This study, which is located in the policy context of the skills element of the Digital Decade Policy Programme builds on existing JRC work on digital skills gaps which used recent data from Eurostat, OECD and CEDEFOP that refer to the digital skills gap in contexts of employment.
The earlier work is based on data collected prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is timely to identify any changes that may have occurred (for example, an increase in teleworking) with more recently-available data, within the broader learning that has taken place as a result of the Structured Dialogue and the proposals contained in the Council Recommendation on digital skills provision.
Its focus is on digital skills gaps in the labour market, which in turn covers both general digital skills and ICT specialist skills. Quantitative data analysis will be supplemented with qualitative information. Gender and equity will feature as transversal themes.
The study will address the following questions, with first outputs expected in early 2024:
- What are the digital skills needs from the workforce supply perspective?
- What is the digital skills needs from the workforce demand perspective?
- How can differences between supply and demand perspectives be interpreted and reconciled in order to support policymakers to shape the policy response?
- Based on these findings, what are the priority groups for policy in relation to reskilling and upskilling?
- What information and policy gaps may need to be addressed?
