The publication this month of the Government Digital Strategy (1) and this week’s House of Lords Communications Committee report, ‘Growing Up with the Internet’ (2), has placed digital literacy high on the agenda again. This is a vital life skill, essential for living and holding down a modern job.
Given the rapid expansion of technology, and IT skills education in schools, it cannot be a surprise that there is an age profile in digital literacy. But when examined in detail, this data, and other evidence about the IT capabilities of the over 50s, suggest that the picture is much more nuanced. When it comes to applying digital skills to increase productivity, the over 50s may well be as good as the rest.
The Digital Literacy Age Profile
Data shows a decline in digital skills by age. The Basic Digital Skills UK Report 2015 (3), prepared by Ipsos MORI for Go ON UK, identified this trend, and pointed to an issue with digital literacy amongst older people. But their concern related to a noticeable decline in digital literacy after the age of 65, and pointed more to problems of online information exclusion in retirement than to deficiencies in the IT skills of the 50+, or older, workforce.
Basic Online Skills by age Basic Digital Skills by age
65+ 50% 43%
55-64 77% 72%
45-54 87% 82%
35-44 93% 89%
25-34 95% 92%
15-24 94% 93%
Definitions of Basic Online and Digital Skills
Next we need to consider the definitions of Basic Online Skills and Basic Digital Skills. According to The Basic Digital Skills UK Report 2015, there are 9 criteria across 4 skill areas to be met to achieve basic internet skills:
- Skill – Managing information
- Use a search engine to look for information online
- Find a website I have visited before
- Download / save a photo I found online
- Skill – Communicating
- Send a personal message via email or online messaging service
- Carefully make comments and share information online
- Skill – Transacting
- Buy items or services from a website
- Buy and install apps on a device
- Skill – Creating
- Complete online applications forms which include personal details
- Create something new from existing online images, music or video
To be considered to have basic digital literacy, the following are also required:
- Skill – Problem solving
- Verify sources of information I found online
- Solve a problem with a device / digital service using online help
We can all agree that these skills are highly desirable and will be important for achieving success in a digital economy. However, I wonder how many of us would consider them to be ‘basic’ skills? More importantly, would we assume that a lack of basic digital or internet skills implied more fundamental difficulties – such as turning on the computer in the first place? And have such misunderstandings led to inaccurate assumptions about the digital abilities of over the 50s?
Government data shows over 50s are active users of the internet and social media
Government data evidences that, despite lower levels of digital literacy as defined above, the over 50s are active users of IT. Data from the ONS – recently quoted as a particularly trusted source – shows that:
- 95% of 45-54 year olds and 90% of 55-64 year olds are internet users.
- 75% of 45-54 year olds and over 70% of 55-64 year olds use a computer every day.
- 65% of 45-54 year olds and over 50% of 55-64 year olds use social media.
The over 50s are good at using their IT skills in the workplace
Research carried out in 2008 in Germany found that older workers can use IT effectively in the workplace. The German Centre for European Economic Research found that having employees over the age of 50 did not lower a firm’s IT enabled productivity. Over 50s are effective with IT at work and using a computer enhances their productivity – http://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp08129.pdf.
According to the Government Digital Strategy, the UK has a supply of digital specialist skills above the EU average. Therefore, drawing on the evidence from Germany, we can suggest that in the UK also, given the correct training and opportunities, workers over 50 can be effective and productive when using IT in the workplace. The data on digital literacy alone may highlight some missing digital knowledge at the older end of the age spectrum, but it does not say how effectively that knowledge, once obtained, might be applied across the generations.
Interestingly, the House of Lords Communications Committee Report ‘Growing Up with the Internet’ points to a similar issue. While digital skills have been the focus of IT education in schools to date, broader contextual questions critically affect young people’s effective use of the internet. Knowledge of key personal and social issues is needed to achieve a deeper and critical understanding of how the internet can be appropriately used.
So age is not really an IT issue. There is room for improvement in the digital skills across the generations. When applying those skills, the evidence suggests that older workers are just as good as everyone else.
Read more on productivity, IT and the 50+ workforce here.
Notes
1 Government Digital Strategy https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-digital-strategy
2 House of Lords Communications Committee report, ‘Growing Up with the Internet’, https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201617/ldselect/ldcomuni/130/130.pdf
3 The Basic Digital Skills UK Report 2015 http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/digitalbirmingham/resources/Basic-Digital-Skills_UK-Report-2015_131015_FINAL.pdf
4 Do Older Workers Lower IT-Enabled Productivity? Firm-Level Evidence from Germany http://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp08129.pdf