Digital education for all in the spotlight

What did the Digital Education Stakeholder Forum bring and where does the EU stand in digital education?

On Tuesday 24 June, the European Commission organised its annual Digital Education Stakeholder Forum, which aims to foster a debate on digital education across a wide range of organisations. The conference brought together representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament, policymakers at national and regional level, teachers and educators at all levels, students, business and employer representatives and other experts on digital education.

The conference focused on taking stock of the achievements of the Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027 and on the Union of Skills, an integral part of which is the development of basic and advanced digital skills. During expert contributions, panel discussions and practical workshops, participants had the opportunity to discuss current topics and planned initiatives to support digital education. The conference also included an award ceremony for the winning teams of the Digital Education Hackathon 2024.

Digital education from different perspectives

The conference was opened by the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Roxana Mînzatu, who stressed the need to support digital skills for all EU citizens, as 90% of jobs already require at least basic digital skills and this need will only increase in the future. She also pointed out that, according to recent surveys, over 40% of 15-year-old students in the EU do not achieve an adequate level of basic digital skills and that Europe is facing a shortage of qualified people in STEM fields. Therefore, the European Commission wants to support the development of digital and STEM skills through two documents and the initiatives specified in them - the Action Plan on Basic Skills and the STEM Education Strategic Plan.

The keynote speech of the conference was presented by Hadi Partovi, founder of the organization Code.org, which supports the development of computer literacy and work with artificial intelligence in American schools. According to him, it is neither possible nor advisable to avoid artificial intelligence (AI) in schools, but on the contrary, it is absolutely essential to teach young people how to work effectively with technologies and AI. It is precisely in this way that educated students will have a clear advantage in the labor market in the future. He also pointed out that students who have a high level of computer literacy also achieve better results in reading and writing literacy. Anna Bajo Sanjuán, representing Santander Universidades, presented a report focused on future skills, which shows that a large part of currently employed people feel the need to further develop their skills (including digital ones), but perceive a lack of resources, information and opportunities for their further development. She also emphasized that businesses and educational institutions should share responsibility for initial and lifelong learning.

Practical examples and the future of digital education

Two panel discussions of the conference focused first on the Union of Skills and the future of digital education, and then on practical examples. The need for cooperation between all relevant actors, especially schools and education providers with employers, and cooperation between the European and national levels was emphasized. Furthermore, the need to support the professional development of teachers and educators was identified as one of the main prerequisites for successful digital education. The European Commission presented initiatives and activities that it wants to focus on in the future, including: the Girls Go STEM initiative (following on from the current Girls Go Circular), the so-called "STEM Skills Foundries", activities to support basic digital skills, guidelines for teachers and schools on various topics related to digital education, continued support for digital skills in programs such as Erasmus+ or Digital Europe, and others. The panel discussions also included two students sharing their experiences with the Girls Go Circular and DigiEduHack initiatives.

The entire morning session of the conference was streamed online and a recording is now available, including a short video presenting the results of the Digital Education Action Plan (at approximately 10:09:00).

Several practical workshops took place in the afternoon. One of them was a workshop on STEM education, which introduced organisations and initiatives working on this topic, including the STEM Coalition, initiatives of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (including the EIT Deep-Tech Talent and EIT Label initiatives) and the European Association for Apprenticeships. The panellists also highlighted the need for continuous development, greater emphasis on the involvement of girls and women in STEM fields and the support of STEM education in the context of vocational education and training (VET), including the contribution of VET to the development of innovation and applied research. Another workshop focused on the new draft version of the AI Literacy Framework. The framework is being developed by the OECD and the European Commission, with the support of Code.org, and its first version is already publicly available. It aims to help educators develop students' competences in four main areas: "Engaging with AI", "Creating with AI", "Managing AI" and "Designing AI". The AI Literacy Framework website currently offers a public consultation on the first version of the framework via a short questionnaire, with the final version expected to be published next year.

More information about the conference can be found on the European Education Area portal.