





































 

44 

 

 

 
 

 

 
https://www.designforsocialchange.org/journal/index.php/DISCERN-J 

 

ISSN 2184-6995 

 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 

International License. 

 

  

 

 
 

Digital job onboarding: an Erasmus+ project for digital upskilling of youth 
 
Eirini Papageorgiou 
 

Published online: May 2023 

 
To cite this article:  

Papageorgiou, E. (2023). Digital Job Onboarding: the Erasmus+ project for youth’s digital upskilling.  

Discern: International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 

4(1), 44-55. 

 

 

  



 

45 

 

Digital Job Onboarding: the Erasmus+ project for youth’s digital upskilling 
 
Eirini Papageorgioua 

 
aSYNTHESIS Center for Research and Innovation, Nicosia, 1101, Cyprus. eirini@synthesis-center.com 

 

Abstract 

For many people, digital working has become a reality, especially through on-the-job training during the 

COVID-19 pandemic. Students were home-schooled, and companies and offices operated distance working. 

Digital skills became a key determinant in the employability of young people, and dealing with these new 

digital job realities is assumed by potential employers. Millions of jobs requiring digital skills already exist, 

and more will be created in the coming decade. The demand for digital skills in the workplace has never 

been greater. However, unemployed (young) people, school leavers in the transition to work, who are not 

embedded in a supportive institutional framework, have widely missed this capacity-building opportunity. 

The target group for this project is youth not in employment, education or training (NEET), as well as other 

young people at risk of marginalization. This project aims to help job-seeking young people adapt to the 

“new normal” after COVID-19 by improving their digital skills. 

 

Keywords: Social impact, Innovation, Digital upskilling, Job onboarding, NEET, Youth, Unemployment, 

Employment, Education, Training, Young people 

 

Introduction 

Digital Job Onboarding (DJO - www.dj-training.eu) is an Erasmus+ project funded by the European Union 

which aims to familiarize youth with forms of new digital professional life, to upskill young people and to 

activate their career potential with a special focus on new forms of digital working. DJO’s overall objective 

and scope is to close the gap of the digital divide during job onboarding for vulnerable target groups, 

especially young unemployed people without academic educational backgrounds, by developing, testing 

and delivering a training programme. 

 

The programme is led by FH Joanneum Gesellschaft, one of the leading universities of applied sciences in 

Austria. Other members of the consortium are DEX Innovation Centre in the Czech Republic, which is a 

private innovation centre raising funds, creating new products, building startups and providing educational 

services, Fondazione Fenice Onlus, a training and research centre in Italy with specific skills in designing and 

implementing didactical and training activities in sustainable development, HAAGA-HELIA 

AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU, the second largest university in Finland, Jugend am Werk Steiermark GmbH in 

Austria, a non-profit organization providing social services to support children, young people and adults  

in all the ups and downs of life and SYNTHESIS Center for Research and Education in Cyprus, which initiates 

and implements social impact projects with a focus on social inclusion. All participating organizations are 

experienced in the fields of social innovation, education and training. 

 

Methodology 

As part of the project, an online survey was conducted, and several best practice examples have been 

collected in each partner country. The 3-month survey was held online via LimeSurvey and focused on 

current and future needs related to digital competencies in the workplace. It was addressed to 

representatives of the project’s target groups. During the survey, the consortium reached  

https://dj-training.eu/


 

46 

 

out to 252 employers, 238 companies and 233 unemployed young people in 5 countries: Austria, Cyprus, 

the Czech Republic, Finland and Italy. The main research questions were intended to inquire about what 

kind of digital skills are needed from the point of view of employers, as well as what kind of digital skills 

unemployed young people think they need to meet the demands of the current job market. 

 

Towards evaluating the importance of job fitness competencies, the best practice examples collected 

through interviews, concerned the following main categories: 1) Dealing with computer programs and PC 

software, 2) New forms of work and requirements for job duties in the future, 3) Personally organising the 

demands of present-day jobs, 4) Professional use of social media in professional applications and 5) Safe 

use of computers and the internet. 

 

Onboarding 

Onboarding is a process of adult learning. It often involves a series of training and orientation programmes 

providing new employees with knowledge of the organization’s vision, mission, operations, products, 

services and processes to build strong links between the employees and the organization. Onboarding is 

necessary for new employees to enable them to perform well in the new job and meet the organization’s 

expectations. Training also allows employees to improve their knowledge and skills, attitudes and 

confidence at work. 

