The European Commission is determined about closing the digital skills gap and supporting initiatives and plans to raise the standard of digital literacy in Europe.

Many Europeans lack the necessary digital skills despite the fact that these skills are of utmost importance for studying, working, accessing public internet services and locating reliable information. According to the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), every third worker and four out of ten adults in Europe lack fundamental digital skills. To ensure that 70% of adults possess fundamental digital skills by 2025, the European Commission has set goals in the European Skills Agenda and the Digital Education Action Plan. 

In line with the Commission’s effort in tackling digital skills gap, the European Classification of Occupations, Skills and Competences (ESCO) introduced the digital label, which distinguishes the digital skills and knowledge competences that are part of the ESCO classification. The labelling of concepts related to digital skills and knowledge is done in five steps, combining machine learning (ML) algorithms with human labelling and validation.

As a result of this procedure, 1,201 ESCO skills and knowledge concepts have been classified as digital. This includes: 718 skills, 475 knowledge concepts and 7 transversal skills. The new digital labels for ESCO skills and knowledge concepts contributes to an analysis of the labour market with new insights, and the following stakeholders can particularly benefit from it: public employment services, education providers, policy makers, researchers.

The digital concepts are available on the ESCO portal, in the Download section (choose the latest version of the classification and the digital skills collection will be included in the dataset downloaded). 

To learn more about the methodology used to label digital skills and access its results and use cases, please visit the following links:

• ESCO Data Science team blog post on Digital Skills and Knowledge Concepts
• Technical Report: Digital Skills and Knowledge Concepts: Labelling the ESCO classification

For any questions or support, please contact EMPL-ESCO-SECRETARIAT@ec.europa.eu.