The issue of digital skills-mismatch in employment has been ranking high on the European policy agenda for a long time. This new report by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) aims to bring some light to the type of digital skills gaps in the EU and the kind of policies needed to target this issue.
Digital competence has become crucial for employability. Not only considering its role as a transversal skill to develop employability, but also because around 85% of all EU jobs need at least a basic digital skills level. In fact, the most recently available statistics by Eurostat collecting information on digital skills in Europe for the year 2019 show, however, that 13% of the EU labour force had no digital skills, mostly because they did not use the internet, and an additional 24% did not have at least basic digital skills, which are now required in most jobs.
This report by the JRC analyses the most recent data from Eurostat, OECD and CEDEFOP that refer to the digital skills gap in contexts of employment. In particular the research aims to bring some light to two questions:
1. Which type of digital skills gaps exist?
2. Which would be the priority target groups for policy action?
By investigating these two main questions, the report aims to support several of the latest Digital Decade targets on digital skills, also mentioned in the European Social Pillar Action Plan.
Do you want to know more about the findings of the research? Read the full report by the JRC here, and explore the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform for all new updates and findings on digital skills in Europe.