 

Digital skills at the workplace: an overview 

Different definitions of digital skills or competencies exist, and different terms such as “digital literacy”, 

“digital competencies”, “ICT-related skills” and “e-skills” are often used synonymously and/or 

interchangeably. 

 

Digital skills are broadly described by UNESCO (2018) as the ability to use digital devices, communication 

application, and networks to access and manage information: 

Basic or essential digital skills are considered to be the following: 

• Email and instant messaging 

• Word processing 

• Social media for business 

• Web-based research and problem-solving 

• Data entry and handling 

• Behaving safely and legally online 

Advanced digital skills are considered to be the following: 

• User experience design 

• Coding 

• Programming, web, and app development 

• SEO, SEM, and content creation 

• Data analysis 

 

At the same time, digital competence is one of the Key Competences for Lifelong Learning (Council of the 

European Union, 2018). Based on its updated (2018) definition: 

 

“at work and for participation in society. It includes information and data literacy, communication 

and collaboration, media literacy, digital content creation (including programming), safety (including 



 

47 

 

digital well-being and competencies related to cybersecurity), intellectual property related questions, 

problem-solving and critical thinking ...”(Council of the European Union, 2018) 

 

Findings of the online survey: Current state in partner countries 

 

1. Dealing with computer programs and PC software 

 

 

1 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would be extremely important for me. 

6 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would not be important for me at all 

Figure 1:  Dealing with computer programs and PC software. 

 

For both target groups (employers and unemployed people) the average importance ratings are relatively 

low (employers = 2.75; unemployed people = 2.87). In the area of dealing with computer programs and PC 

software, there are clear differences between the target groups of employers/companies and unemployed 

people: 

• While the importance of training using a wide variety of software tools is expressed 

homogeneously among unemployed people, there is a clear preference among companies. 

• Classic software programmes for day-to-day work (office, mail programmes, online communication 

and browser programmes) are preferred from the company’s point of view as basic skills are 

important. 

• High-end programmes (online collaboration, project management, ERP solutions …), on the other 

hand, are losing their importance from the companies’ point of view, in contrast to  

unemployed people. 

 

2. New forms of work and requirements for the job duties in the future 



 

48 

 

 

1 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would be extremely important for me. 

6 = Training/ Competence for recently hired employees would not be important for me at all 

Figure 2: New forms of work and requirements for the job duties in the future. 

 

For both target groups (employers, and unemployed people), the average importance ratings are high 

(employers = 2.03; unemployed people = 2.21). In the target group of unemployed people, the various 

aspects of competences for new forms of work and requirements for job duties in the future are 

considered little differentiated in relation to their training needs. On the other hand, there are clear 

priorities from the point of view of the companies: 

• Competence in agile and flexible working 

• Competence in working in teams and 

• Competences in self-organization. 

 

Interestingly, the crucial global challenge of sustainable, ecological actions is regarded with more or less 

low relevance from the point of view of both target groups. 

 

3. Personally organising the demands of present-day jobs 

 

 

1 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would be extremely important for me. 

6 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would not be important for me at all 

Figure 3:  Personally organising the demands of present-day jobs. 

 

For the employers, the importance ratings are on average higher than for the unemployed people 

(employers = 1.67; unemployed people = 2.18). 

 

When it comes to skills for personally organising the demands of present-day jobs, there is a clear 

difference between the assessments of companies and unemployed people. 



 

49 

 

• Companies say that these skills are more important than unemployed people estimate their 

need for further training. 

• While in the case of work–life balance both groups express relatively uniform importance, 

aspects such as politeness/manners, self-management and time management are assessed 

with higher importance by the group of employers. 

 

4. Professional use of social media in professional applications 

 

 

1 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would be extremely important for me. 

6 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would not be important for me at all 

Figure 4: Professional use of social media in professional applications. 

 

For both target groups, the importance ratings are on average low (employers = 2.86;  

unemployed people = 2.82).  

 

When it comes to skills for using social media professionally (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, 

Xing, Twitter ...), the assessments of importance are for companies (in the direction of their employees) 

and unemployed people in terms of their need for further training exactly at the same level. However, the 

absolute level of importance in this area is generally relatively low. 

 

5. Safe use of computers and the internet 

 

 

1 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would be extremely important for me. 

6 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would not be important for me at all 

Figure 5:  Safe use of computers and the Internet. 

