DigComp 3.0 is the fifth version of the European Digital Competence Framework. It incorporates recent and emerging digital technological trends and their implications for digital competence, while maintaining the overall framework stability and technology neutrality.
What's new in DigComp 3.0?
In DigComp 3.0, compared to the previous version, there are:
- No changes to the overall structure of the framework
- Updates to the wording of competence areas and competences
- Revised proficiency levels
- New learning outcomes
- A transversal integration of AI competence
- An extended Glossary that explains the words and terms used
- Multiple formats, for easier tailoring and adaptation of the framework.
Development of DigComp 3.0
DigComp 3.0 has been developed with the input of over 300 individuals and organisations across Europe and beyond whose work relates to digital competence – including policymakers, employers, educators and researchers.
Several priority themes guided the development of DigComp 3.0, relating to what digital competence consists of (content) and how the framework is adapted, used and its role in education, training and employment systems (application).
- Content Themes
Artificial Intelligence (including Generative AI) competence
Cybersecurity competence
Digital rights, choice and responsibilities
Wellbeing in digital environments
Competence to tackle misinformation and disinformation
- Application Themes
Digital competence as a key part of lifelong learning
Recognition of pre-requisites for acquiring basic-level digital competence
Recognition of differences in digital competence needs across individuals and over time
Need for flexible, agile applications of the framework
Definition of digital competence
Digital competence combines knowledge, skills and attitudes.
It is the confident, critical and responsible use of, and engagement with, digital technologies for learning, at work, and for participation in society. It includes information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, media literacy, digital content creation (including programming), safety (including digital well-being and competences related to cybersecurity), intellectual property related questions, problem solving and critical thinking. (European Commission, 2018, p. 9)
To articulate information needs, and to search for, locate and retrieve digital information and content. To judge the relevance of the source and its content in digital environments. To critically evaluate digital sources, content, and processes used to generate them. To store, manage, organise and analyse digital information and data.
| Competence 1.1: Browsing, searching and filtering information |
| To articulate information needs, to know how and where to search for information and content in digital environments, and to access and navigate between them. To select appropriate digital tools to create, implement and update searches in digital environments and to be able to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information and content. |
| Competence 1.2: Evaluating information |
| To assess and compare the credibility and reliability of sources of information and content in digital environments. To interpret and critically evaluate information and content in digital environments, and the processes used to generate them. |
| Competence 1.3: Managing information |
| To organise, store and retrieve information and data in digital environments. To collect, process and analyse information and data in structured digital environments. |
To interact, share, communicate and collaborate in digital environments while being aware of cultural, generational and other diversity and the features and limitations of digital technologies. To participate in society through digital technologies. To assert one's rights and exercise choice in digital environments. To manage one’s digital presence, identity and reputation.
| Competence 2.1: Interacting through and with digital technologies |
| To interact through and with a variety of digital technologies, and to use appropriate digital communication for a given context. |
| Competence 2.2: Sharing through digital technologies |
| To share information and content ethically and responsibly with others through appropriate digital technologies. |
| Competence 2.3: Engaging in citizenship through digital technologies |
| To participate in society through the ethical and responsible use of digital platforms and services. To seek opportunities for self-empowerment and participation through appropriate digital technologies. To be aware of and assert one's rights, and to exercise choice, in digital environments. |
| Competence 2.4: Collaborating through digital technologies |
| To use digital technologies ethically and responsibly for collaborative purposes, and for the co-construction and co-creation of information, resources and knowledge. |
| Competence 2.5: Digital behaviour |
| To be aware of behavioural norms, and to know how to behave respectfully while using digital technologies and interacting in digital environments. To adapt communication to specific contexts, and to be aware of and respect cultural, generational and other diversity in digital environments. |
| Competence 2.6: Managing digital identity |
| To manage one or multiple digital identities. To take actions to help protect one’s digital reputation (how one is perceived based on online presence), and to manage one's digital footprint (the data that is produced through use of and by digital platforms and services). |
To create and edit digital content. To improve and integrate information and content into an existing body of knowledge while understanding how copyright and licences are to be applied, adopting an ethical and responsible approach in the creation, improvement and integration of digital content. To know how to apply computational thinking and programming techniques to give instructions to a computer system.
| Competence 3.1: Developing digital content |
| To use digital technologies ethically and responsibly to create and edit a variety of content. To express oneself through digital means. |
| Competence 3.2: Integrating and re-elaborating digital content |
| To modify, refine and integrate new information and content into existing knowledge and resources to create new and original content and knowledge. |
| Competence 3.3: Copyright and licences |
| To understand how copyright and licences, as well as associated legal and ethical issues, apply to digital content, and how to correctly apply them. |
| Competence 3.4: Computational thinking and programming |
| To understand and implement steps to analyse a problem, recognise sub-problems, and plan and develop a sequence of instructions for a computing system to solve a given problem or to perform a specific task. |
To protect, devices, content, personal data and privacy in digital environments. To support physical, mental and social wellbeing of oneself and others, and to be aware of the benefits and risks of digital technologies for wellbeing and social inclusion. To be aware of the environmental impact of digital technologies and their use, to take action to reduce such impact, and to use digital technologies to support sustainability.
