Education concept of Austrian e-government services

The Austrian Federal Government plans to make all citizens digitally fit by 2030. In February 2023, the implementation of the Digital Skills Offensive for Austria (DKO) was launched as a key step in achieving this goal. The DKO is supported by the Federal Ministries of Finance, Labour and Economy, Education, Science and Research, Arts, Culture, Public Service and Sport. 

Make good use of e-government services

The initiative consists of eight sub-projects in interdepartmental working groups with the overall objective of improving basic digital skills among the population and providing digitally skilled workers for the economy. 

Project P4 “Educational concept for e-government applications” aims to promote the use of e-government services and related digital skills among Austrian citizens. Measures have been developed with stakeholders and educational experts to increase the visibility and use of Austrian e-government services, depending on the needs and target group, and to improve the digital skills needed for this purpose. In particular, the project targets pupils and seniors.

Digital competence model as a framework

The result of the P4 project is an interdisciplinary educational approach to e-government skills, designed in five stages, from primary research on the status quo to consultation with education stakeholders towards the description and planning of concrete actions. 

The actions were developed and prioritised in workshops with experts on the basis of survey results from different target groups and then elaborated in detail and integrated into the educational concept. To this end, the Digital Skills Model for Austria has been used, a reference model that measures the level of digital education of the population over six dimensions.

User Experience and User Help 

Aiming is to take into account all users’ experiences in learning new digital skills, the actions were developed on the basis of the four-phase framework for digital education: 

• Awareness raising
• Initialisation
• Use 
• Repetition

The application of e-Gov services provides a user aid called Egon, easy to reach, use low-threshold and safe use, offers support online and offline and is aimed at users of different skill levels.

The resource contains an interdisciplinary educational approach to e-government skills, thus promoting the acquisition of basic e-government skills, and is paving the way for reducing physical channels, saving resources and increasing efficiency.