DigComp: The European Digital Competence Framework

Being digitally competent is becoming a necessity for everyone to participate in our increasingly-digitalised economy and society. This is a major challenge for many countries, including those of the European Union (EU). According to the European digital skills indicator, 43% of the EU population and 35% of the EU labour force had an insufficient level of digital skills, and 17% and 10%, respectively, had no digital skills in 2017, mostly because they did not use the Internet. The construction of the composite indicator is based on DigComp, which was first published by the European Commission in 2013 as a reference framework to support the development of digital competence of individuals in Europe (European Commission, 2018a).

DigComp defines and describes which competences are needed today to use digital technologies in a confident, critical, collaborative and creative way to achieve goals related to work, learning, leisure, inclusion and participation in the digital society.

DigComp was developed by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission as a scientific project, initially on behalf of the Directorate General for Education and Culture and, more recently, on behalf of the Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. In order to produce the framework, extensive literature review, case study research and stakeholder consultation processes were carried out.

More than 200 experts and a variety of stakeholders from Europe have been involved in developing DigComp. Updates and further elaborations of the framework were carried out in June 2016 (DigComp 2.0) and May 2017 (DigComp 2.1).

64 Written by Yves Punie, Riina Vuorikari and Marcelino Cabrer, Joint-Research Centre, European Commission. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the European Commission.

Currently, there is a great variety of DigComp practices across Europe demonstrating the many opportunities it offers for different aims in digital competence initiatives, including digital skills goal-setting and strategy design, the development of education and training programmes, competence assessment and recognition. These initiatives take place in various domains, including formal education and training, lifelong learning and employment for a wide range of stakeholders addressing different target groups, such as students, workers and jobseekers.

Primary stakeholders of DigComp are education and training policymakers at regional and national levels, educational and training experts and organizations, research and support agencies, employers and recruiters, economic development professionals, public administrators, professional associations and private firms. Digital competence initiatives by students, citizens, workers, small entrepreneurs, teachers and educators may also benefit from this work. Stakeholders report that the value of using the DigComp framework relates to its character as a European framework, its contribution to establishing a common language and framework for understanding of digital competence, the quality and flexibility of the framework and its guiding function for education and training actions.

5.2.1 What is DigComp?

Being digitally competent is more than being able to use the latest device or software. Digital competence is a key, transversal competence, emphasising the ability to use digital technologies in a critical, collaborative and creative way. DigComp is a conceptual reference model intended to support a comprehensive understanding of digital competence in everyday life, particularly learning. DigComp presents five competence areas which outline the key components of digital competence.

i) Information and data literacy: required to articulate information needs, to locate and retrieve digital data, information and content, to judge the relevance of the source and its content,

and to store, manage and organize digital data, information and content.

ii) Communication and collaboration: required to interact, communicate and collaborate through digital technologies and to manage one’s digital identity and reputation, while being aware of cultural and generational diversity. Required to participate in society through digital services and participatory citizenship.

iii) Digital content creation: required to create and edit digital content and to improve and integrate information, while understanding how copyright and licences are to be applied. Required to know how to give understandable instructions for a computer system.

iv) Safety: required to protect devices, content, personal data and privacy, physical and psychological health and social well-being;

required to be aware of the environmental impact of digital technologies and their use;

v) Problem-solving: required to identify needs and problems and to resolve conceptual problems and problem situations in digital environments, to use digital tools to innovate processes and products, and to keep up-to-date with the digital evolution.

In detail, DigComp sets out 21 competences that are described across eight proficiency levels through learning outcomes, from the most basic level to highly-specialised levels. Since DigComp has been designed to be a reference framework for digital competence, the framework is descriptive rather than prescriptive, highlighting the importance of all competences.

Further elaboration of the content and the level of the competences can be done by users, which makes the framework flexible and adaptable. Some effort may be required to adapt DigComp content to local goals and specific circumstances. The question of digital skills must be embraced consistently across the sectors and actors involved in education, training, support, employment and development.

Figure 5.2 How to swim in the digital ocean

5.2.2 Uptake of DigComp

The European Commission has prioritised and supported the development of digital skills through a range of policies and actions, working with Member States in supporting learners, employees, jobseekers and innovators in every setting. Digital competence is confirmed to be one of the eight key competences for lifelong learning following the adoption of the Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning in May 2018. DigComp represents a milestone of this journey; it is now regarded as the seminal contribution for the development of a Global Digital Literacy Framework, as proposed by UNESCO, within the context of the SDGs and GAML (UNESCO, 2018).

DigComp is widely used across EU Member States and beyond as a versatile tool to support digital competence building (see Figure 5.2). The recently-published user guide, DigComp into Action — Get

Inspired, Make It Happen (European Commission, 2018a), provides an overview of DigComp practices.