| Competence 4.1: Protecting devices |
| To apply safety and cybersecurity measures in order to protect digital devices and content. To be aware of the evolving nature of risks and threats in digital environments, and to have due regard to security of digital devices and their contents. |
| Competence 4.2: Protecting personal data and privacy |
| To be aware of and exercise one’s rights in relation to personal data and privacy in digital environments. To evaluate and manage privacy risks and protect personal data and privacy in digital environments. To use and share one's own and others' personal data safely, ethically and responsibly. |
| Competence 4.3: Supporting wellbeing |
| To use digital technologies in ways that support wellbeing and inclusion. To minimise risks and threats to physical, mental and social wellbeing of oneself and others while using digital technologies. To balance usage of digital technologies with offline activities to support wellbeing. To take action to help protect oneself and others from possible dangers in digital environments (e.g. cyberbullying, harmful content), and to know how to respond to such dangers. |
| Competence 4.4: Protecting the environment |
| To be aware of the environmental impacts of digital technologies, including device production, operation, repair, recycling, disposal, data storage infrastructure, energy consumption and usage of tools and applications. To take action to reduce such impact and to use digital technologies to support sustainability. |
To identify and assess needs, and to use digital technologies and adapt digital environments to meet these needs. To identify and resolve technical and conceptual problems and problem situations in digital environments. To use digital technologies to make improvements in, or new solutions for, processes and products. To build capabilities to operate autonomously in digital environments. To stay informed about digital technological developments and their implications.
| Competence 5.1: Identifying and solving technical problems |
| To identify technical problems when operating digital devices and in digital environments, and to solve them through a variety of means. |
| Competence 5.2: Identifying needs and digital technological responses |
| To assess one's own and others' needs and to evaluate, select, use and adapt digital technologies to meet these needs. To adjust and customise digital environments to the contexts, goals and needs (e.g. accessibility) of oneself and others. |
| Competence 5.3: Identifying creative solutions using digital technologies |
| To use digital technologies to make improvements in or new solutions for processes and products, using a human-centric approach. To engage individually and collectively in critical thinking processes, and the creative and purposeful use of digital technologies, to understand and resolve conceptual problems and problem situations. |
| Competence 5.4: Identifying and addressing digital competence needs |
| To recognise where one’s own digital competence needs to be improved or updated. To address digital competence needs within a broader process of lifelong learning, building capacity and autonomy. To support others with their digital competence development. To stay informed about digital technological developments and their personal, professional and societal implications. |
Proficiency levels
Proficiency levels describe the level of digital competence acquisition of an individual on the basis of a combination of cognitive demand, task complexity and level of autonomy at which a task is carried out. In DigComp, a task is a specific activity which involves the use of digital technologies that contributes to a goal, in any context – everyday life, work, or learning. Tasks can vary in size, duration and complexity and may be carried out individually or in collaboration with others.
DigComp 3.0 has four proficiency levels:
- Basic: individuals remember and implement simple tasks with guidance as needed
- Intermediate: individuals identify and implement well-defined tasks and solve well-defined problems autonomously.
- Advanced: individuals assess and apply solutions to a variety of complex tasks autonomously and adapt to a variety of contexts to evaluate and execute tasks appropriately, guiding others if and as required.
- Highly advanced: individuals assess, evaluate and resolve highly complex or specialised problems to create new solutions or adapt existing ones, leading and guiding others if and as required.
Several pre-requisites must be in place for an individual to be able to reach the DigComp 3.0 basic level of digital competence, starting with a basic level of literacy. Other pre-requisites include access to a sufficiently fast and stable internet connection; to one or more digital devices with the required connectivity and applications; and to technical assistance, guidance and support.
Learning outcomes
Learning outcomes are an important policy and practical tool. They can be used in various ways – for example, to guide curriculum or course content development and revision, as a reference point for the recognition and validation of formal, non-formal and informal learning or to signal key employment skills in occupational profiling.
DigComp 3.0 learning outcomes are statements of what an individual knows, understands and is able to do on completion of a learning process, and are defined in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes.
They have been developed in response to users’ requests for more clarity on how DigComp can be applied, and enable easier and more consistent interpretation of the framework.
In DigComp 3.0, learning outcomes are categorised by competence, proficiency level, and whether knowledge, skill or attitude. They available in spreadsheet and linked open data formats in the DigComp 3.0 data collection.
Integration of AI competence
AI is widely used and is increasingly embedded in existing digital technologies, which gives rise to a need for individuals to understand what AI is, ways in which AI can be used, and their rights and responsibilities for AI’s safe and ethical use.
In DigComp 3.0, AI is framed as one digital technology among a range of digital technologies, while keeping the focus on the digital competences themselves. AI-related knowledge, skills and attitudes are featured in all 21 competences of DigComp 3.0.
How the components of DigComp 3.0 come together
The image below shows how the various components of DigComp 3.0 fit together.
The content aspect of the framework is organised hierarchically – learning outcomes and competence statements are grouped under the 21 competences, and the 21 competences are grouped under the five competence areas.
The progression aspect of the framework is described in the four proficiency levels (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced and Highly advanced). DigComp includes a general definition of each of these levels, which are illustrated in a concrete way in the competence statements and the learning outcomes.
AI competence integration is present in all levels of the content aspect of the framework and AI competence is present in all 21 competences. At the more detailed content levels, individual competence statements and learning outcomes, AI labelling is used to show where AI competence features in the framework.
Policy context
DigComp 3.0 embodies the principles of the European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade, which puts people at the centre of the digital transformation and helps to ground the framework in a set of shared European values and principles.
It also aligns with European policies and initiatives related to digital skills and the societal impacts of the digital transformation, such as the Digital Decade policy programme, the Union of Skills, the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, and the European Strategy for a Better Internet for Kids (BIK+). The framework acknowledges the rights and responsibilities of citizens under EU regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation, the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act and the AI Act.