Editors' Foreword

• Author: Castaño, Jonatan; Centeno, Clara; Jakobsone, Mara; Kluzer, Stefano; Troia, Sandra; Vuorikari, Riina; Cabrera, Marcelino; O'Keeffe, William; Zandbergs, Uldis; Clifford, Ian; Punie, Yves
• Pages: 8-8

DigCompSAT: A Self-reflection Tool for DigComp

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Editors’ Foreword

Digital technology is transforming traditional structures, methods and assumptions about how we com-

municate, learn, work and live. In particular, digital competence is increasingly needed for employment and

career development. The European Commission has prioritised and supported digital skills development

supporting employees and job seekers in every setting with DigComp, the European Digital Competence

Framework for citizens. DigComp is a reference framework that describes what it means to be digitally

competent. It can be used across sectors, disciplines and systems to enable people to develop digital

competence. DigComp sets out the 21 competences necessary to be digitally competent and maps these across

8 proficiency levels, from the most basic to advanced levels. Digital competence is a key transversal

competence. It defines what it means being able to use digital technologies in a critical, collaborative and

creative way. DigComp supports this comprehensive understanding of digital competence, including issues such

as information storage, digital identity, developing digital content and behaviour online, in everyday life such

as working, shopping and participating in society.

The European Commission launched in September 2020 the new Digital Education Action plan to foster the

development of a high performing digital education ecosystem (priority 1) and to enhance digital skills and

competences for the digital transformation (priority 2). Quite a number of actions under priority 2 deal with

the further development of digital competence in general, and DigComp in particular, such as the update of

the framework (version DigComp 2.2) and the development of a European Digital Skills Certificate. The self-

reflection approach in this report is to be seen as an initial contribution to these.

By testing empirically DigComp 2.1, the methodology presented in this report aims to inspire users to build

their own self-reflection tools. The item bank presented in 3 languages in the annexes has been co-created by

the authors and refined by a number of experts, which gives them further validity. The items are focused on

employment and career development needs. We trust that an iterative process of consultations with experts

and users has been key for the psychometric properties of this self-reflection tool, in particular for the validity

and internal consistency of the items. It is to be noted that the set of items used should take into account the

ever -and fast- changing of digital innovations and uses. Therefore, the item bank here developed will need to

evolve accordingly.

In addition to DigComp, the European Commission has developed related digital competence frameworks for

educators (DigCompEdu) and for educational organisations (DigCompOrg), as well as for entrepreneurial

competences (EntreComp) and personal, social and learning to learn competences (LifeComp). In particular

for schools’ digital capacity, a free online self-reflection instrument exists (SELFIE) and for teachers, it is under

development.

These competence frameworks and tools, and related studies on “Learning and Skills for the Digital Era” are

part of JRC research since 2005. More than 30 major studies have been undertaken resulting in more than 140

publications. Further information on all our studies can be found on the JRC Science hub:

https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/research-topic/learning-and-skills