Education concept of e-government services

• December 12, 2023
• Andrew

The Austrian Federal Government plans to make all citizens digitally fit by 2030. As a key measure of this project, the implementation of the Digital Skills Offensive for Austria (DKO), supported by the Federal Ministries of Finance, Labour and Economy, Education, Science and Research, Arts, Culture, Public Service and Sport, was launched in February 2023. The initiative consists of eight sub-projects in interdepartmental working groups with the overall objective of improving basic digital skills among the population and providing digitally skilled workers for the economy.

Make good use of e-government services

Project P4 “Educational concept for e-government applications” aims to promote the use of e-government services and related digital skills among Austrian citizens. Measures have been developed with stakeholders and educational experts to increase the visibility and use of Austrian e-government services, depending on the needs and target group, and to improve the digital skills needed for this purpose. Pupils and seniors are particularly targeted.

Digital competence model as a framework

The result of the P4 project is an interdisciplinary educational approach to e-government skills, designed in five stages, from primary research on the status quo to consultation with education stakeholders towards the description and planning of concrete actions. The actions were developed and prioritised in workshops with experts on the basis of survey results from different target groups and then elaborated in detail and integrated into the educational concept. To this end, the Digital Skills Model for Austria has been used, a reference model that measures the level of digital education of the population over six dimensions.

User Experience and User Help

The actions were developed on the basis of the four-phase framework for digital education: Awareness raising, initialisation, use and repetition. The aim is to take into account all users’ experiences in learning new digital skills.

The application of e-Gov services provides a user aid called Egon, easy to reach, use low-threshold and safe use, offers support online and offline and is aimed at users of different skill levels.

The resource contains an interdisciplinary educational approach to e-government skills, thus promoting the acquisition of basic e-government skills. For example, the initiative of the Federal Ministries of Finance, Labour and Economic Affairs, Education, Science and Research, Arts, Culture, Public Service and Sport paves the way for reducing physical channels, saving resources and increasing efficiency. The educational concept has been drawn up in German and translated in English for publication.