New Digital Skills for Work QualificationsPosted on March 12th 2019

New suite of Digital Skills for Work Qualifications launched to help tackle the lack of digital skills faced by over 11 million adults in the UK.

Around 4.3 million (8%) of the UK population have no Basic Digital Skills according to the Basic Digital Skills Report 2018. The report also found that 11.3 million adults (21%) do not have all five Digital Skills of:

  1. Managing information
  2. Problem solving
  3. Communicating
  4. Creating
  5. Transacting.

The lack of digital skills is a barrier for adults in their careers. The report found that those lacking digital skills:

  • earn on average £13,000 less than those with all five digital skills
  • are less likely to progress in their careers
  • miss out from making significant savings through online transactions

The new Digital Skills for Work qualifications are based on the Essential Digital Skills Framework. The small, single unit, qualifications are designed to support learners to develop digital skills within a work-related context. They will help learners develop the digital skills to handle information, create and edit digital content, use online communication modes, work safely and responsibly and to identify and solve technical problems.

The small size of these qualifications makes them ideal to use in a short course, or alongside existing provision. They are available from Entry 1 to Level 2 and learners can progress to a higher level qualification in the suite, on to Employability Skills qualifications, or to further learning or employment.

Qualifications in the suite

Qualification Specification – Digital Skills for Work – E1-L2