MEASURING COMPETENCE IN COMPUTER SKILLS

Abstract

The increasing importance of ICT in a knowledge-based economy highlights the needfor statistical information on its diffusion. In Italy, a few information is collected fromsample surveys on firms, while no information on labor force capabilities is available. Wecarried out a sample survey on individual skills, focusing on the use of core computer applications.The aim is to suggest an instrument that could be integrated into current labourforce surveys for improving statistics on human capital. The experiment was successfuland results highlight practical knowledge of different computer applications is limitedto some subsets of the population.