VET needs to go digital: Upgrading the backbone of Europe’s twin transition
This Report uses Cedefop’s second European Skills and Jobs Survey (ESJS2) to call for a digital skills revolution in VET. The findings presented point towards the disadvantage workers with a VET background face in terms of capacity to continuously invest in their digital skills. Research shows that VET graduates have a better match between their skills and job requirements at the start of their career, but having job-specific technical skills can turn into a disadvantage when technological evolution rapidly changes job tasks. Workers with a VET background participate less in continuous learning compared to workers with general education.
Cedefop’s second European Skills and Jobs Survey collected detailed information on digitalisation, skill mismatches and learning. Workers with a VET qualification are more often employed in jobs that require a lower digital skill level than those with a general education. The gap between the digital skills level of jobs held by general and vocational graduates remains no matter how long people have been on the labour market. On average, recent VET graduates access jobs with significantly lower digital skill requirements and while the gap with general education decreases over time, it remains significant even 20 years after graduation.
A job that only requires relatively lower-skilled digital tasks reduces the motivation to keep learning and to upgrade digital skills. Hence, workers with a VET background face a double digital disadvantage: employment in less digitally intensive jobs and lower participation in digital upskilling. However, those who graduated from VET and work in highly digital jobs earn 23% more compared to similarly educated workers who carry out low-skilled digital tasks in their job.
For these reasons the Report recommends that digital skills policy in VET and its implementation must be inclusive, connect different policy areas and have a strong focus on the continuous professional development of VET teachers and trainers.
