Congress on Digital Skills Congress on Digital Skills

Are we aware of the magnitude of the digital transformation and its impact in our society?

The Congress on Digital Skills "Driving inclusive digital transformation" will take place in Villanueva de la Serena (Extremadura) on 30th October 2018, with the aim of setting up a new framework that allows citizenship to fully benefit from the opportunities of digital transformation. The congress will address not only the improvement of living standards of all individuals, but also the challenges brought by this new paradigm to territories and communities, focusing on the digital skills needed for the socio-economic inclusion and empowerment of disadvantaged groups.

From European institutions to those who work directly with citizens, all actors must make a greater effort in order to redefine each others’ responsibilities and design attractive, creative and innovative collaboration strategies. Our common goal must be to enable communities of engaged, critical and competent citizens, so that digital transformation is based on equal opportunities, confidence and safety.

The Congress will anticipate a changing scenario where people are the main characters of a story guided by the quick digitalisation of economy, society, education, culture and communication. The territorial context of the congress is defined by a rural reality, where new ways of interacting, the IoE, hyperconnectivity, technology democratization or media skills become particularly challenging, due to the local and global perspective, highlighting the role of digital competence centres as reference for digital, information and media literacy.

On the other hand, disinformation, ciberbullying, hate speech, radicalization,… call for more information and media literacy, in order to enable citizens to benefit from the practical possibilities that a connected society and ever flowing information can provide, engaging more creatively, critically and effectively in them. Moreover, these actions are in line with the Sustainable Development Objectives that refer to the creation of inclusive, safe and resilient communities and the empowerment of disadvantaged groups, key elements for the inclusive approach of the Congress.

With the guidance of keynote speakers, the expertise shared during interactive sessions and the exchange of innovative experiences, the Congress will address a wide range of topics - from global issues related to European trends and policy, to regional and local projects that foster entrepreneurship, citizenship participation and confidence in digital technologies. The Congress aims at the creation of an inspiring framework for the design of collaboration strategies among different organisations and stakeholders, in order to translate digital opportunities into real opportunities for employment and social inclusion.

Programme


image

Plenary Sessions

Understanding digital competence as a global issue affecting our daily life, plenary sessions will address from those skills needed for taking part in the digital society, to the the role of digital competence centers in the citizenship awareness rising and training process. Plenary sessions will allow participants to foresee the path to follow in order to build resilient, safe and inclusive communities in the frame of digital transformation.

  • Digital skills, a global issue. DigComp, a framework for developing and understanding digital competence
  • The role of Digital Competence Centres for the inclusive digital transformation
  • Media and Information Literacy in the digital era
  • Youth, digitisation and inclusion
  • Future jobs, current challenges
image

Expertise exchange

Digital skill certification for the improvement of employability
Different experiences in the field of skills certification will be shared in order to analyse their impact in the improvement of people employability. Funcionality, scalability will also be part of this discussion, so that participants understand trends and applicatons of skills certifications, focusing on open badges, their potential and the technical part of their implementation.

Smart & rural, opportunities for all citizens
Digitalisation brings a great development potential to rural areas. Innovative experiencies that are taking place in small villages are the best examples to understand that potential and the challenges rural communities have to face to benefit from digital transformation. From the local experience of the first Smart City of Spain, to the National Strategy to create "smart rural villages". Estonia, as invited country, will share its experience as the most digital country in the world.
image

Interactive Sessions

The dynamic format of interactive sessions will allow participants to discover projects, tools and trends that are currently anticipating training needs and professional profiles of the near future. Citizenship empowerment and digital economy will be transversal issues during these 4 sessions:
  • Keys for youth work in the digital era (Esplai Foundation)
  • FabLab community for citizenship empowerment (European Network of Living Labs)
  • Heritage and digitisation, opportunities for territories (Foundation Santa María la Real - History and Heritage)
  • Pathways for Employ, assessment and acreditation platform based on the DIGCOMP (Tecnalia)
image

Networking hub

With practical demos, inspiring experiences and innovative resources.