Basic digital skills: necessary — but not enough

Summary

One of the digital objectives of the Recovery,Transformation and Resilience Plan funds is to achieve, by 2025, that 80% of the Spanish adult population has basic digital skills. Although a majority of people in our country have Internet access, the opportunities they can actually benefit from depend on their digital skills.

Key points

• Key points:
• The Eurostat digital skills indicator includes four specific areas: information, communication, problem solving and software skills.
• It is important to consider whether this framework is adequate to assess the extent to which society is prepared to take optimal advantage of the benefits of digitization.
• The Eurostat indicator could present inconsistencies that limit its usefulness as an effective economic policy tool: formulation under a minimum criteria for achievements, questions that do not consider the degree of skill in the activity and the obsolescence of several concepts.
• These metrics need to be revised to incorporate the current demands of the labor market, the way in which digital public and private services are offered as well as access to information, in order to train individuals truly capable of taking advantage of digitalization.

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