TVETipedia Glossary

Digital competence

Digital competence involves the confident, critical and responsible use of, and engagement with, digital technologies for learning, at work, and for participation in society. It includes information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, media literacy, digital content creation (including programming), safety (including digital well-being and competences related to cybersecurity), intellectual property related questions, problem solving and critical thinking.

It is defined as a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Source:
Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, 2018 (p. 10)

(ICT skills, digital skills)

Ability to make confident, critical and responsible use of, and engage with, digital technologies for learning, at work, and for participation in society. It includes information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, media literacy, digital content creation (including programming), safety (including digital well-being and competences related to cybersecurity), intellectual property related questions, problem solving and critical thinking.

Source:
Cedefop, Glossary. Terminology of European education and training policy, (accessed 03/2023)
Cedefop, Glossary. Terminology of European education and training policy, (accessed 03/2023)
Access resource, available in English, French, Italian, Portuguese
This multilingual glossary (provided in a multitude of European languages) defines a selection of key terms used in European education and training policy. It is a revised and expanded version of the “Terminology of European education and training policy – A selection of 130 key terms” (2014). It considers new priorities of European Union policy, mainly concerning skills intelligence and employment. New definitions have been developed in collaboration with the experts of Cedefop’s departments VET and Skills and VET and Qualifications.

Digital competences involve confident and critical use of information society technology (ICT) in the general population and provide the necessary context (i.e. the knowledge, skills and attitudes) for working, living and learning in the knowledge society. Digital competences are defined as the ability to access digital media and ICT, to understand and critically evaluate different aspects of digital media and media contents and to communicate effectively in a variety of ICT influenced contexts.

(see also (ICT skills)

Source:
European Commission, EU skills panorama glossary, (accessed 01/2016)
European Commission, EU skills panorama glossary, (accessed 01/2016)
Access resource, available in English
(December 2022: This glossary is no longer available online, but it can still be accessed via web archive.)
It lists definitions of key skills-related terms and concepts: “Skills Panorama aims to improve Europe’s capacity to assess and anticipate skill needs to help make education and training systems more responsive to labour market needs and to match better skill supply and demand across Europe. Skills Panorama is brought to you by the European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion and powered by Cedefop, the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training.”