‘We all need digital skills, regardless of our age, place of residence or occupation. Why? Because almost all of us are Internet users,’ said Krzysztof Gawkowski, Minister of Digital Affairs, during the conference ‘Digital Skill Summit. Tomorrow's skills in the digital economy’.
The Deputy Prime Minister in Donald Tusk's government emphasised that the list of areas in which digital skills will be needed will continue to grow: ‘They will affect the labour market, science, health and administration. Today, there is probably no sector that we could say will not be affected by digital change. Therefore, digital tools will be present in each of these areas, and digital skills will become essential for us to be able to use these tools.’
Therefore, in the opinion of the Minister of Digital Affairs, it is necessary to educate new specialists in the field of ICT, support the development of digital competences among public administration employees in order to ensure the full digitisation of services provided by the state, as well as educating the public so that 85% of the population acquires basic digital competences and at least half has above-basic skills in this area, because today only 22% of Poles have above-basic digital competences.
Krzysztof Gawkowski presented the initiatives of the Ministry of Digital Affairs aimed at developing digital competences, such as: the Intergenerational School, the eFajfy project for senior citizens, cyber lessons, the ‘In the digital world’ campaign and the creation of a network of local Digital Development Clubs, for which the government will allocate PLN 1 billion, as well as the ‘Become a Digital Expert’ competition, which aims to support women in the technology industry in their digital development, but also in their career advancement opportunities.
The Minister of Digital Affairs pointed out that it is also crucial to invest in the development of digital competences in the field of recognising and counteracting disinformation in order to ensure the information security of citizens, because ‘disinformation is a problem today that affects the areas of the state that are most sensitive, because they need information quickly’.
‘We are currently the most developed country in the European Union in terms of digital services. We are envied for this throughout Europe,’ he said, noting that at the same time, it would be most unfortunate to leave more than half of the population unaware of how to use digital tools. ‘Now that we have learned to produce great things, we must quickly learn and make up for lost time so that the whole society can acquire digital skills.’
Digital education and increasing digital skills in society are key elements of the State Digitisation Strategy prepared by the Ministry of Digital Affairs. The Deputy Prime Minister assured that these issues should be resolved by 2035.
The Digital Skill Summit, which took place on 26-27 November, was organised by the Ministry of Digital Affairs and NASK. On the first day, participants enjoyed inspiring presentations and discussion panels, and on the second day, practical workshops organised by institutions involved in the PW eSkills initiative.