 

For the employers, the importance ratings are on average higher than for the unemployed people 

(employers = 1.52 = high score; unemployed people = 2.25). 

 

When it comes to skills for the safe use of computers and the internet, the assessments of importance for 

companies (in the direction of their employees) and unemployed people in terms of their need for further 



 

50 

 

training are very different. For companies, these competences are the most important of all five topics. 

They expect their employees to have very high qualifications in almost every aspect. For unemployed 

people, in contrast, there is less need for further training in these skills. 

 

Findings of the online survey. Current state in partner countries 

 

1. Dealing with computer programs and PC software 

The first competencies group is comprised of competencies for using computer programs and PC software: 

a) Microsoft Office (e.g. Excel, Word, PowerPoint) 

b) programmes for video conferencing (e.g. Teams, Zoom, Webex) 

c) programmes for surfing the internet/browsers (e.g. Firefox, Chrome, Edge) 

d) programmes for online collaboration (e.g. Miro, Mural, Google Docs) 

e) online project management (e.g. Trello, Asana) 

f) programmes for planning corporate resources (e.g. SAP, Microsoft Dynamics) 

g) programmes for editing files (e.g. Text Editor, Notepad) 

h) developing software (e.g. Visual Studio, Webstorm, Android Studio) 

i) programmes for automating tasks (e.g. macros, scripts) 

j) file-sharing programs (e.g. OneDrive, Google Drive) 

 

 

Figure 6:  1st Competence group - Competences for using computer programs and PC software. 

 

Most of the companies have the opinion that the competencies of Microsoft Office, video conferencing and 

surfing the internet are very important. The competencies of online collaboration and project 

management” seem to be very interesting only for Italian companies. Only three companies from the Czech 

Republic, Cyprus and Italy believe that this competence group is not important. All three companies belong 

to the production sector. 

 



 

51 

 

2. New forms of work and requirements for job duties in the future 

The second competencies group deals with new forms of work and requirements for job duties in the 

future. In the interviews the following points were raised: 

a) agile, flexible working 

b) entrepreneurial thinking 

c) self-organization 

d) teamwork 

e) networking 

f) sustainable & ecological action 

g) innovation and 

h) basic legal knowledge 

 

 

Figure 7:  2nd Competence group – New forms of work and requirements. 

 

Overall, all competencies are important for the companies in all participating countries. Only the 

competencies of networking and innovation have slightly less interest amongst the companies, and Czech 

companies in particular showed no interest in these subjects. 

 

3. Personally organising the demands of present-day jobs 

The third competencies group deals with the demands of present jobs and personal organising: 

a) work–life balance 

b) manners/netiquette 

c) time management 

d) self-management 

e) crisis management and 

f) goals achievement (i.e. ownership and decisiveness, prioritising and coping with uncertainty) 



 

52 

 

 

Figure 8:  3rd Competence group – Demands of present jobs and personal organising. 

 

The companies’ views towards this competence group show quite interesting national differences. In Italy, 

all competencies are of significant importance, while Czech companies see only time management as very 

important. Finnish companies are very interested in all sub-competencies of this competence group. 

 

4. Professional use of social media in professional applications 

The fourth competencies group is about competencies for professional use of social media in professional 

applications (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Xing and Twitter). The following issues were 

discussed: 

a) networking through social media 

b) overview of social media and 

c) creating your profile on social media 

d) not used in the company 



 

53 

 

 

Figure 9:  4th Competence group – Professional use of social media. 

 

5. Safe use of computers and the internet 

The fifth and last competences group concerns the safe use of computers and the internet, and the 

following issues were raised: 

a) safely browsing 

b) secure handling of sensitive applications like online banking 

c) secure handling of emails 

d) secure management of passwords 

e) secure handling of personal data 

f) secure use of social media and 

g) secure exchange of confidential files 

 

 



 

54 

 

Figure 10:  5th Competence group – Safe use of computers and the Internet. 

 

This competence group shows the greatest interest from all participating companies and nearly all 

companies. The companies that have shown a great deal of interest in these topics do not belong to the 

production sector. 

 

Conclusions 

 

Figure 11:  Average importance ratings in the 5 competency areas. 

 

Organizations value the importance of the five competency areas towards their employees. Unemployed 

people, on the other hand, value the importance of further training in these skills areas. We can still 

compare both importance ratings, as they also reveal an interesting picture: 

• The importance of training is rated relatively equally among unemployed people across all five 

competency areas. 

