Digital Education Action Plan - Action 1

Structured dialogue with EU countries

Promoting accessible, high-quality and inclusive digital education must be a common endeavour across society. Governments, education and training institutions, the private sector and the public all need to be committed to delivering a high-performing digital education ecosystem.

To this end, a structured dialogue on these issues was held between the Commission and EU countries between 2021 and 2023, to help Europe deliver on the targets for 2030 under the Digital Decade policy programme.

The dialogue brought together different government bodies and various stakeholders from civil society. It was guided by a “whole-of-government approach”, involving collaboration between all branches of government, including:

• education and training
• digitalisation
• employment and social affairs
• finance and investment

Objectives

• Mobilise EU tools (funds, dedicated programmes) to help EU countries make additional reform efforts
• Feed into future action at EU level, particularly planned initiatives on digital education and skills

Key activities

• Discussions with EU countries in the high-level group of national coordinators for digital education and skills
• Bilateral dialogues with EU countries
• Stakeholder consultations
• Providing input for the Digital Decade policy programme and national roadmaps

Results

• Increased political commitment from EU governments towards EU objectives on digital education and skills
• Shared experience and best practice
• Raised awareness of the key factors for making education and training systems more digital and improving digital skills

The activities of the structured dialogue resulted in the adoption of the following acts:

• Council Recommendation on improving the provision of digital skills in education and training
• Council Recommendation on the key enabling factors for successful digital education and training

Timeline

Council Recommendation on key enabling factors for successful digital education and training

The Council Recommendation outlines a modern framework of investment, governance and capacity-building for digital education and training.

Drawing on the results of the Structured Dialogue, the recommendation calls on all EU countries to ensure universal access to high-quality digital education and training.

Objectives

This recommendation aims to promote the necessary structural reforms in EU countries’ education and training systems, based on:

• a coherent strategy specifically addressing digital education and skills
• improved feedback, through better monitoring and evaluation of the relevant policies and faster integration of the results into policymaking
• a whole-of-government approach to digital education and training, and strengthened cooperation amongst stakeholders, including with the private sector
• building and improving partnerships with teachers
• ensuring access to digital training for all teachers, educators and staff
• support for digital capacity building in all education and training institutions

Funding

This action received funding through Erasmus+ programme, European Social Fund Plus, Just Transition Fund, European Regional Development Fund, Digital Europe Programme, Horizon Europe.