Digital Skills - What are they and Why are they important?
Digital skills are the skills needed to find, evaluate, utilize, share and create content using information technologies and the Internet. Digital skills can be basic, such as the ability to use email or online banking, through to more advanced skills such as programming. As many services move online, basic digital literacy skills are now required by the entire population. These skills are needed to carry out essential functions such as digital communication or basic internet searches in a secure way. Because of this, the House of Lords in the United Kingdom recently stated that digital skills should be treated with the same importance as numeracy and literacy.
Advanced digital skills are those needed to control and create with digital technologies. These skills include software programming, developing algorithms, managing and analysing large amounts of data, implementing and managing digital hardware and networks, and cyber security.
No matter what industry our students intend to go into, digital technology is beginning to make an impact and we need to prepare our students for the future.