The recent data from the Istat survey on “Citizens, Companies and ICT” and those Eurostat, correlated, of the Digital Agenda Scoreboard, clearly highlight and confirm how the theme of the lack of digital skills for our country is not only one of the central nodes for growth and socio-economic development, but also a widespread, "systemic" lack
The considerations that lead to affirming it are of different types, but converging:
- the majority (56.3%) of those who do not have an Internet connection at home state that the main reason for not using it is low digital skills;
- only 29.5% of those who use the Internet regularly have skills above the basic ones, and even 2.5% have none at all;
- the gender difference in Internet use is among the highest in Italy (8.5% among regular Internet users, compared to 2.8% in France) and the gap has not decreased in the last year. Difference that is highlighted and increases in economic uses (online banking, e-commerce) and decreases in relational uses (social networks);
- in companies, the majority of users declare to have basic (36.6%) or low (31.4%) skills;
- within the “employable” population (employed and unemployed) 17% has never used the Internet (15% of the currently employed and 22% of the currently unemployed), against 4% of Germany and France;
- another worrying figure in terms of work organization is the very low percentage (14.1%) of employees who use the network in "nomadic mode", away from the office. Last in Europe, Italy has to deal with more than double the percentages of France (42.3%) and Germany (39.1%);
- in comparison with the major European countries (Germany, France, UK) the percentages of those who do not use the Internet in Italy are very high for all age groups, apart from the 16 to 24 age group where the difference is more limited. For example, in the 35-44 age group the ratio is between 15.4% in Italy and 1% in Germany, and in the 65-74 age group the ratio is between 70.7% in Italy and 38% in Germany;
- the level of education is a major penalizing factor for our country, where only 42.3% of those with at most a lower secondary school diploma use the internet regularly, against, for example, 60.5% in France.
In short: the lack of digital skills is perceived as a problem and this shortage is very pronounced in all sections of the population, unlike in other European countries. And it drags down the percentages of penetration of the use of the network in companies, in the organization of work, in economic activities, in daily activities.
From these data, evident, too evident, it is necessary to start.
The article continues on digital agenda.eu
