Are you ready to land on planet AI?
Well, it seems like we have a bit of a problem…
We don’t have the necessary digital skills to make the full landing just yet. In fact, there’s a significant digital skills gap across Europe, ranging from basic to advanced digital skills.
According to a broad research conducted by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) in 2022 across EU+ countries, it’s been found that over half of adult employees need to further develop their digital skills to do their main job better.
The results indicate that 52% of adult employees across the EU+ need to develop their digital skills further to do their main job better. In Norway it is 51 %, in Germany it´s 41% and in Denmark only 36% of adult employees that require digital upskilling. However, the gap also applies to students choosing their field of study. This years´ figures released by the Norwegian government on higher education enrolments in Norway show that, while the number of IT students has risen year on year, IT related studies still only make up 5% of the total applications.
This is a significant concern, but it’s not just limited to Europe. It’s a global challenge that needs to be addressed on multiple levels by governments and organisations to raise awareness and build strategies to address these gaps.
While there’s a perception that new technologies such as AI will make jobs redundant, this is simply unfounded. In fact, only 4% of workers who had to upskill digitally reported that digital technology destroyed some of their tasks.
Instead, in future, all jobs will be affected by technology and complemented rather than replaced. It’s important to understand the digital revolution’s impact on our workplace and future career prospects and how to equip ourselves with the skills to work in a co-pilot model with technology.
The questions we all need to ask ourselves:
What does the digital revolution mean for my workplace and my future career prospects (for those choosing their primary education)?
How will I equip myself with the skills to work alongside technology?
It has now become apparent to that every job will require some level of digital literacy, data literacy, and technical skills. So, what are those digital skills that we need to develop in the short term to benefit from the latest technologies?
The EU outlines the following areas as to what digital competency means and how it can be measured in the digital competence framework DIGCOMP 2.2. for citizens:
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We require a digital skills strategy for all types of organisations to keep up with the speed of technological change we are currently experiencing. At the same time, students choosing their field of study should consider incorporating data literacy into their studies to be better equipped when entering their job in a data-driven world.
It’s time to take action and significantly invest in developing our digital skills. What are your thoughts on this topic? What are some of the challenges you see in your environment? Feel free to reach out for a discussion and exchange on this topic.
Happy digital learning 🙂
Please find this article also on LinkedIn.
Sources & references:
Norwegian Government Publication on University Admissions 2023
