Digital skills for work

Digital technologies are having a massive impact on how people do their jobs and the skills they need to do them. It’s estimated that 90% of new and existing jobs will require digital skills. As technologies replace some everyday tasks, more professional ICT jobs are being created. Additionally, human effort is continually being assisted by digital methods in the workplace.

To identify more accurately how these changes are affecting employment and what skills people need a European study is being carried out to estimate how many jobs require digital skills, what new jobs that have been created and how jobs have changed due to technology developments. Digital skill requirements across different sectors and occupational groups will generally include coding, cyber-security, cloud-computing and big data. Being able to understand how technology works, to make sense of and adapt to a digital world, is an essential 21st century literacy skill.

According to the Digital Agenda Scoreboard even in the highest performing country (Denmark) only 20% of internet users have ‘above basic’ skills. Qualifications will continue to play a big part in providing the skills people need – there is a long way to go and clearly a lot of work to be done to maximise the opportunities a digitally enabled workforce brings to the economy.

hilaryweir Published July 24, 2015