Importance of digital skills for competitive labour force – challenges in work-based learning in Latvia

Abstract

Digital skills are increasingly required in all fields of the national economy. This has become especially relevant in the today’s fast changing social developments and the recent unexpected conditions of pandemia. It requires also flexibility and innovation capacity of all involved stakeholders. The relevance of digital skills have been analysed by survey of vocational education managers, employers and students involved in work-based learning. The evaluation scale used was between 1–10 to ensure a more detailed comparison and analysis using indicators of descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations. Conclusions among other indicate that digital skills for employees are seen almost of the same importance as the ability to co-operate and loyalty to the company, according to employer’s opinion.