the course recordings
By mid-2024, GX had already trained approximately 800 participants in various digital skills topics, laying the groundwork for the final Phase 2 of the training initiative.
By early 2025, with the above high-demand courses and in combination with some additional courses on topics related to PowerBI and Advanced Excel, GX had successfully trained over 1,500 participants, surpassing the project’s initial goal.
Feedback from the course evaluation survey indicated that many participants from the three high-demand courses found the training highly relevant and aligned with their needs. This reinforced the importance of specialised and practical digital training, ensuring that courses addressed real-world applications and industry demands.
Building on this success, additional seminar-based courses were introduced for various age groups, to ensure continuous learning opportunities and keep up with emerging digital trends. As a VET provider, GX utilised its expertise to expand its course offerings, maintaining relevance and adaptability in digital skills training. In addition, the high engagement rates encouraged new collaborations with instructors from the Level Up project, strengthening the impact and outreach of digital upskilling efforts and allowing for the further development of new training initiatives through organisations like the Human Resource Development Authority of Cyprus (HRDA).
Key takeaways
- Embrace continuous adaptation of digital skills training to reflect emerging trends and participant feedback.
- Develop and update courses iteratively, based on real-time engagement metrics and evaluations, enhances the long-term impact and sustainability of training initiatives.
- Collaborate with universities, industry experts, and experienced trainers to improve course quality and expand outreach, ensuring higher participation across diverse demographics.
- Design modular courses with focus on scalability and adaptability to diverse audiences. Customisation and localisation are essential for advancing engagement, inclusivity, and sustainable digital skills development.