Question 1: Which digital competencies are relevant in my field of study?
Yasmine, History education coordinator

Answer: The word digital quickly brings to mind technology and IT. But it goes further than that. Every profession has to do with digital information. You can use the Digital Competence Indicator to find out in what form digital competencies should be incorporated into your educational profile. The pillar helps you to draw up new (digital) competencies for the History discipline. In this way, you can make your study programme future-proof.

Question 2: How do I implement digital competencies in the classroom?
Marion, Lecturer in Law

Answer: There is indeed a gap between a profile on paper and the practice of teaching. This is why we developed the Lesson Design Guide. This tool will help you choose attractive interactive teaching methods that fit in well with the digital competencies you want to teach your students.

Question 3: How do I include digital competencies in my lessons when my own are not good?
Benjamin, art teacher

Answer: Our Work format guide offers you all kinds of possibilities for work formats. These optimally combine your experience as a teacher and coach with students’ naturalness when it comes to technology. By the way, digital competencies are not so much about techniques and tool knowledge, but mainly about digital information. For example: how do you evaluate qualitative information, how do you add something, who uses it, and how do you communicate in the right way? Much more than technology alone.

Question 1: I grew up in a digital age. I play games and use my laptop every day. Am I not already digitally competent?
Samuel, student 

Many students already know how to work with technology and tools. And you will also master new technologies and interfaces more easily than people from previous generations. But do you know what lies under the ‘bonnet’ of all kinds of games, apps, machines and tools? Why do they work as they do? What digital information is involved and where does it come from? Why do you get to see certain information and others do not? In general, but also specifically in the field, you are studying? In short, it goes beyond apps, tools and technology. Digital information is everywhere, whether you become a language teacher, a nurse or an economist. In short: #Sayyes!  

Question 2: My internship supervisor asked me: how digitally future-proof are you? To be honest, I had no idea what he meant.  

Bart, student

Answer: future-proofing has to do with your digital competencies: what can you do with digital information? Can you find what you are looking for and create valuable digital content yourself? Do you know who you are doing it for and how to reach those people? Do you know, for example, how blockchain works or how the location facilities on your phone work? And for you as a student: how does digital information work in your future field? What is out there and what contributions can you make to that digital landscape? 

All these activities fall under digital competencies. These competencies are addressed in your education, but also in the work you do (later). How do you make this visible? With the Scan that we are going to develop! With it, you will know exactly how digitally competent you are.

Question 3: How do I learn about digital future-proofing from teachers of an older generation?   
Samira, student 

Answer: As a younger generation, you work more and more easily with new apps and tools than the previous generations. Often, you also learn to use new technologies more easily. But digital future-proofing is much more than just being able to use a tool. It’s also about the digital information under the ‘bonnet’ of those technologies. And about how you can make a valuable contribution to them, now and later. Your work will always change.  

But what will that look like in your future profession? That is what your lecturers – of whatever generation – know a lot about. The field, the landscape, the depth and the nuances. They help and guide you to put your young state of mind to good use so that in the future you can add wonderful new things to the digital world of your profession.  

Question 1: I have a trainee in my team. I don’t know what digital competencies this trainee has. How can I see the digital competencies relevant for us in the internship assignment?
Mehmet, team manager

Answer: With the Highway Patrol tool, you draw up an internship assignment together with the student and the internship supervisor from the study programme, in which the digital competencies – needed by your company – are visible. The tool is based on the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (EC). You work with the same competencies as the trainer, so there is agreement on what can be tested and evaluated.

Question 2: I am looking for graduates and young workers for our company. I want to know what digital competencies they have. Then I will know immediately whether they are a good fit for the company, or whether we need to ‘upskill’ them. How can I make a good match?
Demi, recruiter

Answer: Indeed, we often notice that there is a gap between education and the professional field. This gap exists because there is no agreement on what digital competencies exactly are, what they look like and which are important in a certain field.

We want to close this gap with the Digital Competence Indicator. The basis for this gauge is the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (EC). With this gauge, you can compare job profiles with the digital competencies from this Framework.

The trainer uses the same Digital Competence Indicator, creating a single language that you both speak. Because you use the same language, you can see at a glance whether there is a match between a job and a graduate. This ‘language’ of digital competencies thus forms the basis for Lifelong Learning.

Question 3: Can I collaborate with an educational institution to employ students in my company to strengthen each other’s digital skills?
Mariëlle, freelancer

Answer: A hybrid learning environment is probably a good solution for you. In such a hybrid learning environment, the labour market, education and the student work together on digitalisation issues in as integrated a way as possible. The aim is to offer practical challenges that are as realistic as possible. If you want to set to work in such a hybrid learning environment, complete the Start, Connect and Check tool. This will give you the right recommendations and get you started!