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CO:RE

Key topic: Digital skills

The key topic youth digital skills addresses the following:

  • Why pay attention to digital skills?

  • What are youth digital skills & what do we know about them?

  • What are the consequences of digital skills?

  • What are the challenges ahead & what useful tips are there for educators and policy-makers?

Select one of the sub-sections of this key topic in the drop-down or scroll through them below.

This resource is is based on the CO:RE short report Youth digital skills: Insights from the ySKILLS project by Verónica Donoso [4]. The Youth Skills (ySKILLS) project aims to better understand digital skills and to and to study their impact on children’s wellbeing.

Why pay attention to digital skills?

Children and young people (CYP) use digital technologies for all sorts of tasks, such as socializing, looking for information, expressing themselves, playing videogames, keeping up with the news, learning, and so on. To be able to perform these and many other tasks online, digital skills are vital. As our society is making more and more use of digital technologies, the skills to navigate through the many options that technologies offer are valuable for children’s development, but also for their future jobs and participation in society . Moreover, digital skills can also serve as a protective factor for online risks and reduce potential harm coming from online risks [1] and are necessary for children and young people to fully participate in society [2]. As highlighted in the new European strategy for a better internet for kids (BIK+) :

“Digital skills and competences (including digital literacy and the understanding of the use made of personal data) are essential for today’s children, allowing them to learn, connect and be active and informed contributors in shaping the world around them.” [3]

Digital technologies are expected to play an even bigger role in the future through developments as automation and the use of artificial intelligence. Recently, the need for digital skills further increased when the COVID-19 crisis resulted in a rise of online and remote education. A child’s socio-economic status or age or gender should not stand in the way of developing digital skills. However, research shows that while access to the Internet is near-universal, the quality of such access, digital skills levels, the availability of support networks, and the outcomes of digital engagement are fundamentally different for disadvantaged people, including children and young people.

Some helpful resources on digital skills

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