Youth leading the way: f4i-tools used more than 10,000 times by 15 to 24-year-olds
fit4internet (f4i), an association whose goal is to increase digital skills in Austria, offers self-assessment and knowledge tests to measure digital skills in various subject areas amongst other things. And young people are way out in front in terms of usage. This year (as of August 2021) the evaluation option was used more than 10,000 times by the 15 to 24 age group.
Around 60,000 Austrians have already taken advantage of f4i offers since the first f4i-tools to evaluate digital competences were made available in May 2019, either via the platform www.fit4internet.at or as part of projects.
So far, the tools have been very well received across all age groups between 25 and 65+ years. However, in this year defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, young people aged 15 to 24 have caught up significantly, setting a new benchmark with over 10,000 users. They are now by far the busiest users of the evaluation tools since 2019. The topic of “job-related digital skills” is attracting particular interest amongst adolescents, followed by “everyday digital skills” and “safety in the digital world”. The top 3 provinces in terms of participation in this age group are Vienna, Lower Austria and Styria. The top 5 regions for all participants are Vienna, the Vienna region, Klagenfurt-Villach, Linz-Wels and Graz.
In May 2019, the first tools for the topic area “Everyday Life” with the “CHECK Digital Everyday Skills” and “QUIZ Digital Everyday Skills” were presented and made available on the platform for free. The CHECK enables citizens to perform an anonymous self-assessment of their own digital skills, while the QUIZ requires them to answer specific knowledge questions. The results are available to participants in the form of a personal digital skills profile.
In addition to the category “Everyday Life”, there are now also CHECKs and QUIZzes available on the topics of “Safety in the Digital World” – in a sense the Achilles' heel of digital skills, “Artificial Intelligence (AI)” and separate tools for parents or caregivers as well as educational professionals on “Child Safety in the Digital World”. Job-related digital competences can also be checked.
In the topic area “The Workplace”, participants can assess their digital skills in the relevant context using different scenario. These range from
- “Basics – You use computers, apps and the Internet naturally and safely – if necessary, also in the home office”,
- “Work processes – You use digital devices and apps in a process-supporting way”,
- ·“Communication and collaboration – You cooperate digitally with other people (if necessary, also from the home office) and know the possibilities and limits for doing so”,
- “Data protection and data value – You utilize and protect data in a legally compliant manner”
- through to “Digital common sense – You are constantly learning and can solve problems and assess digital opportunities and risks”.
The next f4i-tools will not be long in coming anyway and will be dedicated to the important topic of “Data Science”.
All tools can be found here.