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Despite the growing role of the Internet in all industries, many organisations are not yet fully exploiting the opportunities offered. For example, we know from research that many managers overestimate the level of digital skills among their staff. These skills, which also involve (digital components of) creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, communication and cooperation, that should be considered a prerequisite for innovation – the 21st-century Digital Skills.

One of the current projects focuses on the creative industries, which have innovation, creativity and entrepeneurship as the besis for their products and services. Despite the fact that ICTs play an enormous role in the sector, organisations need further development, especially around skills. In order to achieve the intended competitive advantage, it is necessary to map the current and expected needs for 21st Century Digital Skills: what exactly are these skills? What is the current level of those skills? How can organisations and workers support further development?

Funding: NWO/NRO/CA-ICT

Further information:

The range of devices that communicate via the Internet – the Internet of Things (IoT) – is growing rapidly. This, however, requires a population that can make use of the IoT. This may seem quite easy at first: whereas the 'normal' Internet requires digital skills for operating hardware and software, and for online information, communication, and content creation, these are partly unnecessary with the IoT, where data is processed in the background and decisions are made without user intervention. It seems a matter of just turning on the device and connecting it to the Internet. But it is not that simple, and our research shows that there is a greater need for digital skills.

The project 'Any Thing for Anyone' was launched to investigate digital inclusion in relation to the IoT. After all, there ar emany potential benefits for individuals and for society. Smart devices can support individuals in making better decisions, for example, about energy consumption or health. Furthermore, the production of so-called big data that smart devices collect is a public good that policymakers can use for critical decisions.

Funding: NWO VIDI

Further information:

DiSTO NL was part of the original projects (in collaboration with the UK) which started in 2014 with, as their main objective, the development of theoretically informed measures that can be used to explain how people use the Internet and what the benefits might be. This was achieved through:

• A systematic review of the literature to develop the scales
• Conducting cognitive interviews in the Netherlands (and the UK) to refine the scales (N=30)
• Online survey pilot tests of the instrument in the Netherlands and UK with a representative sample of Internet users to test the internal validity of the scales (N=300) 
• Conducting a full nationally representative survey of Internet users in the Netherlands to test the scales for both internal and external validity of the scales(N=)

Impact

• The measures have fed into the world internet project surveys, the Global Kids and Mobile Kids Online surveys, and are developed and adapted in close collaboration with the other partners on the DiSTO survey projects.
• The conceptual model has informed the skills and use scale development used by ITU (International telecommunications Union), DigComp (EU commission), and UNICEF and the Essential Skills Index in the UK.

The model has been used by various stakeholders to shape tools for evaluation of policies and interventions in the NL.