Growing focus on digital skills

The European Union increasingly emphasises the development of digital skills as essential for inclusion, well-being, active citizen employability and overall for the EUs competitiveness and resilience. Along with the ongoing digital transformation, the EU has established initiatives like the Digital Decade Policy Programme. Despite the ambition of these initiatives, there is still a significant gap between the current digital skills landscape and the set out objectives.

In the 2024 Draghi Report the importance of basic and advanced digital skills is highlighted as critical for Europe’s digital transition, particularly in areas like artificial intelligence, data management and cybersecurity. However, significant gaps remain in digital proficiency across the population, particularly among younger students and certain socio-demographic groups. Broader statistics also point to a lower-than-expected level of basic digital competence among adults, highlighting a challenge in meeting established goals. The shortage of digital professionals adds to the concern, with current figures falling well short of targets. The shortage of ICT professionals is also a concern: so far, the EU reached only 9.8 million specialists against a target of 20 million, while women remain under-represented due to cultural and psychological factors. 

To address these issues the EU has launched several initiatives to promote inclusive and accessible digital education. Other support mechanisms include competence frameworks like ethical guidelines for AI use in education, and platforms fostering digital literacy and teacher development. 

Overall, while progress is being made, the EU must intensify efforts to achieve its digital education and workforce goals by 2030, especially targeting educational inequalities, gender imbalances and infrastructural gaps between Member States.