Digital skills and abilities to work in digital and networked environments are one of the key competencies of integration in the 21st century labour market. Challenges and changes related to “Work 4.0” have touched all sectors of the economy, even in services industries like tourism and retail. Employees with rather low-skill assignments need to have digital abilities and understanding in order to be able to work efficiently. In short, there is a trend in services towards digitization and the necessity to have multi-disciplinary digital qualifications. (1) The EU has recognized this trend, and has developed a “Digital Competence Framework” to map out different dimensions and levels of digital skills that are relevant for work and private life. (2) In Austria, the Ministry for Digitalisation and Economy has adapted the framework in order to include more dimensions and aspects of digital literacy in everyday life (3), and the Public Employment Service has a working group on new skills that concludes a great and rising demand and skill needs in all economic sectors, including tourism and retail. (4) Therefore, the digital education becomes a central element in any discussion on the topic. The demand of digital skills has risen and many jobseekers lack the skills to make a transition towards a digital work environment. Furthermore, there is a lack of accessible/transparent tools for organisations and stakeholders to measure and improve existing digital skills. The DIGISETS project tackles a growing mismatch between existing digital skill levels and needed skill profiles, even in previously not highly digitalised work environments. Experienced organisations and training providers from AT, BG, ES, EL cooperate to reach the following objectives: First, to draw a map/framework of work-relevant digital skills (previous research and data). Second, to design an evaluation toolkit for organisations. The tool is multi-dimensional and gives a wider view of hard and soft digital skills in an accessible form. Mainly the toolkit will be designed for education professionals working with (prospective) employees in tourism and retail sector. The toolkit is produced and programmed together in English, and then translated into the partner languages. The project will also implement a workshop for trainers from participant organisations. The goal is to present outputs (framework, toolkit, guidebook) for practical testing, feedback and critical exchange on the importance of digital skill sets and how to improve them. It will also provide a forum for networking, matching, discussion and testing. Preparation is done by online questionnaires, and further discussion/feedback will take place at the event. This will include practical exercises, feedback and guidance to training offers. Furthermore, the project will organise multiplier events in all participating countries to present results and learnings to other stakeholders, in order to promote and disseminate knowledge. Besides management, communication and dissemination the following activities will take place: an analysis/mapping of existing digital skills studies to create a common framework (O1), which will lead to the development of the digital skill evaluation toolkit (O2), and the design of a set of trainer guidelines (O3) how to use the tools. The tool is based on an open, modular technical platform and shows current skill level by using interactive scenarios, where participants are confronted with different situations and are required to apply their knowledge to solve issues. The methodology used will be a logframe approach, as well as using SMART method with objectives and indicators. The project impact is the further development of participants in term of their ability to measure and improve digital skills. Also, project partners will use the tool for their own daily testing and guidance work and also promote it as good practice example. In the long-term, the project shows that investing in the further development, especially digital skills of employees, is of utmost importance if one wants to successfully transit towards the digital workplace and embrace the challenges and potentials of I 4.0 as related to sectors like tourism and retail. Furthermore, in the interest of sustainability, the tools developed within DIGISETS will be presented on the Erasmus+ results platform and made available to stakeholders in the EU, which will enable future projects to build on the provided knowledge. Sources: 1) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/569967/IPOL_STU(2015)569967_EN.pdf 2) https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC106281/web-digcomp2.1pdf_(online).pdf 3) https://www.bmdw.gv.at/dam/jcr:f64dce35-0e93-4505-b867-def111cc88dc/DigComp_2_EN-korrigierte%20Version_barrierefrei.pdf 4) http://www.forschungsnetzwerk.at/downloadpub/AMS_Ergebnisbericht_New_Digital_Skills_final_191122_ibwams.pdf
Our main goal was to raise awareness and improve factual and methodological knowledge of VET professionals (trainers/counsellors) and stakeholders to the increased relevance of digital competences in the daily work of low-qualified persons in the retail and tourism sector. Secondly, we wanted to adapt existing theoretical frameworks (DIG.COMP) to lowqualified work settings, and create detail competence applications and learning objectives to be evaluated, in order to have a relevant and useful reference point for working with the target group - thereby helping them and their trainers to get a realistic picture of worklife expectations and needs, and provide a tool to evaluate existing competences. Thirdly, we wanted to summarize our knowledge, research and results (IOs) for the professional target group in a clear and concise manner, and give them access to a guidebook to use in their daily work. Additionally, we wanted to test our assumptions and products with practitioners in the field, which was done by stakeholder feedback and by an LTTA workshop. Lastly, we wanted to document and share our findings to an interested audience of VET and guidance professionals, using varied channels like social media, internet etc.
DIGISETS project was born from the idea that digital competences are becoming ever more relevant in work situations, even in low-qualified occupations (until EQF 3) that did not require digital processes before (e.g. changing of pen-and-paper documentation of tasks to digital documentation). Also, experience in the project consortium made us aware that innovative and easy-to-use evaluation tools are very helpful when working with low-qualified persons and for those persons themselves. Therefore, our target was to create a competence framework and use it for an online evaluation tool that can give realistic and easy-to-understand reports of competence profiles, by interactively guiding the participants throrugh numeous scenarios that can occur similarily in their daily (future) work lives. The main content of the project (tool and handbook) addressed the need of VET trainers and counsellors to be made aware of recent changes and challenges in work, and to improve their ability to deal with the increased need for practical and relevant digital competences.