DIGITAL DIVIDE Digital technologies play an important role in the daily lives of most European citizens yet some parts of the population still lack the skills or means to utilise them. Considering the estimation that 90% of jobs in the EU now require such digital skills, how should the EU address the growing digital divide? Submitted by Yiğit Ateş (TR) |
TOPIC AT A GLANCE
KEY STAKEHOLDERS
KEY CONFLICTS
POLICIES APPROACHES TO THE PROBLEM
WHAT NOW?
FUTHER LINKS
KEY STAKEHOLDERS
KEY CONFLICTS
POLICIES APPROACHES TO THE PROBLEM
WHAT NOW?
FUTHER LINKS
TOPIC AT A GLANCE
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KEY STAKEHOLDERS, CORE CONCEPT & KEY TERMS
CORE CONCEPTS & KEY TERMS
Digitalisation: is the process of replacing analog tools with digital ones in various human processes, such as a school student writing on a tablet instead of paper. Information and Communication Technologies(ICT): is the combination of Information Technologies, which are the applications of computers to store, receive and process data or information, as well as the Communication Technologies, which are all network applications in the field of technology such as internet/ telephone/computer networks, satellite systems. Digital Skills: capability of using digital devices, accessing and managing information by using applications as well as working with digital contents. At an advanced level, being knowledgeable about AI and machine learning, being able to make data-driven analysis can be the higher-level conditions of digital skills. Digital Literacy: is the ability to meet the demands of living in a digital society by communicating and accessing information through technology in a proper way. Digital Divide: is the gap between the portion of the population who do not have access to information and communications technology and those who do not have restricted access. |
KEY STAKEHOLDERS The European Commission promotes the general interests of the EU by proposing and executing legislation. It is the EU’s politically independent executive arm. Recently, they have been proposing funding and budget plans for digital investments, as well as educational solutions for providing qualified work-force in the field of the digital industry. The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) supports the development of vocational education and training policies of the EU. It has aims like improving worker standards and smart, sustainable and inclusive economic growth through knowledge and innovation. CEDEFOP sets an employment rate target of 75%. It was founded in 1975 and is based in Greece. Member States implement EU policies within their national borders. They have a key role in making sure that the great potential benefits from digital technologies are shared as broadly as possible across society as well as investing more in education, training, retraining and protecting workers’ rights through appropriate legislation. In the Supporting Competences, Member States can take action individually and may have their own legislation in the regarding area. The interventions that the EU can do are supporting, coordinating or complementing the actions of Member States. Technology companies and factories that have been using digital technologies IT, automation and robot systems, such as SAP, Siemens, ABB are the ones who have a huge part in this growing digital divide. NGOs such as DEAN, ThinkSharp, and ICAE have intentions to increase the education of digital skills, usage of digital tools. The ones that have the purpose of increasing the employment rate are providing vocational courses and digital courses for the new generation and adult people. They have the impact of raising awareness for a conscious approach to digitalisation. KEY CONFLICTS |
EMPLOYER DEMANDS VS WORKERS The dependency of businesses in the EU on technologies that require digitally skilled employees has not been satisfied enough by the employment and labour market of the Member States which is a fact that creates a conflict. Among all these large businesses in the EU, 47% of them reported that they recruited or tried to recruit ICT specialists during 2019. In addition to the fact that there is a gap in the employment market in the EU, people of the current workforce that are employed in the field of information technologies may not always fulfil the requirements of the advanced digital skills which are demanded by the businesses. Over one-fifth of companies in the EU reported that they needed to provide digital skill training to the employees in order to upgrade their skill level in this field. The market of the EU is highly dependent on external suppliers in order to perform digital jobs, which may not be optimal for the employment market circulation as well as might not be efficient in terms of cost of the digital jobs. The reason for this problem is hiring an employee with ICT skills is considerably expensive and hard. The biggest cause for this skills gap is the rapid increment in the demand for digital skills. Since businesses need to provide the needs of increasing technology, they need more people to do this. However, the increment in the number of people that are provided ICT skills by education is not as fast as the increment in the businesses’ demand for digital skills. Secondly, new digital skills emerge continually and skills requirements in the field of ICT change swiftly. So, the existing skilled workers may not be equipped with the latest digital skills. That is why there is a shortage of people skilled in new fields such as data science and AI. All in all, there is an evidential need for digital skills in terms of the number of workers and the skill level of people in the current workforce population. Particularly in the EU, this need should be addressed in order to solve this conflict. |
