Recital 12

(12) Digital skills, basic and advanced, as well as other skills, including in the domains of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), are essential to speeding-up the adjustment of the Union industry to structural changes. It is intended that digitally empowered and capable citizens, including those with disabilities, are able to take advantage of the opportunities of the Digital Decade. To pursue that aim, there should be a focus on education to ensure that the education community, in particular teachers, is adequately trained, skilled and equipped to use technology effectively in its teaching methods and is able to teach digital technologies to ensure that students are better equipped to enter the labour market in the short and longer term. Digital education and training should also enhance the Union’s attractiveness for high-skilled professionals who have acquired advanced digital skills and their availability on the Union labour market. The Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2021 published by the Commission states that even before the COVID-19 pandemic Union businesses, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), struggled to find information and communications technology (ICT) professionals in sufficient numbers. Digital training and education should therefore support all the actions to ensure that the workforce is equipped with the necessary current and future skills supporting the mobilisation of, and the incentive for, all relevant stakeholders to maximise the impact of investments in improving existing skills (upskilling) and training in new skills (reskilling) as well as life-long learning by the active population, in order to ensure that full advantage is taken of the opportunities of the digitalisation of industry and services. Non-formal digital training provided by employers in the form of learning-by-doing should also be encouraged. Education and training will also bring concrete career incentives to avoid and eliminate differences in opportunities and treatment between women and men.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-08 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.