Growing focus on digital skills

Written by Krisztina Binder.

Digital skills and competences are key for social inclusion, well-being, active citizenship and employability, as well as the EU’s productivity, competitiveness and resilience. Given the importance of such skills for society and the economy, the EU has set a series of targets for digital skills. However, recent data and trends make it clear that more needs to be done to speed up progress towards these targets. With the review of the European Commission’s flagship digital education action plan ongoing, the Commission should soon be adopting a roadmap for the future of digital education and training.

Background

Digital transformation powered by innovation and technological development is reshaping society and the economy, triggering a growing demand for digital skills. All citizens need digital skills and competences to thrive in life, gain employment and be engaged members of their community. Digital skills are also vital to enable people to understand and navigate the vast amount of information they encounter online and to identify fraud attempts. The 2024 Draghi Report on the future of EU competitiveness noted that digital skills are a key factor affecting the EU’s successful digital transition, being essential not least for developing capacities in digital technologies and embracing new technologies. It also highlighted the growing demand for advanced digital skills in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), programming, data management and cybersecurity. In this context, the report insisted on the crucial role of education and training systems in equipping people with high-quality skills in an inclusive manner. Moreover, a 2024 special Eurobarometer survey revealed that 72 % of respondents believed that more education and training to develop their skills for using digital services would considerably facilitate their daily use of digital technologies.

Still a long way to go to meet the digital skills targets

As part of the European education area (EEA) strategic framework for 2021-2030, the Council established seven EU-level targets to fully realise the EEA. One of these targets focuses on digital skills: the share of low-achieving eighth-graders in computer and information literacy should be reduced to below 15 % by 2030. In addition, the Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030 set the objective of ensuring that, by 2030, at least 80 % of people aged 16 to 74 would have at least basic digital skills and at least 20 million information and communications technology (ICT) specialists would be employed in the EU, with more ICT graduates and more women participating in the sector.

Progress towards the EEA target of reducing the share of low-achieving eighth-graders to under 15 % by 2030 is measured using data from the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS). ICILS 2023 evaluated the digital competences of eighth-graders in 22 EU education systems and found that, on average, 43 % of students failed to attain the basic level of digital skills. It also revealed substantial variations in achievement across countries, gender, and socioeconomic and migrant backgrounds. For instance, countries such as Czechia and Denmark performed better than average, but are still far from the target, while other countries, in particular Romania and Greece, fell a long way behind. The findings indicated that significant efforts are needed to meet the 2030 target. This involves overcoming challenges such as educational disparities across EU countries, differences in digital infrastructure, and varying learning methods and levels of teacher readiness.

Eurostat figures showed that, in 2023, about 56 % of people aged 16-74 had at least basic digital skills in the EU. The Netherlands (83 %) and Finland (82 %) had the highest share of people with at least basic digital skills, while Romania (28 %) and Bulgaria (36 %) recorded the lowest shares. Socio-demographic factors, such as age and education level, greatly influenced people’s digital skills levels. For instance, levels of such skills were lower in older age groups, although the Commission’s 2024 State of the Digital Decade report noted that 30 % of 16-24 year-olds also lacked at least basic digital skills. The report also pointed out that, without further efforts and continuing along the projected trajectory, only 59.8 % of those aged 16-74 would have at least basic digital skills by 2030, compared to the 80 % set by the Digital Decade target.

In 2023, there were 9.8 million ICT specialists working in the EU, of whom 19.4 % were women; 66.7 % of all ICT specialists in the EU had a tertiary degree. In recent years, there has been a steady growth in the number of employed ICT specialists, reflecting the impact of the ongoing digital transformation. However, according to the trend presented in the 2024 Digital Decade report, without further intervention only about 12 million ICT specialists will be employed by 2030 (7.8 million below the envisaged target). In this context, the Commission’s 2024 Education and Training Monitor (ETM) noted that the pool of tertiary-level ICT graduates needs to expand greatly in the medium term and more needs to be done to increase interest in studying ICT, also in the vocational education and training (VET) sector. In 2022, 5.1 % of new entrants chose ICT areas at tertiary level, and 4.5 % of all tertiary students had graduated in ICT. In the same year, among the new entrants to ICT areas, women represented 20.2 %, and among ICT graduates, 21.3 %. Factors influencing women’s under-representation in ICT-related education and professions include self-efficacy, gender stereotypes, and cultural influences.

EU initiatives and funds addressing digital skills

While educational curricula and systems are primarily the responsibility of the Member States, the EU’s role is to support Member States by, for instance, providing guidelines and recommendations and mobilising funding programmes. The 2021-2027 digital education action plan (DEAP), the review of which began in April 2024, outlines a strategic vision with a series of actions for high-quality, inclusive and accessible digital education and training. It seeks to strengthen digital skills development within a lifelong learning approach, encourage the purposeful application of digital technologies in teaching and learning in the classroom, and promote the provision of schools with advanced digital infrastructure.

Actions such as the European Digital Education Hub, a community promoting cooperation between digital education stakeholders, the ethical guidelines on AI and data usage in teaching and learning for educators, and the guidelines for teachers and educators on digital literacy and disinformation aim to support teachers’ and educators’ professional development and improve citizens’ digital and media literacy. The action plan also promotes women’s participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The DEAP’s implementation has included two Council recommendations in 2023, one on the key enabling factors for digital education and training, focusing on how to make education and training systems fit for the digital age, and another on improving digital skills provision in education and training.

To help Member States implement policy reforms in line with the DEAP, the Commission has a digital education working group. It has also developed competence frameworks focused on citizens (DigComp 2.2), schools (DigCompOrg), and educators (DigComEdu), and self-reflection tools on digital competences for schools (SELFIE, SELFIE WBL) and educators (SELFIEforTEACHERS). It supports events such as the Digital Education Hackathon (DigiEduHack), designed to strengthen grassroots innovation, collaboration and creativity and tackle challenges in digital education. Among other initiatives, the European Pillar of Social Rights action plan promotes adults’ participation in upskilling and reskilling activities, including digital skills development, while the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform helps people to improve their digital skills.

Within the Member States’ national plans, an estimated €28.3 billion from the funds provided by the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) has been allocated to digital skills and education. Plans include, for instance, the digitalisation of education institutions and actions to tackle the ICT specialist shortage and provide the general population and the workforce with digital skills. EU financial support is also channelled through other instruments. For instance, the European Social Fund Plus and the Digital Europe programme support education and training programme development in advanced digital technologies and the scaling up of digital skills training and certification, while under Erasmus+ €100 million was specifically dedicated to projects aimed at improving the use of ICT in teaching and learning between 2014 and 2020. In the 2021-2027 period, digital transformation is one of the programme’s horizontal priorities.

Commission Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu’s tasks as set out in her mission letter include the development of an action plan on basic skills and a STEM education strategic plan, supported by the review of the DEAP and the adoption of a roadmap on the future of digital education and training. In her written answer to the questions sent by the European Parliament prior to her confirmation hearing, Roxana Mînzatu stated that the EU needed to step up efforts to provide digital skills at all education levels and across all age groups, integrating digital competences into core curricula.

Read this ‘at a glance’ note on ‘Growing focus on digital skills‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.