Capítulo 14. The digital skills of citizens in the digital strategies of the member states of the European Union
| Autor | Tamara Morte Nadal |
| Cargo del Autor | Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Zaragoza |
| Páginas | 316-335 |
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CAPÍTULO 14
THE DIGITAL SKILLS OF CITIZENS IN THE DIGITAL
STRATEGIES OF THE MEMBER STATES OF
THE EUROPEAN UNION
TAMARA MORTE NADAL
Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Zaragoza
1. INTRODUCTION
Digital competences and skills have become necessary for daily life
tasks and employability due to technological developments (Van Laar
et al., 2017). The outcomes of acquiring digital competences are usually
related to educational or employment benefits, but there are also others
such as digital citizenship or online safety (Livingstone et al., 2021).
Before its appearance in academic research, the concept of digital com-
petence appeared first in policy-related papers and was connected with
digital literacy. Currently is a core term in policy papers that reflects
what future skills citizens should have to be fully capable in the digital
society (Ilomäki et al., 2016). It should be mentioned that terms such as
“digital literacy”, “digital competence”, “ICT-related skills” and “e-
skills” are often used synonymously (European Court of Auditors,
2021).
According to Eurostat (2022), 54% of Europeans have at least basic dig-
ital skills, which is far from the 80% goal set by The Digital Compass.
The European Commission has promoted different strategies, projects,
and policy initiatives to enhance the digital skills and competences for
the digital transformation. In the same vein, some of the EU Member
States have dedicated standalone National Digital skills strategies or
have indicated the improvement of the basic digital skills of their popu-
lation as one of their key areas of action among their digital strategies.
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Digital skills are “a top priority of the European Policy Agenda”, as
mentioned in The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens
(DigComp 2.2) (European Commission et al., 2022). According to the
DigComp, they are defined as “involving the confident, critical and re-
sponsible use of, and engagement with, digital technologies for learn-
ing, at work, and for participation in society. It includes information and
data literacy, communication and collaboration, media literacy, digital
content creation (including programming), safety (including digital
well-being and competences related to cybersecurity), intellectual prop-
erty related questions, problem solving and critical thinking”.
One priorities of the European Commission for 2019-2024 is the digital
upskilling of EU citizens for digital transformation (European Commis-
sion et al., 2022). In October 2021 Ursula von der Leyen, the European
Commission President, launched the Structured Dialogue on digital ed-
ucation and skills to encourage political commitments on digital skills
in the EU. Around 17% of the expenditure of the Recovery and Resili-
ence Facility (RRF) funds, launched to mitigate the socio-economic
consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, is dedicated to digital skills
development (European Commission, 2022a).
Four key strategies and policies are identified as relevant for digital
competences in the DigComp 2.2: the European Skills Agenda, the Dig-
ital Education Action Plan, the Digital Compass, and the European Pillar
of Social Rights Action Plan (European Commission et al., 2022). It
should be mentioned that these strategies not only refer to digital com-
petences but also to social inclusion since both are intertwined. The Eu-
ropean Union has committed to leaving no one behind in the digital
transformation of governments. As an example of previous strategies,
one of the priorities of the Digital Single Market for Europe 2014-2020,
was “An inclusive e-society – The Commission aims to support an inclu-
sive Digital Single Market in which citizens and businesses have the
necessary skills and can benefit from interlinked and multilingual e-ser-
vices, from e-government, e-justice, e-health, e-energy or e-transport.”
Therefore, having the necessary skills means that citizens can benefit
from the digital society and, in consequence, not be excluded from it
(European Commission, 2015).
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