Determinants of 21st-century digital skills: A large-scale survey among working professionals

an article by Ester van Laar, Alexander J. A. M. van Deursen and Jan A. G. M. van Dijk (University of Twente, the Netherlands) and Jos de Haan (The Netherlands Institute for Social Research SCP, The Hague, the Netherlands) published in Computers in Human Behavior Volume 100 (November 2019)

Highlights

• Conducted a survey to examine determinants of 21st-century digital skills.
• The sample included 1,222 professionals working within the creative industries.
• The results show that the skill levels vary substantially.
• Each skill is explained by a different set of determinants.
• The development of each skill asks for a unique policy-targeting approach.

Abstract

The current workplace increasingly asks for workers with highly digitally skilled knowledge who produce and distribute ideas and information. As such, understanding the factors behind differences in the level of various 21st-century digital skills is of decisive importance.

This study aims to examine

1. the level of 21st-century digital skills among knowledge workers, and
2. the determinants contributing to the level of these skills.

The following digital skills are investigated: information, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and problem solving.

Potential determinants that can be influenced by stakeholders are also included, such as social support and training. A large-scale online survey was conducted among professionals (N = 1,222) who work within knowledge-intensive creative industries.

The results show that the level of 21st-century digital skills varies considerably. Furthermore, each 21st-century digital skill is explained by a different set of determinants, thereby requiring unique approaches for the development of each skill.

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Is digital upskilling the next generation our ‘pipeline to prosperity’?

an article by Huw C Davies and Rebecca Eynon (The Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, UK) published in New Media & Society Volume 20 Issue 11 (November 2018)

Abstract

The British government is claiming digital skills will deliver economic growth to the country and social mobility to young people: its ministers call it ‘a pipeline to prosperity’. While declaring this pipeline, the government assumes the needs of the economy and young people’s needs are (or should be) synchronised.

We challenge this assumption and the policy it sustains with data from questionnaires, workshops and interviews with 50 young people from communities in South Wales (including a former mining town and a deprived inner city area) about digital technology’s role in their everyday life.

We use a new typography to compare the reality of their socially and economically structured lives to the governmental policy discourse that makes them responsible for their country’s future economic success.

To explain these young people’s creative and transgressive use of technology, we also make an empirically grounded contribution to the ongoing theoretical debates about structure and agency.

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Inequality in mobilizing online help after a negative life event: the role of education, digital skills, and capital-enhancing Internet use

an article by Erik van Ingen (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and Uwe Matzat (Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands) published in Information, Communication & Society Volume 21 Issue 4 (April 2018)

Abstract

Many studies have investigated inequalities in coping with stressful life events and often education is found to play a role in this (the higher educated are usually more successful in dealing with their problems in terms of well-being consequences).

We examine whether something similar occurs on the Internet, whether the higher educated are more successful in mobilizing help online, and whether this is related to their digital skills and the way in which they use the Internet. With the latter, we link online coping to digital inequality research.

Researchers have investigated digital inequalities with regard to skills and types of Internet use. However, we know little about the extent to which these factors translate into inequalities in resources mobilized from the Internet. This latter type of inequality is highly relevant, since it is an intermediary step between Internet use and (improved) well-being and life chances.

Using a large sample of individuals living in the Netherlands, we find educational differences in the mobilization of online problem-focused coping resources, but no differences with regard to online socioemotional or disengagement coping resources. The educational inequalities in online coping are somewhat smaller than educational inequalities in offline coping, leading to remarkable consequences for social policy.

Furthermore, we find a relatively complex pattern of interrelations between offline inequality (education) and different types of digital inequality (skills, usage, resources).

In our conclusions we make a plea for more research on outcomes of Internet use and we discuss the implications of our findings for further research.

Full text (PDF 19pp)

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New report shows digital skills are required in all types of jobs

via Val Skelton (InformationToday Europe)

The European Commission has just published the final report of the study “ICT for Work: Digital Skills in the Workplace” on the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on the transformation of jobs and skills. The evidence shows that digital technologies are used in all types of jobs, also in economic sectors not traditionally related to digitisation e.g. farming, health care, vocational training and construction.