EDUCATION One of the aims of digital education programmes and vocational training programmes is to prevent unemployment and labour surplus by teaching new skills and giving new qualifications to people that are unable to find a new job after losing one. Many of them train workers in IT and high technology skills since there is going to be a human work demand in these sectors. Unemployment can harm Member States’ societies and economic capacity but while education is a viable solution, it has its difficulties. The percentage of employed persons with ICT education that are above 35 years old across the EU is limited. Moreover, the internet usage of older people is also very limited in which more than half of them do not even use it on a regular basis. Therefore, a considerable number of the adult labourers in the market will be unfamiliar with IT/ICT systems. It is important to understand that they are not included enough to the digital ecosystem. There are examples where adult education has failed. Consequently, it is going to be hard to educate them and shift them into a high tech business sector since they may have problems with understanding the terms and concepts of the digital environment. DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AND EDUCATION VS DIGITAL GENDER DIVIDE It appears that there is significant gender inequality in the fields of digital skills employment, knowledge of digital skills and education of information and communication technologies as it is also observable in any other field than technology. The digital technology sector, which in the EU consists of male workers more than 82% in 2019, is one of the worst areas in terms of gender balance and it is not getting any better. Meanwhile, gender distribution for total employment is much more balanced than the digital technology sector. Secondly, there is a substantial gender gap in the education of digital skills, which is an indicator that this situation is unlikely to improve in the short-term. A reason for this might be the fact that women are reported to have less awareness of the potential benefits that the digital skills may bring. Therefore, a considerable number of women believe that they do not need to have these skills. Another reason is, women may not have the financial independence to afford digital technology. Family-related issues and socio-cultural reasons can lead to lower engagement in ICT and ‘technophobia’ for women. Additionally, safety-related issues where women using the Internet may be faced with online harassment, cyberstalking can be a reason for them to abstain from obtaining digital skills. All in all, there are reasons that have driven the digital gender divide. They have to be addressed explicitly. Considering the lack of digital skill in the EU population, the involvement of women to the digital technology sector is vital. |
POLICY APPROACHES TO THE PROBLEM
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
The European Commission announced the Digital Education Action Plan which covers the period between 2021-2027. The plan has two priorities, one of which is adapting current educational practices to the new digital ecosystem which COVID-19 highlighted the importance of. The second one is bringing qualifications of digital skills to young people in order to develop a new generation which are able to satisfy the necessities of the digital employment environment. These qualifications of digital skills are digital literacy and comprehending data-structured technologies. Within the scope of this action plan, the European Commission aims to actualise these priorities by providing digital equipment, training and courses as well as creating the required technical infrastructure such as enhancing the internet access of the schools. The European Parliament agreed on the long-term budget for 2021-2027 which is proposed by the European Commission. Nearly half of this budget is allocated to the ‘Next Generation EU’ plan in which aims to help Member States recover from the disruptive effects of COVID-19 and keep pace with the modern world by creating a digital EU. This plan demonstrates the emphasis that the EU put on digital transformation actions. The EU focuses on building the strategic digital capacities of the EU and on facilitating the wide utilisation of digital technologies, to be used by Europe's citizens and businesses. |
A PROJECT BY THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
The World Economic Forum established a project called ‘Closing the skills gap’ which is a global call for measurable commitments from leading companies to train, re-educate the current and future workforce. Their aim is to adapt the population to the demands of the new employment market by providing education and training about digital skills. With this purpose, at the beginning of the project, it is aimed to upskill ten million people by 2020. Until now, this project showed significant support to the public-private collaboration on education at the global level and has interacted with more than 17 million people over the course of two years which is even more than the initial expectation.
