Strategies to Promote the Development of E-competencies
in the Next Generation of Professionals:
European and International Trends.
ESRC funded Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE) & Oxford Universities.
Author: Juan Cristóbal Cobo Romaní (2009).
Abstract: This study analyses the effectiveness of policies, strategies and programmes that promote the acquisition of e-literacies, focusing in particular on the younger generation who will be joining the labour force in the next five to ten years. Based on the benchmarking of different studies about the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on students’ learning, this work proposes a re- definition of the term "e-competencies". Moreover, a set of best practices for the development of the future e-competent labour force are identified. Although the scope for this paper is primarily the countries of the European Union, worldwide studies are also considered.
Key Words: e-competencies; learning; technology; information literacy; 21st Century skills; media; literacy; ICT; e-learning; research; e-skills; UK; Government; innovation; Tools; competency; media-literacy; Europe; Jobs; Europass; EU; universities; employability and standards.
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Seven Key ideas:
1. After ten years of consistent effort to improve educational achievements by infusing substantial amounts of capital into ICTs, current research constantly demonstrates that access to and the use of ICT are no guarantees of increased achievement of students.
2. There are antecedents from different countries that show that there is no correlation between the level of ICT access and the percentage of ICT use.
3. There is very little scientifically based research to gauge the effectiveness of technology in the learning achievement.
4. These results indicate the necessity of adopting a broad range of improvements in the educational system but also in terms of public policies, which should go far beyond the acquisition of ICT.
5. This work presents evidence that those public policies, which were expected to bring considerable improvements in education achievement through adoption of ICT, were erroneous or at least patchy.
6. E-competencies go beyond the use of any specific ICT, including the proficient use of information and the application of knowledge to work individually and collaboratively in changing contexts.
7. To avoid any reductionist perspective in relation to the integration of ICTs in education it will be necessary to have a flexible and dynamic approach in order to balance the adoption of the digital technologies with other critical competencies.
Recommended citation for bibliographical purposes:
COBO ROMANÍ, Cristóbal (2009) Strategies to promote the development of e-competences in the next generation of professionals: European and International trends. SKOPE Issues Paper Series. Published at the ESRC Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance, Department of Education, Oxford University & the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University. N°13, September 2009 [ISSN 1466-1535]. Retrieved month dd, yyyy from http://e-competencies.org/
