Exploration of E-skills

The government aims to maintain and strengthen the Netherlands' leading position in the use and (smart) application of ICT. It has been shown that ICT makes a significant contribution to innovation and productivity, thus also to economic growth. Moreover, ICT can help alleviate bottlenecks in various societal sectors. Digital applications play a crucial role in the knowledge economy, but the benefits of these applications can only be realised when ICT users have sufficient digital skills. Only then will ICT lead to increased business activity, employment, and greater participation in the information society. Merely possessing numeracy and literacy skills is no longer sufficient. The (professional) population must also have digital skills, and these skills must be applied in businesses and societal sectors such as healthcare and education. The action programme Society Sectors & ICT (M&ICT) focuses on the sectors of healthcare, education, security, and mobility. The programme aims to enable sectors to benefit from experiences and knowledge gained in other sectors through ICT. In this way, obstacles in individual sectors can be reduced. A cross-sector theme in this programme concerns eSkills, which involves informing, educating, and training both professional users (such as teaching staff, security personnel, and healthcare providers) and end-users who have to work with ICT applications (such as consumers, citizens, and students). At the request of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Dialogic is conducting an exploration of initiatives in the field of electronic skills of professional ICT users in the four sectors healthcare, education, security, and mobility. This exploration is being carried out in the context of the development of the government's vision on eSkills.