Barbara Neža Brečko, EC JRC IPTS

Digital competence is an universal and basic need for all citizens to work, live and learn in a knowledge society. In many European countries the digital competence is recognized as strategically important for both the public and private lives of citizens. Digital competence can improve many aspects of our lives for example social, health, economic, civic, cultural, etc. In 2006, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe have set out eight key competences to achieve the objectives in the field of education and among them is also the digital competence. The concept of digital literacy and competence has a strong presence and prominence in many European policy documents, actions and initiatives (e.g. the Digital Agenda, Communication on rethinking education, Opening up education, Grand coalition for digital jobs).

The concept of digital competence is quite wide – both in academic and political field there are different definitions and description of the same concepts. Thus, some authors talk about the digital competence, some about digital literacy and others about digital skills. To build a consensus on the elements of digital competence and to contribute to a better understanding of digital competence at European level in 2013 the framework for digital competence for citizens was published. The framework defines five areas of digital competence with 21 competencies which are described and defined in terms of different proficiency levels (DIGCOMP: A Framework for Developing and Understanding Digital Competence and Europe, EC JRC IPTS).

The document already has some implementations – it is confirmed as a guideline for the development of school curricula and curricula for teacher education by the European Thematic Working Group on ICT and Education (Directorate for Education and Culture), consisting of representatives of the European ministries of education. It has also been adopted as a contribution to the Action 62 of the Digital Agenda and adopted as a framework for collecting data on e-skills in the Eurostat survey on ICT use by households. Based on the existing document new projects are being prepared: (1) a framework of digital competence for teachers, (2) development of indicators for measuring digital competence and other projects.