• It is different in companies: there are major differences between the individual competencies. 
From the point of view of the companies, three topics of competence are particularly important 
(ranking): 

1. Safe use of computers and the internet 
2. Personally organising the demands of present-day jobs (work–life balance, manners, 

self- and time management) 
3. New forms of work and requirements for job duties in the future or skills managing 

new forms of work (agility, entrepreneurial thinking, self-organization, teamwork, 
networking, sustainability, innovation and basic legal knowledge) 

 

 

 



 

55 

 

Next steps 

The completed study on (new) digital professional life and the current situation at workplaces, alongside 

the needs of employers and employees, will serve as the basis for the formulation of the content of  

a curriculum for a training programme targeted especially at 18-25-year-old unemployed youth. The 

curriculum will consist of 5 modules. This training programme will be implemented in the form of eLearning 

with links to physical learning (blended learning), suitable for learning at home but also in the workplace 

context. The curriculum will be streamlined according to the feedback collected during the implementation 

phase through work-related sustainability projects. 

 

References 

Atchoarena, D., Selwyn, N., Chakroun, B., Miao, F., West, M., & Coligny, C. (2017). Working group on education: digital 

skills for life and work. Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development; UNESCO. 

https://tinyurl.com/5x87rcc5  

Council of the European Union. (2018, June 4). Council recommendation of 22 May 2018 on key competences for 

lifelong learning. Official Journal of the European Union. https://tinyurl.com/57b7mcah  
Council of the European Union. (2020, November 4). Council recommendation of 30 October 2020 on a bridge to jobs 

– reinforcing the youth guarantee and replacing the Council recommendation of 22 April 2013 on establishing 

a youth guarantee. Official Journal of the European Union. https://tinyurl.com/4hwzrd96  

Digital Job Onboarding. (2022). Digital job onboarding PR1 report. https://tinyurl.com/3mv7kjmx  

Drucker, P. (1974), Management: Tasks, responsibilities, practices. Harper & Row. 
Statista (2022). Youth unemployment rate in EU member states as of January 2022. 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/266228/youth-unemployment-rate-in-eu-countries 

Statista (2022). Unemployment rate in the European Union as of June 2022, by country. 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1115276/unemployment-in-europe-by-country/ 

Unesco. (2018, March 15, last updated 2023, April 20). Digital skills critical for jobs and social inclusion. 

https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/digital-skills-critical-jobs-and-social-inclusion  
World Economic Forum. (2020). The future of jobs report. 

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2020.pdf 

 

https://tinyurl.com/5x87rcc5
https://tinyurl.com/57b7mcah
https://tinyurl.com/4hwzrd96
https://tinyurl.com/3mv7kjmx
https://www.statista.com/statistics/266228/youth-unemployment-rate-in-eu-countries
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1115276/unemployment-in-europe-by-country/
https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/digital-skills-critical-jobs-and-social-inclusion
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2020.pdf

