Evaluation of the workshops within the framework of the “Digital Skills for All” initiative

The “Digital Skills for All” initiative is part of the “Digital Skills Offensive for Austria”, which is supported by four ministries (BMF, BMBWF, BMAW, BMKOES). The starting point of the initiative are, among other things, EU-wide analyses which come to the conclusion that basic digital competences are not universally available among considerable parts of the population.
The digital skills offensive aims to ensure that by 2030 as many people as possible in Austria possess basic digital skills. The “Digital Skills for All” programme is a first step. In a pilot phase, workshops with three main content areas are being offered throughout Austria:

• Supporting young people and parents in safely handling digital media,
• Teaching basic digital skills to senior citizens and
• Introducing eGovernement, i.e. the use of digital tools for dealing with official matters etc., whereby this track is not limited to a specific target group.

L&R Social Research was commissioned by the OeAD to evaluate the initiative. The main objectives of the evaluation are to shed light on the extent to which the workshops are able to reach the intended target groups in their diversity as well as on the contribution that these workshops made towards increasing basic digital skills in Austria.
Based on these findings from the pilot phase, further development possibilities are to be identified and approaches for the broad roll-out of the initiative are to be derived and reflected upon.

To this end, a mix of methods will be used, consisting of own quantitative inquiries (online surveys of workshop participants and representatives of the implementing organisations) and qualitative inquiries (individual interviews with workshop participants and representatives of the supporting organisations, focus groups with trainers).