Barriers to lifelong learning and limited investment in training are holding back the European Union's efforts to close the digital skills gap by 2030, according to EU representatives and experts, who pointed to the need for increased support for upskilling and reskilling.
The European Commission has warned that the bloc is making slow progress in meeting the targets of 80% of EU adults having basic digital skills and 20 million ICT professionals in the bloc by 2030.
"We are not doing as well as we would like," said Georgi Dimitrov, Head of Digital Education at the Commission, at an event organized by EURACTIV.
According to Eurostat, in 2021 54% of people in the EU aged 16 to 74 had at least basic general digital skills, but this number varied widely, from 79% in the Netherlands and Finland to 28% in Romania. Moreover, this share drops to 26% when it comes to people with higher digital skills.
According to Dimitrov, the shortage of digital skills must be urgently addressed through education.
"We need to foster an effective ecosystem for digital education and constantly and continuously develop digital skills because they are changing all the time," he said, stressing the need to increase lifelong learning.
