The third update of the Operational Plan is the result of the annual monitoring cycle, the 2023 report of which was consolidated on 18 December at the meeting of the Technical Steering Committee of the Digital Republic. In addition to defining the measurable objectives pursued under each strand of intervention, it also highlights the main initiatives undertaken by individual administrations and organisations of the National Digital Republic Coalition. The Plan thus provides the national comprehensive framework for digital skills initiatives and includes the measures financed by the NRRP that intervene on this issue. The findings of the report and the forecasts of the Plan are also essentially confirmed by the recently published Istat report ‘Citizens and ICT’, which highlights the stability of the non-positive values on basic digital skills indicators, in a context of increasing internet use and digital services, and a delay in particular in the field of safety skills. This represents a situation which has not yet been able to benefit from the impacts of the deployment of the actions provided for in the Operational Plan, most of them at an early stage. Because it is important that the Plan, promoted by the Department for Digital Transformation of the Prime Minister’s Office, aims to close the current digital skills gap with countries such as Germany, France and Spain by 2026, with measurable actions and in line with the European targets of the Digital Decade. This is the national reference document for digital skills planning, which is also expected by the European institutions, as described in the European report on the state of the Digital Decade. Relevant data The monitoring report published together with the Operational Plan includes 51 indicators, identified on the basis of criteria of detectability, transparency and consistency with respect to actions and objectives. The analysis of 33 of the indicators identified revealed interesting data:
- 36 % of indicators have grown in line or faster than trend;
- 40 % of the indicators do not show significant changes compared to trend;
- 24 % of the indicators show a degrowth compared to the latest survey, linked in particular to the effects of the post-pandemic and related containment measures.
As regards the progress of the initiatives covered by the survey:
- initiatives promoted at national level have 62 % of the milestones achieved, indicating a progressive procedural progress;
- at regional level, it appears that the largest number of actions are being implemented in the geographical area South of Italy and Islands, reflecting the growing commitment to the dissemination of digital skills, especially basic ones, in the less digitalised regions; in addition, the three geographical areas (North, Centre, South and Islands) have almost a similar number of planned actions;
- in 2023, the estimated growth of the target audience involved in the Coalition’s initiatives is 24, 7 % compared to the same figure in 2022.
The plan is also intended as a place for co-design and collaborative multi-stakeholder work, individuals, public actors, the third sector and private sectors, in the logic of open government. The National Digital Skills Strategy, the Operational Plan and all actions under the Digital Republic initiative set out a path based on a robust strategy. However, the road is still long, and the recent ISTAT report also highlights this, and it is important that all actors already involved – and those that will soon be involved – commit themselves to the achievement, jointly and comprehensively, of the essential objectives for the development of our country.