İtobiad (Oct 2023)
Evaluation of Digital Skills Development Policies with the Examples of Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany
Abstract
Despite no consensus on its definition in the literature, digitalization - essentially coined thanks to the widespread integration of digital technologies into everyday life - is likely to bring diverse impacts to each country. The inevitability of digital technologies in contemporary daily life forces almost every country to design different strategies to encourage its citizens to adopt digital skills. In this sense, the present study aims to draw attention to the increasing demand for digital skills with digital transformation processes in selected countries and scrutinize these countries’ digitalization-specific policies and strategies. Accordingly, this case study focuses on three digitally competent European countries - the Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany - regarding their digital transformation processes and practices, strategies, and fundamental policies for improving their citizens’ digital skills. In this regard, we can assert that each country bears different digital strengths. While Sweden has an advanced digital economy and has rapidly started to transition to an efficient knowledge economy, Germany has a relatively high supply of digital skills to satisfy the increased demand by an innovation-oriented industry. The Netherlands, on the other hand, shines out by ranking first in Europe as about 80% of its population aged 16 to 74 years adopt digital skills. This study synthesized several strategies and objectives by using exemplary examples from different countries in the realm of digital skills development. In general, this research suggests that the achievement of digitalization success is contingent upon establishing social acceptance of digital transformation and embracing human-centric approaches throughout the process.
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