Paving the way for digital literacy in non-formal adult education
In modern European societies, where there is an ever increasing need for digital competence among citizens, 44% of Europeans still lack basic digital skills. The Digital Competences Development System (DCDS) project aims to provide a solution to this challenging reality.
To achieve this aim, the project will develop an open, innovative multilingual Digital Competences Development System (DCDS) and use it to provide non-formal training to low-skilled adults. The Digital Competences Development System (DCDS) aligned to the European Digital Competence Framework (DigComp v.2.1) will contribute to promote the use of this Framework by non-formal training providers and its adoption by policy makers around Europe.
That is expected to be a significant step towards a more digital competent European society.
“Upskilling” in Practice
The upskilling process of the low-qualified adults has been an important concern and priority of the European Commission policy. The climax of the actions taken towards that direction has been the launch of the “Upskilling Pathways: New Opportunities for Adults” initiative. The initiative addresses to the inclusive participation and access of low-qualified adults to lifelong learning opportunities.
The DCDS project responds to the need for upskilling of digital competences among adult learners within non-formal education. It develops and enhances basic digital skills among these learners. At the same time, it offers policy and educational stakeholders an opportunity to establish cooperation and coordination practices across different policy fields and levels.
EAEA, who is a partner in the project, will coordinate the “Peer Reviewing & Capacity Building” activities of the project.
A legacy for the future
The integrated modular system built by the DCDS project will enable low-skilled adults to develop basic digital and transversal competences related to employment, active citizenship and e-inclusion. Although the system will be fully functional upon its release it will be always open to new content, tools and practices. Moreover the project will enable policy makers and training providers in non-formal education to improve their outreach and services.
In the long run the project will empower citizens, training providers and policy makers to effectively address one of the key challenges that modern European societies face, the lack of digital skills. That will be achieved through the assessment of learning needs, valorization of existing skills and finally effective design and delivery of training.
