Boosting Digital Skills and Web Accessibilities on the Workplace

The European Commission is promoting various initiatives, all centered around a common goal: to increase digital skills and competences in the workforce. These initiatives cover several areas such as the enhancement and /or development of digital platforms for the recognition and validation of skills.

Europe is increasingly aware that a knowledge-based society requires new skills and competences, and that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and social media are core to this shift. In 2006, in a study conducted by the European Commission Institute for Prospective Technological Studies together with DG Education and Culture, the trends of ICT technology were then labeled ‘learning spaces’ (Punie, 2007; Punie & Cabrera, 2006). But since then, how are social media further impacting these spaces in our knowledge-based society? Recent trends in Education point to the personalization of learning spaces (organizing knowledge according to one's personal preferences), and networking with others as two dimensions that will drastically expand such spaces. In sum, the development of personal and social digital skills are core for the full participating in learning in the context of a knowledge-base society.

In 2016 the European Commission published a new Skills Agenda for Europe, presenting a number of actions and initiatives with the ambition to tackle the digital skills’ deficit in Europe.

The Agenda has at ultimate goal to “trigger a change of mindsets in both individuals and organizations”. It is focused on three key work strands:

1.Improving the quality and relevance of skills formation

2.Making skills and qualifications more visible and comparable

3.Improving skills intelligence and information for better career choices

Given what is described above, we are proposing a series of workshops with the purpose of training participants in a number of strategic tools that can benefit their Higher Education Institutions.