On 19 and 20 June a workshop organized by the European Commission – DG Employment and Social Affairs, together with Joint Research Center – B4 Human Capital and Employment Unit, by title "Developing digital competences for employability: how to engage and support stakeholders and the potential role of DigComp”
Here, we tell you how it went.
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Digital skills now play an increasingly decisive role in facilitating entry into the job market, professional growth, the possibility of outplacement of each individual person.
However, at European level, the need for these skills does not grow in step with those possessed by both those who are already in work and those entering the job market for the first time.
A recent study by CEDEFOP shows us that in the European Union the 85% of jobs require at least basic digital skills and that the 43% of European citizens do not have the digital skills necessary to actively participate in the digital society and enjoy its benefits.
Therefore, faced with the need to improve people's employability and facilitate the matching between job demand and supply, what measures and what tools should be adopted to support the actors on the labor market already active in the processes of assessment, training , requalification of digital skills?
Of course, one of the answers can come from the use of framework DigComp, The common European reference framework for digital competences, which is an important point of reference also in professional and working contexts.
To better understand the potential of Digcomp and encourage its use as a support tool for digital skills enhancement processes, the European Commission - DG Employment and Social Affairs, together with the Joint Research Center - Human Capital and Employment Unit, conducted a research , the results of which were presented in the workshop held in Bilbao on 19 and 20 June.
The workshop, which was attended by about 40 representatives of stakeholders of the labor market and projects of various countries of the European Community (among these, many members of All Digital), represented above all an opportunity to meet to address the relationship between digital skills and the labor market.
In particular, three panel have been dedicated to:
- how to create greater awareness and enhance the action of involvement of stakeholders;
- which sectors, jobs and professions need immediate and more incisive interventions;
- what relationship between digital skills and other skills required by the labor market.
Furthermore, an important space was dedicated to the dissemination and promotion of the Digcomp framework, i.e. the definition of operational tools to strengthen this action.
It was a real one call for ideas, which compared public and private realities, associations and industry, many of which have already adopted DigComp in their own contexts, for evaluation activities (assessment) of skills, design of training interventions, design of professional profiles, etc.
To conclude … did you already know DigComp? Have you already used it? Tell us about your experience.
In the meantime, while waiting for the final version of the research and the next operational steps to be published, you can access some documents from here to learn more about the framework.
- DigComp 2.1: the reference framework for citizens' digital skills
- DigComp into Action: Get inspired, make it happen. A user guide to the European Digital Competence Framework
