Skip to content
Skip to main content

About this free course

Download this course

Share this free course

Hybrid working: skills for digital transformation
Hybrid working: skills for digital transformation

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

1.1 Essential functional skills

The Essential Digital Skills Framework for the United Kingdom (Gov.uk, 2018) sets out the digital skills and understanding all adults require to interact in a digital world. There are five categories:

  • communicating
  • handling information and content
  • transacting
  • problem solving
  • being safe and legal online.

Figure 1 illustrates how these categories relate to each other.

Described image
Figure 1 Essential Digital Skills – Framework Diagram (Crown Copyright, Gov.uk, 2018)

Table 1 breaks the categories down further and provides more detailed definitions.

Table 1

Being safe and responsible online and offline

Digital wellbeing, responsibilities when working online – security, privacy and data protection, accessibility, understanding processes and policies, behaviour, and non-digital considerations – e.g. your desk set up, not writing down your password.

Using devices and handling information

Understanding hardware, software, operating systems and applications, and how to manage and store digital information and assets.

Communicating

How to communicate effectively digitally depending on the ‘tools’ and ‘context’

Creating and editing

Developing the skills to create and edit using digital tools, and reflect best practice and guidelines for the creation of digital content and products.

Transacting

The ability to interact with digital forms, systems and payments.
Problem solving The ability to find solutions and approaches, and use digital tools to assist with this.

Table 2 provides some examples of digital skills and capabilities required in the workplace:

Table 2
Essential basic skills all individuals require Advanced/specialist skills
  • Behaving safely and legally online
  • Email, instant messaging and virtual meetings
  • Word processing
  • Web-based research
  • Data entry and handling
  • Using social media/networking
  • Problem solving
  • Understanding your digital carbon footprint
  • User experience design, and digital design
  • Coding
  • Programming, web, and app development
  • SEO, SEM, and content creation
  • Data science, analysis, and visualisation
  • Digital learning and development
  • Digital project and product management
  • Digital marketing and social media
  • Digital leadership capabilities
  • Digital transformation decision making

Activity 3 How digitally confident are you?

Timing: 15 minutes

Read the descriptions of the skills and examples in the Essential Digital Skills Framework, which can be accessed via either:

Then use the polls below to consider how digitally confident you are.

Digital foundation skills

Active content not displayed. This content requires JavaScript to be enabled.
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Communicating

Active content not displayed. This content requires JavaScript to be enabled.
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Handling information and content

Active content not displayed. This content requires JavaScript to be enabled.
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Transacting

Active content not displayed. This content requires JavaScript to be enabled.
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Problem solving

Active content not displayed. This content requires JavaScript to be enabled.
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Being safe and legal online

Active content not displayed. This content requires JavaScript to be enabled.
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Comment

For those in the workplace, most of the skills given here may be familiar. They draw on the UK Government’s Essential Digital Skills Framework document, which this activity is based on.

How confident do you feel about the essential foundation skills that are described within the document? If there are areas you would like to develop the HM Government Skills Toolkit provides resources to help you develop specific skills. Within it is the Learn My Way set of resources that provide basic computer skills training.