	https://www.designforsocialchange.org/journal/index.php/DISCERN-J
	ISSN 2184-6995
	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
	Digital job onboarding: an Erasmus+ project for digital upskilling of youth
	Eirini Papageorgiou
	Published online: May 2023
	To cite this article:  Papageorgiou, E. (2023). Digital Job Onboarding: the Erasmus+ project for youth’s digital upskilling.  Discern: International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 4(1), 44-55.
	Digital Job Onboarding: the Erasmus+ project for youth’s digital upskilling
	Eirini Papageorgioua
	aSYNTHESIS Center for Research and Innovation, Nicosia, 1101, Cyprus. eirini@synthesis-center.com
	Abstract
	For many people, digital working has become a reality, especially through on-the-job training during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students were home-schooled, and companies and offices operated distance working. Digital skills became a key determinant in th...
	Keywords: Social impact, Innovation, Digital upskilling, Job onboarding, NEET, Youth, Unemployment, Employment, Education, Training, Young people
	Introduction
	Digital Job Onboarding (DJO - www.dj-training.eu) is an Erasmus+ project funded by the European Union which aims to familiarize youth with forms of new digital professional life, to upskill young people and to activate their career potential with a sp...
	The programme is led by FH Joanneum Gesellschaft, one of the leading universities of applied sciences in Austria. Other members of the consortium are DEX Innovation Centre in the Czech Republic, which is a private innovation centre raising funds, crea...
	Methodology
	As part of the project, an online survey was conducted, and several best practice examples have been collected in each partner country. The 3-month survey was held online via LimeSurvey and focused on current and future needs related to digital compet...
	out to 252 employers, 238 companies and 233 unemployed young people in 5 countries: Austria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Finland and Italy. The main research questions were intended to inquire about what kind of digital skills are needed from the poin...
	Towards evaluating the importance of job fitness competencies, the best practice examples collected through interviews, concerned the following main categories: 1) Dealing with computer programs and PC software, 2) New forms of work and requirements f...
	Onboarding
	Onboarding is a process of adult learning. It often involves a series of training and orientation programmes providing new employees with knowledge of the organization’s vision, mission, operations, products, services and processes to build strong lin...
	Digital skills at the workplace: an overview
	Different definitions of digital skills or competencies exist, and different terms such as “digital literacy”, “digital competencies”, “ICT-related skills” and “e-skills” are often used synonymously and/or interchangeably.
	Digital skills are broadly described by UNESCO (2018) as the ability to use digital devices, communication application, and networks to access and manage information:
	Basic or essential digital skills are considered to be the following:
	• Email and instant messaging
	• Word processing
	• Social media for business
	• Web-based research and problem-solving
	• Data entry and handling
	• Behaving safely and legally online
	Advanced digital skills are considered to be the following:
	• User experience design
	• Coding
	• Programming, web, and app development
	• SEO, SEM, and content creation
	• Data analysis
	At the same time, digital competence is one of the Key Competences for Lifelong Learning (Council of the European Union, 2018). Based on its updated (2018) definition:
	“at work and for participation in society. It includes information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, media literacy, digital content creation (including programming), safety (including digital well-being and competencies related to c...
	Findings of the online survey: Current state in partner countries
	1. Dealing with computer programs and PC software
	1 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would be extremely important for me.
	6 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would not be important for me at all
	Figure 1:  Dealing with computer programs and PC software.
	For both target groups (employers and unemployed people) the average importance ratings are relatively low (employers = 2.75; unemployed people = 2.87). In the area of dealing with computer programs and PC software, there are clear differences between...
	• While the importance of training using a wide variety of software tools is expressed homogeneously among unemployed people, there is a clear preference among companies.
	• Classic software programmes for day-to-day work (office, mail programmes, online communication and browser programmes) are preferred from the company’s point of view as basic skills are important.
	• High-end programmes (online collaboration, project management, ERP solutions …), on the other hand, are losing their importance from the companies’ point of view, in contrast to  unemployed people.
	2. New forms of work and requirements for the job duties in the future
	1 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would be extremely important for me.
	6 = Training/ Competence for recently hired employees would not be important for me at all
	Figure 2: New forms of work and requirements for the job duties in the future.
	For both target groups (employers, and unemployed people), the average importance ratings are high (employers = 2.03; unemployed people = 2.21). In the target group of unemployed people, the various aspects of competences for new forms of work and req...
	• Competence in agile and flexible working
	• Competence in working in teams and
	• Competences in self-organization.
	Interestingly, the crucial global challenge of sustainable, ecological actions is regarded with more or less low relevance from the point of view of both target groups.
	3. Personally organising the demands of present-day jobs
	1 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would be extremely important for me.
	6 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would not be important for me at all
	Figure 3:  Personally organising the demands of present-day jobs.
	For the employers, the importance ratings are on average higher than for the unemployed people (employers = 1.67; unemployed people = 2.18).
	When it comes to skills for personally organising the demands of present-day jobs, there is a clear difference between the assessments of companies and unemployed people.
	• Companies say that these skills are more important than unemployed people estimate their need for further training.
