Dansk IT considers that: The government’s digitalisation strategy is finally ready – now action must be taken

After a long run, the government has just presented its long-awaited digitalisation strategy. It shall bear the title: Denmark’s Digitalisation Strategy – Together for Digital Development.

Dansk IT at the time provided important input to the recommendations of the Digitalisation Partnership to the Government. These recommendations form the basis for the digitalisation strategy presented by the government on Thursday 5 May. The Digitalisation Strategy applies from 2022 to 2026.

Dansk IT would like to congratulate the Government for prioritising a comprehensive, ambitious strategy for Denmark’s digitalisation. We need this as a community.
The government’s digitalisation strategy is the first real societal strategy based on digitalisation. The strategy could potentially form the basis for a new digitalisation movement in Denmark for the benefit of citizens, businesses and the public sector.

We need a digitalisation strategy that addresses a number of key issues related to increased digitalisation while enabling Denmark to better exploit the potential of digitalisation. And above all, we need to act and implement now that the strategy is ready, because digital developments are taking place with increasing speed and influence across society.

Therefore, there is a need to ensure that the foundations of digitalisation are strong, long-lasting and strategically based, and that the focus is always on creating real value with digitalisation. There are many sensible elements of the digitalisation strategy that can contribute to this. Danish IT looks forward to following – and not least involved in – the implementation of the strategy.

Dansk IT believes that in the coming years it will be particularly important to get track of the digital foundations in Denmark, to ensure a stronger focus on the citizen, to safeguard trust and transparency, and to work decisively to strengthen the digital skills of Danes.
As a society, we
must have the vision, ambition and ability to seize the new digital opportunities. It will also be crucial that we have robust cyber defence across the public and private sectors.

A comprehensive digitalisation strategy in Denmark is high. Let’s start work. Now we need to act.  

10 basic wishes for what the strategy should deliver

(formulated by the Committee on IT in the Public Sector of Dansk IT)

Digital foundations: get it right

First, a strategy must set the digital foundations of society. Like the industrial community, it relied on the construction of infrastructures such as railways, ports, roads, electricity and water supply, waste water, etc., the digital society stands and falls with long-term strategies to build up and develop digital foundations to address safety, address vulnerabilities and achieve societal efficiency.

Digital foundations that benefit both the private and the public sectors and make society as a whole more competitive. But there is a more perspective: Because innovation is decentralised by its nature, digital foundations must help us to digitalise more efficiently and safely locally in municipalities and businesses by drawing on key digital foundations and services, including data.

Keywords: trust and transparency

Second, trust and transparency are two keywords for a new strategy. Denmark is one of the most trusted societies in the world. It is very strong and must not be jeopardised by the failure or instigation of digitalisation. We need to digitalise wisely.

Turning NemID to MitID is an example of people’s trust. When more than 20 per cent of the population struggle to understand and implement the shift, we have not done so well enough. When Mit.dk is delayed and more expensive – and when it is finally put into service has to be shut down after a few minutes because citizens can access foreign citizens’ mail because of programme errors – then trust.

Danish IT has advocated more than a decade that it should be a legal requirement for citizens to see who accessed data about them. In this way, transparency is created and the citizen can control the state. We also believe that the citizen must be able to follow his own case should be a natural one. “Look at your own case” was found in the 2016 strategy, but is far from being implemented consistently.

People in the spotlight

‘Citizens first’ was the title when the Management Commission published their report in 2017. Yes, who else, can you ask? The politician, the official, the trade union? Changing strategies have had similar slogans without any serious consequences. Third, a new strategy must therefore first enshrine the principle of the citizen. The public sector must consistently look out from and into it and not vice versa when digitising. What value is created for the citizen or business must be the overall guide.

Modernising IT - with care

The public sector faces a heavy burden in the form of older IT systems that need to be modernised. The Digitalisation Partnership has made a large number out of it. In Dansk IT we call for a “careful modernisation”. An evaluation of the work of the Secretariat for Digitalisation Legislation shows that, over a period of four years, new legislation has been largely dealt with.

If you want to renew older IT solutions, it is accompanied by a regulatory framework that has not been reassessed and conceived in a contemporary digital context. Therefore, modernisation of older systems’ complexes must start with a fundamental assessment of the appropriateness of the process and whether legislation can be made more flexible and simple before taking action on new IT solutions. Otherwise, money will be wasted on new IT systems that administer spready-made legislation and do not get the value of the investments that could have been made.

