The Digital Transformation Paper 2020-2025 is the national strategy for the digital transformation of the country approved by Decision No 20301/18-06-2021 of the Ministry of Digital Governance. The national strategy reflecting the guiding principles, strategic intervention strands, objectives, architectural design of systems, governance model, planning and delivery mechanism, but also all horizontal and vertical interventions for the digital transformation of the Greek society and economy.
The vision of the Digital Transformation Paper
The Paper presents the targeting and concrete interventions which align national action with the European Commission’s guidelines and other internationally recognised best practices for implementing Greece’s digital transformation. A specific action plan, co-formed with the relevant actors, defines and prioritises necessary horizontal projects and, in addition, describes sectoral (vertical) interventions in each policy axis that support the digital transformation of the country. The Paper identifies a multitude of concrete projects, classified in the short and medium term, which have an impact on the implementation of all public policy areas (e.g. Health, Education, Justice, Economy, Environment, Energy, etc.) thus helping to modernise the functioning of the public and private sectors. The list of projects shall provide direct and user-friendly access to all targeted actions implemented, to specific strands of intervention tailored to the specific needs of each policy area.
Strategic lines of action of the Paper
The key interventions of the digital transformation integrate a series of actions and projects organised along six distinct strategic axes:
- connectivity
- digital competences & skills
- digital transformation of businesses
- digital Public Services
- digital innovation
- taking advantage of advanced technologies
Strategic intervention axis “Digital Capacities & Skills”
“Digital Capacities & Skills” is one of the key lines of intervention of the KDM recognising that investing in people is at the heart of the digital transformation. The Ministry of Digital Governance’s strategy is to develop policy and institutional initiatives while investing in networks, infrastructure, applications and creating an ecosystem that will help change the country’s development model and remove economic and social disparities. This chapter recognises the following challenges of digital literacy:
- the development of digital skills across society is the basic prerequisite for people to search for information and data, create and share digital content, communicate, solve problems and cooperate in a digital environment for a more effective and creative attitude to their lives, learning, work and social activities.
- the harmonisation and continuous adaptation of education programmes, as well as of the learning process in the light of continuous technological developments highlighting new skills and competences requirements.
- strengthening digital skills in the Public Administration, with a view to the continuous development of human capital and the digital transformation of the Public Sector, thus providing increasingly better e-services to citizens and businesses.
- to implement initiatives to address the mismatch between the skills the labour market needs and the skills offered by the formal education of citizens.
- reducing unemployment, enhancing competitiveness and boosting the economy through the development of digital skills is a key challenge for the labour market.
- the timely and targeted use of the Lifelong Learning opportunities for the continuous acquisition of new skills so that citizens can respond to all constantly changing situations in their personal, academic and professional life.
- the development of a set of necessary digital skills by citizens, enabling them to use the e-services offered by the public sector today and in the future.
- promoting collaborations between the public sector, the education market and corporate initiatives to provide basic means and resources to develop digital skills, so that our country can become a leader in the new digital age.
The strategic objectives for the next five years
a) Strengthening the National Alliance for Digital Skills & Employment by:
- dissemination of the European digital skills policy in Greece, the cooperation of its members to inform and raise awareness among society of the need to acquire and develop digital skills, such as promoting the need to acquire digital competences relevant to all age groups of citizens and promoting the use of available tools to assess digital competences (such as DigComp, European E-competence Framework, SELFIE);
- create actions to strengthen digital skills and address the digital divide in all sectors of the Greek economy and society;
- drawing up an action plan focusing on the education of the unemployed, upskilling and reskilling of the workforce, the acquisition and upgrading of digital skills of pupils and teachers, and the activation of young people to work on ICT.
b) Digital investment in human resources in Greece — National Academy of Digital Competences by implementing:
- the development of a reference framework and classification/certification of educational programmes;
- upgrading the digital skills of civil servants and local government employees;
- the development of digital skills of pupils, students, students and teachers at the respective educational levels;
- developing digital skills to stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation;
- training the population in basic and advanced digital skills;
- making digital citizenship a reality;
- the establishment of an organisational unit entitled ‘National Centre for the Development of Digital Skills — EKASD’ as part of the organisation chart and the operation of the National Network of Technology and Research Infrastructures (EDYTE S.A.).
c) The consolidation of the National Digital Competence Academy as the central hub for coordination of all digital education providers. More specifically, the aim is to:
- centralising, at one entry point, education and training programmes for the acquisition of digital skills among the population as a whole, at basic, intermediate and advanced levels;
- developing strategic planning based on best European practices and widely used educational models and standards;
- the adoption of a self-diagnosis mechanism to determine the individual level of digital competence and the definition of a personalised learning pathway;
- to provide a uniform homogenised certification mechanism for digital skills education and training programmes at national level;
- providing educational programmes online (through modern and asynchronous education) and face-to-face;
- “Cooperation Platform”: Central hub for cooperation between public and private digital education providers.
At the same time, this Strategic Intervention Axis describes a number of flagship projects relating to (a) contemporary, asynchronous and even blended education courses, (b) digital innovative laboratories, (c) actions to raise awareness and build a digital culture at all levels of society and in digital politics, and (e) initiatives with international exchanges of good practices and initiatives, (f) showcasing excellence, discrimination and prizes.
Finally, synergies are presented in the areas of education, work, the public sector with a particular focus on vulnerable social groups (persons with disabilities, elderly people, etc.) as well as population groups who find it difficult to enter the labour market (women, unemployed, recruits, etc.).
More information on the Strategic Intervention Axis “Digital Capacities & Skills” can be found in the original text of KIM 2020-2025.
Source: European Digital Skills & Jobs Platform
