Thedigital transition concerns everyone, but not all workers benefit equally. Many are not exposed to digital technology or are employed in low-skilled, routine and non-complex jobs. This report presents valuable data from Cedefop’s second European Skills and Jobs Survey (ESJS2), covering more than 46 000 adult workers in 29 European countries. It illustrates the impact of the pandemic, maps the use of different types of digital technology and reflects their implications for changing tasks, skills needs and skills mismatches. The wealth of new evidence supports the EU’s digital and skills agendas and their ambitious goals. In this report, Cedefop advocates putting the well-being of workers and quality jobs at the heart of Europe’s digital transition.
This report clearly shows that the digital transition is primarily a skills transition, not an uncontrollable job that destroys Megatrend. Some jobs will be lost and some tasks will be taken over by robots or other technologies, but at the same time new jobs and tasks will emerge. EU policies on digitalisation, education and (vocational) training and skills rightly underline the importance of Europe’s citizens having the necessary opportunities and means to develop, update or update their digital skills. To be fully effective, such policies need to be complemented by innovative approaches to promote the use of skills in the workplace, by reshaping or redesigning jobs, maximising their learning potential, empowering workers or new approaches to work organisation.
Differences in the uptake of teleworking and the use of new digital technologies in the workplace are widening the digital divide in European labour markets. EU skills policy can help make lower-skilled jobs more resilient so that future health crises, social emergencies and other shocks can be better managed. This implies promoting and marketing more systematically the potential of digital technologies for sustainable work. Good practices showing how companies in vulnerable sectors and occupations have managed to survive the pandemic shock and thrive with digital technology can inspire policymakers to make labour markets and societies more resilient.
EU policies in the digital, social, VET, skills and related policies already have a strong focus on bridging the digital divide. ESJS2 evidence confirms the importance of general approaches that recognise that real change is not taking place with measures that take as a starting point a universal principle. In addition to bridging the fundamental digital skills gaps of adult workers in (very) low digital intensity jobs, people exposed to technological innovation in digitally intensive and highly skilled jobs can also benefit significantly. The most important design principles include combating the technological breakdown of skills and the ability of workers to reap the full benefits of the new digital technology. A more systematic approach to the design and delivery of CVET contributes to raising workers’ awareness of their learning and productivity potential.
The report
shows that despite the digitalisation momentum of the pandemic, the lack of investment in digital infrastructure and slow progress in adapting to new digital ways of working remain a reality for many of the current jobs in the EU. Better coordination between tax, digital, social, VET, skills and related policies and ecosystem-based thinking of systematic skills can help increase the number of more digitally complex jobs and facilitate the design of incentives to boost the digital upskilling of workers.
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implementing digital, VET, skills and related policies, priority should be given to reaching out to workers most in need of digital skills training (prioritising low-educated and older workers, women, people living in rural areas or people employed in low-skilled or semi-skilled jobs and smaller establishments). Skills identification, validation and guidance for mapping workers’ (informal) digital skills facilitates the transition to jobs that make better use of their digital skills. It is important to close the information gaps resulting from the lack of technology exposure. Such gaps are an obstacle to adult workers’ acceptance and uptake of technology and reduce the likelihood of investing in their digital skills.
Increasing the demand for skills and the complexity of jobs in European companies through demand-side interventions is key to making better use of the skills of European workers. They complement supply-side measures to tackle skills mismatches (e.g. better knowledge of the labour market, career guidance and counselling, provision of VET), which – although essential in themselves – cannot fully overcome mismatches. In order to implement effective labour innovation programmes, it is essential to strengthen managerial education and training and to present examples of good practice in human-centric job design and digital investment. Evidence and policies can support companies in aligning companies’ digital and innovation strategies with investment in skills and skills practices and help them strengthen, achieve or regain competitiveness.