Abstract
The development of digital skills for all is a key focus of many educational policies across the globe. Despite the significant attention paid to the nature and suitability of such policies targeted at young people, there has been far less focus on digital skills policies targeted at adults. This article contributes to this literature. It outlines current digital skills policy in England. Having established this background, it analyses 30 interviews with digitally competent adults from lower socio‐economic backgrounds about their experiences of learning to use the Internet. In doing so, the article highlights that a narrow and instrumental digital skills agenda is emerging in the education of adults, driven by the needs of the commercial sector, that is in stark contrast to the experiences, motivations and hopes of adults who learn about, and use, digital technologies. Reframing digital skills as part of a broader adult education agenda may offer a way to facilitate the development of digital literacies that individuals seek.
Highlights
A significant aspect of government policy in many countries is to ensure that everyone can meaningfully engage with new technologies to ensure society is prepared for the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ (Schwab, 2016)
Efforts to support the development of digital skills are apparent in schools, higher education institutions, vocational colleges, libraries and adult learning settings that aim to support people in developing digital competences for everyday life and employment
Participants were recruited based on their responses to the Oxford Internet Survey, a nationally representative survey of internet use across Britain,5 and in the second, a specialist recruitment agency was used to recruit participants from a number of towns and cities across England. They were all adults from a range of life stages and family circumstances with household incomes of less than £20,000 per year and lived in one of the 20% most deprived areas in England based on the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD)
Summary
A significant aspect of government policy in many countries is to ensure that everyone can meaningfully engage with new technologies to ensure society is prepared for the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ (Schwab, 2016). The implicit assumption in such digital skills initiatives is that if individuals have the necessary competence, they are fully equipped to make the most of the opportunities of new technologies, using them to save money, learn, find employment and so on, regardless of their socio-economic background; and they can use the internet as a resource to achieve ‘social mobility’. This set of assumptions can be seen both within formal schooling and across the life course, at all skill proficiency levels This set of assumptions can be seen both within formal schooling and across the life course, at all skill proficiency levels (e.g. Davies & Eynon, 2018; Eynon et al, 2018)
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