International Literacy Day: the significance of digital literacy
Discover European initiatives to further enhance digital literacy and foster sustainable and peaceful societies
Today marks International Literacy Day (ILD), a reminder of the crucial role literacy plays in upholding dignity and human rights. Literacy serves as a fundamental pillar for education and a lifelong learning aligning with Sustainable Development Goal 4’s aim to ensure inclusive, equitable and quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Therefore, this years’ theme of ILD is ‘Promoting literacy for a world in transition: Building the foundation for sustainable and peaceful societies’.
In the current digital landscape, digital literacy has become more important. It allows people to find, evaluate and communicate information through digital technology and take part in a society where technology is used in a lot of different areas of our lives, including work and education. Statistics from Eurostat show that 54% of the EU’s population aged 16-74 had at least a basic level of digital literacy in 2021.
To further increase digital literacy in Europe, various initiatives have been created. One such initiative is the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform that helps people to advance their digital skills and knowledge by providing open access to up-to-date content, and dynamic and collaborative spaces. A wide variety of training materials is available for all different levels of digital skills, from web basics to Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality.
Similarly, data.europa.eu, and specifically the data.europa academy, continues to provide courses to help in the further development of digital literacy. Learning how to incorporate open data into applications, improving open data and metadata quality and creating data visualisations with impact are just a few of the courses available. These initiatives are easily accessible and can enhance your digital literacy.
Are you curious to know your level of Digital Literacy? Conduct the digital skills test on the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform and see where you can continue to learn and grow.
For more news and events, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, or subscribe to our newsletter