The digital economy is transforming the way people work and the skills they need at work. This represents a major challenge for employers, workers and public authorities. The study presents data and policy recommendations that could support the transformation of the labour market into opportunities for all.

Main findings

• Digital technologies are widely used in workplaces in the European Union. 93% of European workplaces use desktop computers, 94% use broadband technology to access the internet, 75% use portable computers and 63% other portable devices. 22% use intranet platform, 8% automated machine or tools or 5% programmable robots. Larger workplaces report a higher use of digital technologies than smaller ones.
• Most jobs require basic digital skills. Basic digital skills include being able to communicate via email or social media, to create and edit documents digital documents and to search for information, or to protect personal information online. 98% of workplaces require managers and 90% that professionals (e.g. engineers, doctors and nurses, teachers, accountants, software developers, lawyers and journalists), technicians, clerical workers or skilled agricultural workers should have at least basic digital skills. 80% of workplaces require basic digital skills for sales workers. Workplaces also often require basic digital skills for building workers (50% of workplaces), plant machine operators (34%) and even employees in elementary occupations (27%). However, there are still some workplaces that do not consider digital skills to be important for some occupations e.g. craft workers, waiters and cooks.
• Technicians, professionals (both 50%) and managers (30%) are required to have specialist digital skills, especially in larger workplaces.
• The use of ICT has increased significantly in the last five years in more than 90% of workplaces. Micro-sized workplaces are more likely to report limited increase compared to bigger ones.
• Over the last five years, investments in ICT to improve efficiency or business volume increased These investments are more frequent in sectors with traditionally low levels of digital intensity, e.g. agriculture, manufacturing or construction.
• 38% of workplaces report that the lack of digital skills has an impact on their performance. Loss of productivity (46%) and decrease in the number of customers (43%) are the main negative impacts.
• 15% of workplaces report employees lack digital skills. Digital skills gaps are more likely to be found in high- and medium skilled than in low-skilled jobs.
• 88% of workplaces have not taken any action to tackle the lack of digital skills of their employees. Training is the most common action undertaken. High costs seem to be the main barrier encountered when undertaking actions to deal with digital skills gaps.

Recommendations

Apart from analysing digital skills in the workplace the study lists a number of recommendations that have been formulated in consultation with experts and stakeholders.

1. Raise awareness on digital technologies and the need for digital skills to support and improve business performance, productivity and internal organisation, and of the need for digital skills in relation to new digital technologies.
2. Promote access to digital technologies, particularly for micro and small sized companies. Loans, grants and other mechanisms should be used to enhance and support access to digital technologies.
3. Expand the availability of digital skills through the education and training system. Programmes at all levels and sectors of education should be updated and digital skills should be part of the core competences required at every level.
4. Promote access to training to employers through their professional or sectoral organisations and associations, or through governmental channels.
5. Build multi-stakeholder partnerships and agree on a digital skills strategy.
6. Consider diversity and avoid the ‘one-size fits all’ approach in the strategy
7. Include digital skills in a wider skills strategy in which other transversal skills relevant to employers such as soft skills and communication skills are included.
8. Provide access to funding for digital technologies and digital skills development
9. Reduce the digital divide, focusing in particular on the categories of individuals who do not possess digital skills and are consequently at risk of marginalisation not only in the labour market, but also in day-to-day life, which can contribute to social and economic exclusion.

Background

This final report complements the intermediate report of this study “The impact of ICT on job quality: evidence from 12 job profiles” published last year, and presents mostly findings from the ‘European Digital Skills Survey’, carried out among a representative sample of 7,800 workplaces which are statistically representative of 13,803,113 workplaces in the whole European Union (EU28) in 12 economic sectors with different levels of digital intensity. These workplaces employ a total of 150,563,540 employees in different job roles.

Further information

ICT for work: Digital skills in the workplace

Intermediate report “The impact of ICT on job quality: evidence from 12 job profiles”

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