This report explores the measures set up in the European Union (EU)’s Digital Europe Programme (DEP) for the years 2021-2027 to increase advanced digital skills within the EU. What are the specific actions that shall fill in the advanced digital skills gap? What is the chosen approach for each thematic area (i.e. technological field) addressed by the DEP’s advanced digital skills pillar? What is the DEP’s take on increasing highly skilled workforce and how does it complement other programmes and initiatives at European and national level? This report presents an analysis of the European policy landscape surrounding the digital skills issue and of the opportunities and challenges brought by the DEP’s specific action for 2021-2027. The results suggest, on the one hand, that the advanced digital skills intervention under the DEP will indeed help better coordinate interventions and pooling resources for this specific challenge. The complementarities of the pillar’s actions with the Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe programmes are expected to create a holistic framework to increase advanced digital skills training opportunities, which remain under-exploited in both programmes by themselves. On the other hand, the mainstreaming of the skills issue into the four other pillars of the DEP gives relevance to the actions under the advanced digital skills pillar, despite a relatively low financial investment in said pillar. However, the analysis of the DEP’s advanced digital skills pillar, as well as of the existing framework to tackle the advanced digital skills have several shortcomings. The mode of implementation of the pillar (i.e. Digital Innovation Hubs) and external developments such as Brexit could negatively affect the success of the approach. In the case of Brexit, the collaboration between the Member States (MS) and the United Kingdom (UK) – the country with the largest ICT education and training offer in the EU – could suffer restrictions.
