Digital challenges and skills
From the coronavirus crisis to the war in Ukraine: ICT professionals have to deal with various digital challenges in cyber threats . Due to these rapid digital developments, an increasing number of specialists have knowledge and a set of skills that quickly become outdated, or become redundant as the pace of digital change increases. Tasks also change because ICT professionals, through digitization, collaborate differently and perform work that requires more soft skills. This creates a 'mismatch' in the labor market, because ICT professionals with outdated knowledge are not immediately deployable and are not attractive enough to new employers.
To keep up with global digital developments, the European Commission is focusing on a rapid digital transformation. The European Commission has set itself a target that it must achieve in 2030. The ‘
Digital Decade 2030
’ has four main themes: infrastructure, public services, business and skills. The European Commission is working, among other things, on the availability of 5G and on improving the accessibility of online public services. The goal of the 'skills' theme is that at least 80 percent of the population will be digitally skilled in 2030. There will also be 20 million ICT specialists within the 27 EU member states by then.
The development of digital skills
Digitalization fundamentally changes the way we work. To keep up in a changing work environment, training is important. Professionals can brush up their knowledge and skills in two ways: DigComp (for employees) and the e-CF (for ICT specialists).
DigComp
Het ‘European Framework for Digital Skills for Citizens’ (DigComp) is a useful tool for gaining insight into digital skills. The framework explains to employees what digital skills are and guides them in certification and training. In addition, it enables employers to understand which skills they may need within their organization.
DigComp makes it possible to align education, certification and the needs of the labour market. This enables organisations to develop the right policies and training programmes.
Professionals who apply for jobs, look for training or do volunteer work within Europe can also make use of a ‘Europass CV’. The internationally usable curriculum vitae contains the five main areas from DigComp – information, communication, content creation, safety and problem solving – and offers the possibility to do a self-scan to determine how good their digital skills are. At level 1 you can perform and remember simple tasks under guidance. At level 8 you are digitally proficient and have the ability to create complex things yourself.
e-Competence Framework
The e-Competence Framework (e-CF) has been designed for the ICT professional. The e-CF is a European standard from 2019. The e-CF is used by large international organizations such as Airbus, Cepis and Huawei. From the Netherlands the professional association KNVI, the examination institute EXIN and staffing agency Circle8 have actively contributed to the development of the framework. It is used to speak the same language within the ICT world: vacancies are turned off op basis van het e-CF. If you do not meet the requirements of the vacancy, you can take training based on these competencies.
The framework also supports other standards, such as the Body of Knowledge in which the generally desired knowledge per field is described. These are quality indicators that specify what assessments must meet. The ethical framework for the ICT professional will be published eind 2022. Bramjan Mulder, Business Analyst IT Competencies and Ethics at Circle8, has actively contributed to its development. “The ethical framework helps IT professionals determine which ethical issues can arise in their field of work and how to deal with them.”
Lifelong Development (LLO)
The demand for future-proof, digital skills is increasing. It is important that ICT professionals ask themselves what they can still learn and what they are good at. What can organizations do to support ICT specialists?
● Identify future, digital skills. Use data to identify the future skills within the industry. Go into conversation with employees and share information about the future of their work.
● Foster a learning culture.
● Create a safe environment for knowledge transfer between employees. And also provide training and tools to improve their digital skills.
● Create a positive development policy. Ensure that the purpose of the organization is connected to the learning culture. Make it clear to every employee how they can gain more ICT experience and knowledge within the organization.
