The Maltese strategic roadmap for the Digital Decade developed by the Government of Malta sets out the strategic goals to be achieved by 2030, monitoring their achievement, and the target paths and key measures have been developed.
The report uses the data in the Digital Decade Report 2023 on the National Base Value of the Digital Decade Targets, the EU baseline value for Digital Decade Targets in 2023 and the EU target value for 2030. Looking at the overall population, 61% of people in the country have at least basic digital skills, compared to 54% in the EU. The percentage is similar among women (61%) and men (62%). Only 40% of people in Malta with at least one of these three characteristics possess basic digital skills, which is the same percentage as in the EU overall.
The Roadmap for Malta consists of 4 chapters:
- Digital Skills
- Digital Infrastructure and Connectivity
- Digitalisation of Businesses
- Digitalisation of Public Services
Priorities for the development of digital skills
Several initiatives have been implemented in recent years to encourage individuals to attain at least basic digital skills. The lack of digital skill availability is partly addressed by Malta’s National eSkills Strategy 2022-2025 which provides a framework for evaluating existing and introducing new initiatives to promote basic and above basic digital skills and tools that later mean an increase in employment.
In this context, Malta committed to investing in an educational app store further to promote the use of digital tools for learning. The country also increased digital training for teachers, including cybersecurity training as part of the EU-funded CybARverse strategic partnership, thereby jointly promoting digital security and inclusion principles.
Measures contributing to the achievement of the target:
- Measure 1: Strengthening skills development and recognition, with a particular focus on low-skilled adults
- Measure 2: One Tablet Per Child (OTPC) project
- Measure 3: One Device Per Child (ODPC) project
- Measure 4: PAIDEIA project
- Measure 5: Digital Skills Bootcamps
- Measure 6: Further development of the Malta Digital Skills and Jobs Platform
- Measure 7: Educational Software Hub
- Measure 8: Implementation of the CybARverse Project
- Measure 9: EU Code Week
- Measure 10: National Strategy for Digital Education
- Measure 11: Digital Skilling Sessions – for refugees and their children
- Measure 12: Future Innovators Summer School and xPloring Intelligence Bootcamp
- Measure 13: Digital literacy training for people over 15 who are not covered by compulsory education
- Measure 14: National Skills Strategy
- Measure 15: National Career Guidance Network
Key challenges to overcome
While Malta is expected to make an important contribution to the 2030 target of having at least 80% of the population equipped with basic digital skills, a key challenge is to ensure that its contribution aligns with the Digital Decade objective to bridge digital divides.
Specific challenges:
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Challenge 1 – Declining mathematical competency of the younger student population.
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Measures 5, 9, 10, 12, and 15 are expected to address the above challenge.
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Challenge 2 – Digital skills shortage.
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Measures 1, 2, 3, 5, 14, and 15 are expected to address the above challenge.
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Challenge 3 – Bridging the digital divide and targeting marginalised segments of society.
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Measures 11, 13, and 14 are expected to address the above challenge.
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Source: European Digital Skills & Jobs Platform
