Digidel 2017 – increased digital inclusion and competences

Digidel is a national programme meant to strengthen cooperation and increase the efforts made by the public sector and ICT sector as well as voluntary enterprises in the areas of digital competence and inclusion.
The programme aids in the training of groups that do not use ICT as part of their everyday life, and help them acquire the skills needed to master these technologies. Digidel 2017 is run by the Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation.
Digidel.no is a site for those that offer courses and training in basic digital skills and competence. The resources located here are developed by the Digidel programme and others that train those with low digital competence. Any one may freely download, use and adapt the resources found here.
One time grants are administered by the Ministry to help implement training in digital skills at local levels.
Digidel is the first coordinated effort to gather and develop common tools that can be used all over the country based on the three digital literacy levels of competence. The programme is inspired by similar initiatives in Sweden and Denmark.
Outcomes: Digidel 2017 provides teaching tools and arenas for sharing of experiences and acquiring knowledge for instructors and trainers. Moreover, it encourages the formation of local groups of peer to peer teaching and group learning to improve the learning procedure and further motivate participants to go through with the training.

Context: This initiative is prompted by the increasing need for basic digital skills to complete the most basic of tasks and to access most services provided by the public sector. Thus, this initiative provides basic digital literacy training to help the uninitiated acquire basic competences and become able to participate in the digital. To affect the most people possible, both the public and private sector are recruited in this effort.

Stakeholders involved: The Ministry of Local Government and Modernization, which is responsiblefor ICT policies, is tasked with managing and operatingthe programme, and a steeringgroup has been appointed in which seven other ministries are represented. A new programme group has been established with the participation ofthe Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs(Bufdir)/Delta Centre, the Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (Difi), IKT-Norge, the National Library of Norway, the Norwegian Centre for Information Security (NorSIS), the Norwegian Library Association, Seniornett and the Norwegian Agency for Lifelong Learning (Vox). DNB, Norway’s largest bank, Microsoft andTelenor are Digidel 2017’s main partners.

Key learning points: - Sample approach of public intervention to address digital illiteracy
- A possible source of training material and ideas for other initiatives
- An example of the interest local authorities should have in the digital competences of its citizens

Evaluation: Yes

Information sources: Overview: https://bit.ly/2vZWRKE

Read the full analysis: https://www.digidel.no/