The European Commission highlights that nearly half of EU adults still lack basic digital skills, even though 90% of jobs now require them, posing a major challenge to Europe’s economic competitiveness. Digital skills are essential for daily life, advancing STEM learning, and enabling active, informed citizenship. Demand is growing for competencies in cybersecurity, AI, and digital collaboration, especially with the rise of remote work and online communication.

This year, the Commission published a communication on the Action Plan on Basic Skills and the Union of Skills, setting out key actions. To boost digital skills across Europe, it will update the Digital Competence Framework in 2025 to include emerging technologies like AI, develop guidelines to strengthen digital literacy in vocational education and training (VET), and create a toolkit to integrate basic skills into apprenticeships. The Commission will also promote high-quality teaching materials through EU Code Week and develop EU-wide best practices by 2026 for assessing digital skills in schools to ensure consistent evaluation.

Following the midway point of the Digital Education Action Plan adopted in 2020, the Commission will present a 2030 Roadmap in 2025 to promote equal access to digital education, support AI literacy, and build long-term partnerships with EU-based EdTech providers. Separately, it will implement a STEM Education Strategic Plan to encourage more students, especially girls and women, to pursue STEM studies and careers, while using Erasmus+, the Digital Europe Programme, and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) to establish transnational university-business partnerships to train people in sectors with severe skills gaps.

In the run up to EU Code Week 2025, which will take place from 11-26 October, join this Euractiv Virtual Conference to take stock of the Digital Education Action Plan just after its halfway mark and explore what’s next for digital skills in Europe. Some questions to be discussed include:

– What does examining the Digital Education Action Plan at its midway point reveal about its successes and challenges? What will be the focus for the second half?
– What should the 2025 update of the Digital Competence Framework include to reflect emerging technologies and support digital skills development?
– What role do digital skills play in improving the EU’s global competitiveness, and which sectors could benefit most from stronger digital capacities?
– Is current EU action enough to close the digital skills gap, or is more legislation and investment needed, and if so, on which areas should it focus?

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