A new EIT report calls for the modernisation of public and private digital skills provision in all education systems to reach the EU skills targets by 2030.
Digitalisation is one of the key priorities of the current European Commission (EC). Strengthening digital skills of citizens and specialists is a main component of the strategy. The EC Communication from March 2021 on the ‘2030 Digital Compass – the European way for the Digital Decade’, sets ambitious targets for the EU (see SwissCore article). The targets related to skills include equipping 80% of adult population with basic digital skills, having 20 million employed digital specialists, and achieving a convergence in digital specialist employment between women and men. The EU’s Digital Education Action Plan (DEAP) comprises the ongoing actions of the Union deployed to contribute to reaching these targets by 2027 (see SwissCore article).
In this context, on 7 September 2022, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)’s digital innovation ecosystem published a report on the Future of Education for Digital Skills. The analysis of the report sets off from a 2021 study by the European Parliament (EP) on the progress towards achieving the above-mentioned targets of the Digital Decade. The EP study found that if the EU continues on the same path, only 64% of the EU population will have basic digital skills and only 13.3 million digital specialists will be employed by 2030. The EU is thus currently on track to miss its targets on basic digital literacy as well as on advanced digital skills (see SwissCore article).
The report identifies shortcomings and hurdles in the public and also private education sectors. While initiatives to boost basic informatics and digital literacy exist in the public school systems, they are not systematic and mainstreamed across Europe: on the primary school level, only six EU Member States (MS) offer digital skills classes. This is not only due to outdated curricula, but also linked to the lack of qualified teachers. Only about half of all EU MS have recommendations to strengthen digital education in initial teacher training. Overall, the report identifies a clear fragmentation and generally slow change in updating curricula.
In the private sector, several businesses operate their own training institutes to address their skilled labour needs. While this contributes to the employment of more qualified digital specialists, these courses often narrowly follow the labour needs of the specific sector in question. Further, the non-profit sector also plays an important role in providing basic digital skills training. However, these courses are mostly focused on underprivileged groups.
The report makes three main recommendations with a view to increase the pace of progress towards the EU targets: i. Radically modernising the digital education programmes and curricula at all levels of public education; ii. Broadening and better coordinating private digital education courses (basic and advanced skills); iii. Strengthening and improving pan-European digital skills initiatives, for example, the European universities initiative or the EIT Digital programmes. The recently launched European Digital Education Hub should support the EC and MS in improving the digital education ecosystem in Europe by providing a one-stop-shop and a community of practise for all aspects of digital education. The community of the Hub is open for education actors from Switzerland as well, and registrations are possible online.
In EC President Von der Leyen’s 2022 State of the European Union address, she put an emphasis on the current skills shortage in Europe and designated 2023 to be the European Year of Skills to focus efforts to upskill and reskill the workforce in Europe, including digital skill provision. In their first reactions, civil society representatives like the Lifelong Learning Platform welcomed the priority set on learning and teaching, but would like to see a paradigm shift from a labour market-oriented to a learner-centred approach to continued learning. The Erasmus Student Network (ESN) and the European Students Union (ESU) welcome the designation too, but put forward the need for better planning and more resources to make the Year more concrete and impactful.