Finns are among the most digitally competent, but support is needed
Finns are the world’s leading users of digital services. According to the latest Digital Skills Report, 79 percent of Finns have good digital skills and as many as 84 percent feel that they will stay with digitalization in the coming years. In other words, our society has a good foundation for building digital services. Nevertheless, even skilled people often need support in using digital devices and services. The decisive question is how well you can apply and develop your own skills.
These results can be found in the Digital Skills Report published on 2 December 2022. The report is the first to build an overall picture of Finns’ digital skills and digitalization experiences. It brings together research on digital competence and supplements it with the results of recent interview studies.
The most important skills are the ability to learn and the courage to experiment
Despite good digital skills, 39% of Finns often need support in using digital services and 14% feel that they do not know digital services and the Internet as well as Finns in general.
The most common forms of digital support are digital skills learned at work and advice from family and friends. The digital world is also constantly changing. Therefore, digital competence must be maintained and developed.
“Digitally literate people may sometimes need support, especially in matters that have a decisive impact on their own lives. Digital skills are not static, new things must be learned constantly. The most important thing is the courage to adopt and try new devices and services. We need digital courage every time we encounter a new or updated digital service. Everyday life is becoming more and more digital, and keeping up with it depends on people’s ability to learn new skills and the courage to try new digital devices and services,” says Minna Piirainen From the Digital and Population Information Agency.
A digitalized society requires digital skills
According to the recently completed Digital Skills Report, Finns feel that everyone is expected to know how to handle personal matters digitally.
“Society is digitizing at a rapid pace. Dealings with the authorities and other similar matters can still be handled face-to-face, but adults and the elderly in particular already feel the use of digital services as normal,” says the specialist. Henriikka Eloluoto From the Digital and Population Information Agency.
However, the self-assessment of one’s competence is not based solely on a person’s age. The school health promotion study showed that almost every tenth young person has difficulties with the devices used in their studies. On the other hand, many elderly people are quite happy to adopt new technology.
The Digital Skills Report emphasizes that, in reality, many people lack sufficient opportunities to learn new things: They are not given time to acquire skills, and failures made during training are not tolerated. The surrounding general attitude can also often prevent new learning.
“Both the feeling of sufficient competence and digital courage in general are the sum of the person, the equipment and the environment. Even a small disappointment or failure can make a person lose interest in developing his own competence,” Eloluoto sums up.
What is the Digital Skills Report?
The Digital and Population Information Agency will publish its first digital skills report on December 2, 2022.
The report is based on 45 indicators that deal with the digitization of society and digitalization experiences and individuals’ digital skills. The report builds an overall picture of Finns’ digital skills. It brings together research on digital competence and supplements it with the results of recent interview studies. From now on, the report will be published annually.
HT
Source: Digital and Population Information Services Agency