How and why should you develop digital skills for the future?

Eight in 10 business leaders agree their organisations need to be fit for the digital present and future. But if you believe this means “fixing IT issues” or coding, programming and building websites, you’d be wrong. Here, we explore digital skills, their purpose and potential. 

 In 2022, AND Digital, a UK-based digital services company, commissioned research with over 6,000 UK business leaders, hiring managers and knowledge workers to better understand the nature of the UK’s digital skills gap. Its report revealed that annually up to £50bn the UK economy is at risk if digital ambitions do not materialise, yet at the same time there is a real misunderstanding of what digital skills mean.

A third of UK workers see digital skills as the ability to fix IT issues, while half believe digital means coding, programming and building websites. The digital skills gap also extends far beyond the UK. Scaling up digital learning and skills in the world’s most populous countries is one of UNESCO’s top priorities.

So, what are digital skills and why do they matter? 

What are digital skills? 

There is currently no set definition for the term ‘digital skills’. UNESCO, in the process of developing a Global Digital Literacy Skills indicator, has defined digital literacy as “the ability to access, manage, understand, integrate, communicate, evaluate and create information safely and appropriately through digital technologies for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship. It includes competences that are variously referred to as computer literacy, ICT literacy, information literacy and media literacy.”  

What is important to note is that the focus is very much on the actions of people and the ability to use digital technologies effectively – the ‘human digital skills’ – rather than on the technologies or technical devices themselves.  

While organisations clearly need to embrace and master the technologies they rely on, harnessing digital’s true potential goes much further.

What key debates will shape the digital future?

Shaping the digital future means looking past the technical specs and tuning out the hype to grapple with the bigger questions covering areas such as government, law, art, activism, health, development, and many more:

• Can digital technologies help us live smarter, more sustainable lives? What does a sustainable digital future look like? 

• How are processes of datafication, platformisation and appification driving digital economies – and who are the economic winners and losers? 

• How have governments and legislators managed the impact of digital technologies? What kinds of legal frameworks might be required to guarantee brighter, fairer, safer digital futures for all? 

• What kinds of creative possibilities are digital tools opening up? And how can we ensure that those tools empower, not impoverish, artists? 

• What will work look like in the digital future? Are digital technologies exacerbating exploitation, or making it possible to imagine a world after work? 

• Can digital systems improve health outcomes? And how can we establish healthier relationships with technology? 

• How should politics, citizenship and activism work in a digital age? Can we use digital platforms to connect and make our voices heard without leaving ourselves prey to propaganda, misinformation and manipulation? 

• How are the impacts of digitisation felt around the globe? Are new technologies driving development, or entrenching ‘neo-colonial’ inequalities? 

• What can case studies from the past teach us about shaping better digital futures? How can we understand contemporary developments as part of longer historical trajectories?  
  

How can the Digital Futures MA help? 

The King's online Digital Futures MA has been developed to help you understand the social and technical aspects of digital technologies. While gaining a solid grasp of emerging phenomena like AI, smart cities and digital currencies, you’ll look at cases that illustrate how the digital future is taking shape in a range of global contexts.  

Drawing on case studies and examples from our own world-leading research, you’ll learn to appreciate the key drivers, obstacles, and opportunities within the digital landscape.

More importantly, since technology does not stand still, you’ll develop the skills and professional knowledge to navigate the digital future with confidence. Specialist modules allow you to focus on areas of particular interest, such as social media and marketing or the games industry and gaming cultures. 

Study in one of the largest departments in the world specialising in digital humanities. Our staff work with numerous cultural institutions, non-governmental organisations, and digital communities. We explore the cultural, scientific, economic, and technical possibilities of new data innovations and technologies. 

Are you ready to lead digital transformation within businesses and organisations? The Digital Futures MA will train you to spot the opportunities and potential pitfalls of our digital future.