A MEMBER STATE PRACTICE
The Netherlands, which ranks number one in the use of basic digital skills in the EU, published a strategy called ‘Dutch Digitalisation Strategy’ in 2018. This strategy aims to enable The Netherlands to have a digital inclusion in the labour market and society by creating sustainable employability and providing required digital skills to its citizens. The Dutch government updated this strategy. With this update, the strategy will now focus on strengthening digital education and increase the usage of advanced digital skills. Whereas in Romania, which is one of the worst countries in the digital economy index, lack of legislation and not sufficient enough budget allocation to digital education may be observed.
The World Economic Forum established a project called ‘Closing the skills gap’ which is a global call for measurable commitments from leading companies to train, re-educate the current and future workforce. Their aim is to adapt the population to the demands of the new employment market by providing education and training about digital skills. With this purpose, at the beginning of the project, it is aimed to upskill ten million people by 2020. Until now, this project showed significant support to the public-private collaboration on education at the global level and has interacted with more than 17 million people over the course of two years which is even more than the initial expectation.
A MEMBER STATE PRACTICE
The Netherlands, which ranks number one in the use of basic digital skills in the EU, published a strategy called ‘Dutch Digitalisation Strategy’ in 2018. This strategy aims to enable The Netherlands to have a digital inclusion in the labour market and society by creating sustainable employability and providing required digital skills to its citizens. The Dutch government updated this strategy. With this update, the strategy will now focus on strengthening digital education and increase the usage of advanced digital skills. Whereas in Romania, which is one of the worst countries in the digital economy index, lack of legislation and not sufficient enough budget allocation to digital education may be observed.
WHAT NOW?
Currently, the Digital Education Plan of the European Commission is the most significant action in terms of closing the digital skills gap via education. With that being said, what can be done in order to implement these actions across the Member States more efficiently? Are the ideas enough to cover the digital skills gap in the shorter term? Lastly, what else should be implemented in this action plan?
It is visible that the current workforce of the population is more desperate for digital skills than the new generation. Considering this fact, would it be possible to fulfil the digital skill demand by only educating young people? If not, how can the EU manage to provide digital skills to the current workforce with low education, seeing as this class might be unfamiliar with these concepts?
Lastly, what other actions than education/training should be taken in this sense? Circumstances of the employment market might also be a factor in the digital skills gap. If the EU is to take any actions in this regard, what is the appropriate balance between avoiding intervention in the free market economy and preventing digital skill gaps?
It is visible that the current workforce of the population is more desperate for digital skills than the new generation. Considering this fact, would it be possible to fulfil the digital skill demand by only educating young people? If not, how can the EU manage to provide digital skills to the current workforce with low education, seeing as this class might be unfamiliar with these concepts?
Lastly, what other actions than education/training should be taken in this sense? Circumstances of the employment market might also be a factor in the digital skills gap. If the EU is to take any actions in this regard, what is the appropriate balance between avoiding intervention in the free market economy and preventing digital skill gaps?
FURTHER LINKS
Essential Engagement
Further links
- Read this plan by the European Commission to interpret how these actions should be implemented and which stakeholders should be involved.
- Watch this video about the importance of digital skills education
- Read this report about the impact of technology on labour markets by the Joint Research Centre(pages between 29-35).
Further links
- Read this report by PwC about the upcoming scenario of the digital ecosystem. It also analyses the situation in Italy explicitly.
- Read this article by McKinsey about the COVID-19 impact over the companies.
- Watch this video by Ursula von der Leyen about the future of the EU in a digital manner.
- Read this report’s Chapter 1 by OECD about policy making practices in the digital age(Particularly ‘Introduction’ and ‘Jobs’ sections).
- Read this article’s ‘conclusion’ section(page 41-45) by European Parliament-FEMM Committee about the digital gender divide.
- Watch this TED Talk about the importance of digital skills.