According to the OECD (Government at a Glance, 2015), the main challenge faced by both procuring entities and potential bidders and suppliers to use e-procurement systems are low knowledge and skills of ICT (44%). In its Digital Government Toolkit the OECD also higlights the need for ICT skills of civil servants, including the advanced use of new technologies in carrying out internal tasks, delivering services and engaging with outside actors, skills for the use of data for policy modelling, evaluation, data analytics and data mining to support policy, service delivery and impact evaluation, project and business case management skills as well as skills in the public sector for supporting engagement and participatory processes.
In a recent publication the World Bank indicates (Digital Dividends, 2016) that while nobody can predict the full impact of technological change in coming decades, which may be faster and broader than previous ones, 'what is clear, however, is that policy makers face a race between technology and education, and the winners will be those who encourage skill upgrading so that all can benefit from digital opportunities'.
The European Commission has recently adopted a new and comprehensive Skills Agenda for Europe, launching 10 concrete actions to ensure that the right training, the right skills and the right support is available to people in the European Union. As part of the initiative, the Commission is launching the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition whereby Member States are invited to develop comprehensive national digital skills strategies. As stated in the Communication, 'Access to services, including e-services, is changing and requires that both users and public administrations have sufficient digital skills'.
Should the digitial skills strategies have a specific focus on civil servants? What solutions would you suggest to pursue these objectives?
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As digitisation is transforming our societies and the way we work, digital skills are now a key competence to participate in our society. And yet, 100 million Europeans have never used the Internet, one third of all workers have insufficient digital skills and we're heading towards a situation where we may lack as many as 750 000 ICT professionals by 2020. We all collectively need to do more to boost digital skills.
This is why the New Skills Agenda for Europe announced the launch of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition, a partnership gathering all stakeholders and Member States to pledge actions and share best practices to reduce the digital skills gaps in Europe.
The Coalition will be officially launched on the 1st of December at a high-level conference at the Square Brussels.
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An example in Portugal: https://www.oecd.org/governance/observatory-public-sector-innovation/innovations/page/newlearninginthecitizenshopsandcitizenspots.htm
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The UK’s National Audit Office has released new information on what the Government will need to do to adequately confront looming digital challenges. It will need to hire an additional 2,000 employees over the next five years who have adequate digital training. In addition, another GBP 725 billion will be needed over the course of the same period on digital training for staff. See: http://www.itpro.co.uk/strategy/28372/uk-needs-725m-to-boost-public-sector-digital-skills
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The OECD’s Recommendation of the Council on Digital Government Strategies and Observatory of Public Sector Innovation (OPSI), both highlight the need to address skills issues to boost capacity of governments to leverage the full benefit of the digital transformation and innovation in the public sector. As part of its H2020 work program executed in partnership with the European Commission, the OPSI, with the Public Employment and Management working party (PEM), has fleshed out a framework which identifies six core skills areas (iteration, data literacy, user centricity, curiosity, storytelling, insurgency) that have been observed in civil servants and that can be activated for increased levels of innovation in the public sector.
Are these skills sufficiently tackling the challenges of a public sector that is moving towards the principles highlighted in the eGovernment Action Plan and Tallinn Declaration (eg. digital by default, once-only principles, etc.)? What are the opportunities to make civil servants ready for the challenges posed by the digital transformation of government?
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