The Digital Competence Framework (DigComp)

The European Digital Competence Framework (DigComp) describes what is needed to be digitally competent in today's society, and supports the development of digital competence among individuals of all ages. It covers a wide range of skills levels, from basic to highly advanced, and offers a stable reference point in a rapidly-evolving digital technological landscape.

DigComp 3.0 is the fifth version of the framework. The first version was published in 2013, with updates published in 2016, 2017 and 2022. The framework is developed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), in collaboration with the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL).

Digital competence

The European Commission defines digital competence as the confident, critical and responsible use of, and engagement with, digital technologies for learning, 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 property related questions
• Problem solving and critical thinking 

DigComp 3.0

The latest framework available, DigComp 3.0, takes account of the updated knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed by users. It incorporates recent and emerging digital technological trends and their implications for digital competence, while maintaining the overall framework stability and technology neutrality.

DigComp 3.0 has five themes called ‘competence areas’:

• Competence Area 1: Information search, evaluation and management
  To articulate information needs, and to search for, locate and retrieve digital information and content. To judge the relevance of the source and its content in digital environments. To critically evaluate digital sources, content, and processes used to generate them. To store, manage, organise and analyse digital information and data.
• Competence Area 2: Communication and collaboration
  To interact, share, communicate and collaborate in digital environments while being aware of cultural, generational and other diversity and the features and limitations of digital technologies. To participate in society through digital technologies. To assert one's rights and exercise choice in digital environments. To manage one’s digital presence, identity and reputation.
• Competence Area 3: Content creation
  To create and edit digital content. To improve and integrate information and content into an existing body of knowledge while understanding how copyright and licences are to be applied, adopting an ethical and responsible approach in the creation, improvement and integration of digital content. To know how to apply computational thinking and programming techniques to give instructions to a computer system.  
• Competence Area 4: Safety, wellbeing and responsible use
   To protect, devices, content, personal data and privacy in digital environments. To support physical, mental and social wellbeing of oneself and others, and to be aware of the benefits and risks of digital technologies for wellbeing and social inclusion. To be aware of the environmental impact of digital technologies and their use, to take action to reduce such impact, and to use digital technologies to support sustainability.
• Competence Area 5: Problem identification and solving
  To identify and assess needs, and to use digital technologies and adapt digital environments to meet these needs. To identify and resolve technical and conceptual problems and problem situations in digital environments. To use digital technologies to make improvements in, or new solutions for, processes and products. To build capabilities to operate autonomously in digital environments. To stay informed about digital technological developments and their implications.  

DigComp 3.0 also covers four proficiency levels:

• Basic: individuals remember and implement simple tasks with guidance as needed
• Intermediate: individuals identify and implement well-defined tasks and solve well-defined problems autonomously.
• Advanced: individuals assess and apply solutions to a variety of complex tasks autonomously and adapt to a variety of contexts to evaluate and execute tasks appropriately, guiding others if and as required.
• Highly advanced: individuals assess, evaluate and resolve highly complex or specialised problems to create new solutions or adapt existing ones, leading and guiding others if and as required. 

Integration of AI competence

AI is widely used and is increasingly embedded in existing digital technologies, which gives rise to a need for individuals to understand what AI is, ways in which AI can be used, and their rights and responsibilities for AI’s safe and ethical use.

In DigComp 3.0, AI is framed as one digital technology among a range of digital technologies, while keeping the focus on the digital competences themselves. AI-related knowledge, skills and attitudes are featured in all 21 competences of DigComp 3.0. 

Policy context

DigComp 3.0 embodies the principles of the European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade, which puts people at the centre of the digital transformation and helps to ground the framework in a set of shared European values and principles.

It also aligns with European policies and initiatives related to digital skills and the societal impacts of the digital transformation, such as the Digital Decade policy programme, the Union of Skills, the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, and the European Strategy for a Better Internet for Kids (BIK+). The framework acknowledges the rights and responsibilities of citizens under EU regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation, the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act and the AI Act.