	• While in the case of work–life balance both groups express relatively uniform importance, aspects such as politeness/manners, self-management and time management are assessed with higher importance by the group of employers.
	4. Professional use of social media in professional applications
	1 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would be extremely important for me.
	6 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would not be important for me at all
	Figure 4: Professional use of social media in professional applications.
	For both target groups, the importance ratings are on average low (employers = 2.86;  unemployed people = 2.82).
	When it comes to skills for using social media professionally (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Xing, Twitter ...), the assessments of importance are for companies (in the direction of their employees) and unemployed people in terms of th...
	5. Safe use of computers and the internet
	1 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would be extremely important for me.
	6 = Training/Competence for recently hired employees would not be important for me at all
	Figure 5:  Safe use of computers and the Internet.
	For the employers, the importance ratings are on average higher than for the unemployed people (employers = 1.52 = high score; unemployed people = 2.25).
	When it comes to skills for the safe use of computers and the internet, the assessments of importance for companies (in the direction of their employees) and unemployed people in terms of their need for further training are very different. For compani...
	Findings of the online survey. Current state in partner countries
	1. Dealing with computer programs and PC software
	The first competencies group is comprised of competencies for using computer programs and PC software:
	a) Microsoft Office (e.g. Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
	b) programmes for video conferencing (e.g. Teams, Zoom, Webex)
	c) programmes for surfing the internet/browsers (e.g. Firefox, Chrome, Edge)
	d) programmes for online collaboration (e.g. Miro, Mural, Google Docs)
	e) online project management (e.g. Trello, Asana)
	f) programmes for planning corporate resources (e.g. SAP, Microsoft Dynamics)
	g) programmes for editing files (e.g. Text Editor, Notepad)
	h) developing software (e.g. Visual Studio, Webstorm, Android Studio)
	i) programmes for automating tasks (e.g. macros, scripts)
	j) file-sharing programs (e.g. OneDrive, Google Drive)
	Figure 6:  1st Competence group - Competences for using computer programs and PC software.
	Most of the companies have the opinion that the competencies of Microsoft Office, video conferencing and surfing the internet are very important. The competencies of online collaboration and project management” seem to be very interesting only for Ita...
	2. New forms of work and requirements for job duties in the future
	The second competencies group deals with new forms of work and requirements for job duties in the future. In the interviews the following points were raised:
	a) agile, flexible working
	b) entrepreneurial thinking
	c) self-organization
	d) teamwork
	e) networking
	f) sustainable & ecological action
	g) innovation and
	h) basic legal knowledge
	Figure 7:  2nd Competence group – New forms of work and requirements.
	Overall, all competencies are important for the companies in all participating countries. Only the competencies of networking and innovation have slightly less interest amongst the companies, and Czech companies in particular showed no interest in the...
	3. Personally organising the demands of present-day jobs
	The third competencies group deals with the demands of present jobs and personal organising:
	a) work–life balance
	b) manners/netiquette
	c) time management
	d) self-management
	e) crisis management and
	f) goals achievement (i.e. ownership and decisiveness, prioritising and coping with uncertainty)
	Figure 8:  3rd Competence group – Demands of present jobs and personal organising.
	The companies’ views towards this competence group show quite interesting national differences. In Italy, all competencies are of significant importance, while Czech companies see only time management as very important. Finnish companies are very inte...
	4. Professional use of social media in professional applications
	The fourth competencies group is about competencies for professional use of social media in professional applications (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Xing and Twitter). The following issues were discussed:
	a) networking through social media
	b) overview of social media and
	c) creating your profile on social media
	d) not used in the company
	Figure 9:  4th Competence group – Professional use of social media.
	5. Safe use of computers and the internet
	The fifth and last competences group concerns the safe use of computers and the internet, and the following issues were raised:
	a) safely browsing
	b) secure handling of sensitive applications like online banking
	c) secure handling of emails
	d) secure management of passwords
	e) secure handling of personal data
	f) secure use of social media and
	g) secure exchange of confidential files
	Figure 10:  5th Competence group – Safe use of computers and the Internet.
	This competence group shows the greatest interest from all participating companies and nearly all companies. The companies that have shown a great deal of interest in these topics do not belong to the production sector.
	Conclusions
	Figure 11:  Average importance ratings in the 5 competency areas.
	Organizations value the importance of the five competency areas towards their employees. Unemployed people, on the other hand, value the importance of further training in these skills areas. We can still compare both importance ratings, as they also r...
	• The importance of training is rated relatively equally among unemployed people across all five competency areas.
	Next steps
	The completed study on (new) digital professional life and the current situation at workplaces, alongside the needs of employers and employees, will serve as the basis for the formulation of the content of  a curriculum for a training programme target...
	References
	Atchoarena, D., Selwyn, N., Chakroun, B., Miao, F., West, M., & Coligny, C. (2017). Working group on education: digital skills for life and work. Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development; UNESCO. https://tinyurl.com/5x87rcc5
	Council of the European Union. (2018, June 4). Council recommendation of 22 May 2018 on key competences for lifelong learning. Official Journal of the European Union. https://tinyurl.com/57b7mcah
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