Supporting policies addressing the digital skills gap – Identifying priority groups in the context of employment

In a context of deficiency of digital skills in Europe to respond to the needs of the labour market, this report analyses the most recent data from Eurostat, OECD and CEDEFOP that refer to the digital skills gap in contexts of employment. In doing so it makes an attempt to clarify the differences between the existing data sets (relative to different methodological approaches) and concludes upon which would be the highest priority groups to take into account in those policies that seek to increase digital skills, providing a set of policy design recommendations. With this research we aim to bring some light to the two questions – 1. which type of gaps exist and 2. which would be the priority target groups for policy action – and through these, support several of the latest Digital Decade targets on digital skills also mentioned in the European Social Pillar Action Plan; the European Skills Agenda actions, including Action 2: Strengthening skills intelligence; Action 3: EU support for strategic national upskilling action; and Action 6: The Commission support to digital skills for all; and the Digital Education Action Plan, Priority 2, Enhancing digital skills and competences for the digital transformation.