Building essential digital skills is a key part of the EU’s new Digital Education Action plan, announced by the European Commission earlier this month. The plan sets out the European Commission’s vision for better digital education for the period, 2021 to 2027.
The plan has two strategic priorities, “fostering the development a high-performing digital education ecosystem” and, “enhancing digital skills and competences for the digital transformation”. Under both of these priorities, the European Commission plans to take a number of concrete actions. Specifically, under the second priority, the Commission will take actions that support computing education, good knowledge and understanding of data-intensive technologies, and skills for recognizing and fighting disinformation.
European Skills Agenda
The European Skills Agenda is a five-year plan to help individuals and businesses develop more and better skills and to put them to use, by:
- strengthening sustainable competitiveness, as set out in the European Green Deal.
- ensuring social fairness, putting into practice the first principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights: access to education, training and lifelong learning for everybody, everywhere in the EU
- building resilience to react to crises, based on the lessons learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic
Context
The rapid shift towards a climate neutral Europe and digital transformation is changing the way we work, learn, take part in society and lead our everyday lives. Europe can only grasp these opportunities if its people develop the right skills.
The new European Skills Agenda builds upon the ten actions of the Commission’s 2016 Skills Agenda. It also links to the
- European Digital Strategy
- Industrial and Small and Medium Enterprise Strategy
- Recovery Plan for Europe
- increased support for youth employment
The European Skills Agenda includes 12 actions organized around four building blocks:
Action 1: A Pact for Skills
Action 2: Strengthening skills intelligence
Action 3: EU support for strategic national upskilling action
Action 4: Proposal for a Council Recommendation on vocational education and training (VET)
Action 5: Rolling out the European Universities Initiative and upskilling scientists