The opportunities offered by digitalisation as a lever for both the public sector and the business sector can create completely new industries. Industries with high value creation. As a country with a high tax burden – and not a word about it – it is crucial to develop companies and jobs in technology that have high margins. It calls for leadership. Political and business.

We have recently proposed the establishment of a Digitalisation Committee in Christiansborg to promote the focus, knowledge and involvement of politicians in the Digital Agenda. The Danish Parliament currently has 33 committees, but not a committee for such an important and future-oriented area as digitalisation of Danish society.
 

Comments on specific points of the digitalisation strategy (by the Committee on Digital Competence in Dansk IT)

The focus of the government’s digitalisation strategy on digital competences is welcome. From children and young people to higher education, to investing in research. In Dansk IT, we believe that the prerequisite for a good life in a digitalised society such as the Danish one is digital competence. We talk about user competences, which are the basic competences that everyone needs to master in society and in the workplace and – not least – to be able to operate and understand the many public digital offers.

We are talking about creators’ skills to be able to create and communicate using digital aids and media. And we are talking about reflective competences that are essential to critically constructively address digital developments and what digital means for our way of being in the world.

The strategy says:

Initiative 58. Technology in primary and lower secondary education
In a digitalised society, students need to be able to deal critically and constructively with digital technologies and to prepare themselves in a digital society. A framework is provided for technology in primary and lower secondary schools as part of promoting a more practical school, which can support the introduction of skills into primary and lower secondary education, teacher skills development and other implementation measures.

Initiative 59. Technology literacy as a skill of
teachers in primary school calls for a strong research, knowledge and teaching environment that can realise the potential of children, young people and others in the future being much better equipped in a digital world. Specifically, funds will be allocated to further develop the new professionalism, capacity building, competence development of teachers’ trainers and the like.

Danish IT says:
 

If we are to benefit from the experience gained over the last three years of experimental technology understanding in primary and lower secondary education, it is crucial that we talk about and prioritise the following in the future:

• Technology understanding must be seen and developed as a subject for itself and as a real professionalism.
• Technology literacy must be a line subject in teacher training in line with other subjects, and sufficient resources must be allocated to build the professionalism of teachers and teachers at school. A specific credit teacher model could be considered.
• The information profession should be made compulsory in secondary and secondary education, and teaching and professionalism should be based on the level of primary school so that students experience a progression in the mastering of digital opportunities.
• At the same time, there should be a focus on technology understanding as a supportive discipline into other disciplines at school.
• It is not possible to read directly from the strategy what is being committed from funds and concretely how the initiatives are to be implemented. Dansk IT would like to provide relevant competences for further discussion on the implementation of the initiatives.

The technology understanding profession is an important priority as it provides both user, creator and reflective competence. This will only succeed if sufficient resources are allocated to support this strategically important and long-term initiative.

The strategy says:

Initiative 60. Digital boost in higher education
In order to strengthen the digital knowledge, understanding and competences of graduates and the workforce, funding is allocated to provide a digital boost to higher education. Actions may cover both regular higher education and continuing education, for example targeting skilled and specific sectors/disciplines. In concrete terms, efforts concern the competence development of educators, with a view to strengthening teachers’ digital perspective and understanding in relation to their professionalism and involving it in teaching, as well as the development of courses and modules with relevant digital content.

Danish IT says:

• We are committed to the strategy’s focus on skills development for higher education teachers. The question is whether we are not moving more quickly by focusing on putting tasks in the trainings that require the use of computing skills instead? We provide students with digital competences by sending their teachers to the course – or by throwing them into deep water.
• We need to pay extreme attention to the fact that we do not solve labour supply by training higher education teachers. What is sought is specialised skills – these can only be obtained by increasing the number of study places in the “hard” tech disciplines that are regrettably absent from the strategy. It seems bizart that the government has just abolished and relocated a number of these courses, with an expected/feared reduction as a consequence.
• The many good examples already available, such as KU and It-West, should be taken into account in the development of the initiatives.
• It is relevant that the research component focuses on deep tech, as this is where we present the scarce and demanded specialist skills.

Action here is important, but there are no easy solutions and the challenge is to bring the informal learning environment around tech/digital into the credit system. This requires an innovative approach.