DELSA - Enhanced Employability For Digitally Upskilling Adults.

Digital skills and competences are increasingly crucial not only for employability but also for civic

and social participation. While new generations are accustomed to daily use of ICT and develop

digital skills at young age, adults lag behind. Young people are “digital natives”, but adults need to

acquire digital skills and competences not to be left out from socio-economic opportunities.

Ireland scores low in international rankings for digital skills. The 2013 OECD International

Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), Survey of Adult Skills clearly shows the need to

intervene fast on Digital Skills for adults:

• 42% of adults in Ireland score at or below Level 1 in Digital Skills proficiency

• 18% of adults refused to take the computer-based assessment.

• 38% of adults in Ireland have no experience with computers and lack basic digital skills

The situation in Europe is not better: according to EU Commission, “Digital Competence

Framework for Citizens”, 2016

• 40% of Europeans have insufficient or no Digital Skills

• of those, 42% are unemployed

There is an immediate need to provide low-skilled adults (a considerable part of population) with

practical and operational learning opportunities to improve digital competences.

Against this background, DELSA has the objective of improving digital skills and competences of

low-skilled adults to enhance their socio-economic empowerment and increase their

employability. DELSA consolidates under the concept of “entrepreneurship” the key traits of

“Digital Skills” according to OECD and EU definitions, in particular the “Digital Competence

Framework DigComp 2.0” that identifies digital competence in 5 areas:

1) Information & data literacy

2) Communication & collaboration

3) Digital content creation

4) Safety

5) Problem solving

DELSA pools the expertise and capacity of 7 partners from 6 countries, representing the various

dimensions of adult education for up-skilling adults, with a strong emphasis on Digital Skills. The

partenrship encompassess public sector, private sector, adult education forman and non-formal

providers and ICT/Tech partners. Roles are distributed among partners to capitalise on their

specific expertise and carry out the following activities:

• Activity 1: Develop the DELSA OER Platform for FREE and OPEN access to digital skills learning

• Activity 2: Assess specific capacity and training gaps in digital skills for low-adults

• Activity 3: Develop concrete and user-friendly educational tools and content

• Activity 4: Deliver adult education courses and involve at least 200 low skilled adults to increase

their Digital Skills

DELSA partners have strong experience in ICT and adult education. DELSA aims at becoming a

sustained platform for digital adult education. Project partners will exploit and mainstream project

results after the end of the project to better sustain digital skills and comeptences to up-skill

adults in the long term.

Website: http://www.digitaldelsa.eu/index.php