The guide demonstrates the inspiring level of use of DigComp to date across diverse sectors, and it highlights an important message: digital skills are relevant to every aspect of our lives. DigComp is being used and adapted by stakeholders across Europe to enable people to acquire the digital skills they need for participation in the workplace and to play an active role as confident citizens. The guide offers inspiration for using DigComp by providing a comprehensive overview of 30 examples describing their aims, achievements and the benefits and challenges of using the reference framework. Several overviews are offered to find the examples that may be of interest to the reader. The guide also sets out steps for implementation and use. The open participatory process underlying DigComp’s production and its public documentation is broadly appreciated by stakeholders.

Figure 5.2 How to swim in the digital ocean

Source: European Commission, 2018a.

The guide also provides links to resources and tools developed by stakeholders; for instance, it can support translating and adapting the framework to local contexts, by either addressing digital skills needs of intermediaries (teachers, trainers, youth workers, employment services, e-facilitators) or targeting individuals directly (jobseekers, workers, entrepreneurs). Digital competence training materials and self-assessment instruments are also developed. Work is also done to describe and detail digital competence professional profiles for certain professions. These include museum, library and university staff, civil servants, virtual office workers and professionals in industry 4.0, a current trend of automation in manufacturing.

The DigComp user guide aims to support the implementation process of DigComp, offer an opportunity to learn from each other and share a pool of available resources in different languages so that interested stakeholders can avoid starting DigComp initiatives from scratch (see Figure 5.3).

5.2.3 DigComp learning outcomes

foundation, intermediate, advanced and highly-specialised. These four levels can be further elaborated on by breaking them into eight levels, offering a more detailed description of progression criteria (see Figure 5.4). The eight levels provide the granularity needed to develop learning materials, assess and recognise learning progression and describe tasks and competences in detail. Each of the eight levels represents a further step by the citizens in three domains: the acquisition of the competence according to its cognitive challenge, the complexity of the tasks they can handle and their autonomy in completing the task. For each competence, eight proficiency levels are defined. Each one is written out as a learning outcome containing knowledge, skills and attitudes outlined in one single descriptor (8 proficiency levels × 21 competences = 168 learning outcomes).

Domains of digital competence development Stakeholders

Education and training

Life-long learning and inclusion

Employment

List of 30 case studies

List of 20 tools Figure 5.3 DigComp structure and components

Source: European Commission, 2018a.

Figure 5.4 Main keywords describing DigComp proficiency levels

The proficiency levels were inspired by the structure and vocabulary of the European Qualification Framework (EQF) and were defined as learning outcomes using action verbs following Bloom’s taxonomy.

For instance, an individual at proficiency Level 2 is able to remember and carry out a simple task, with help from somebody only when they need it.

However, a person at proficiency Level 5 can apply knowledge, carry out different tasks, solve problems and help others to do so as well.

5.2.4 Further work on digital competence frameworks

Further Joint Research Centre (JRC) work on DigComp, in collaboration with the European Commission’s Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, will consist of maintaining its support to stakeholders and continuing to

document and analyse its uptake and use. The development of a reliable and validated self-assessment instrument for DigComp will also be explored. Additionally, an analysis of the further applicability of DigComp to employability settings is planned. The latter is aimed to provide labour market

intermediaries, such as public employment services, with concrete tools for tackling skills mismatches and, on the other hand, up-skilling and re-skilling opportunities for individuals and sectors most in need of digital skills.

Digital competence development is also crucial for educators and educational organizations. The JRC published the Digital Competence Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu) at the end of 2017, and its purpose is to describe and define what it means for educators at all levels to be digitally competent.

It provides a general reference framework to support educator-specific digital competences in Europe. It consists of 22 competences for teaching in a digital society along six competence areas. This work is now continued with the development of an assessment instrument for DigCompEdu.

DigCompOrg is a comprehensive and generic conceptual framework that reflects all aspects of the process of systematically-integrating digital learning in educational organizations from all education sectors. The conceptual model was published by the JRC in 2015. It contains 7 key areas and 74 specific descriptors on digital age learning. While DigCompOrg is for all educational organizations, a Figure 5.4 Main keywords describing DigComp proficiency levels

Source: European Commission, 2018a.

specific tool for schools, the self-reflection tool for digitally-capable school (SELFIE), became available in 2018. SELFIE is a free, online application that schools in Europe and beyond can use to self-reflect on their level of digital capacity in order to develop an improvement plan. Both DigCompEdu and DigCompOrg’s SELFIE are developed by the JRC in collaboration with the European Commission’s Directorate General for Education and Culture.

Together, the three frameworks provide a comprehensive approach to capacity building for the digital transformation of education and training in Europe and the world at large. DigCompOrg is geared at educational organizations, DigCompEdu targets educators’ digital capacity, and DigComp addresses citizens, students, workers and intermediaries such as employment agencies. DigComp can help in bridging the digital divide, thus contributing to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It can be adapted to measure and increase the proficiency level of citizens’ digital skills and therefore foster greater proliferation of digital literacy, an explicit aim of SDG 4.