Análisis de la competencia digital de la población extremeña en situación de desempleo como elemento clave para la promoción profesional y la renovación de perfiles profesionales

Abstract

This research analyses the digital competence of the unemployed population of the region of Extremadura, plus the effect that this competence has on the professional promotion and the renewal of professional profiles. This purpose has been tackled by designing two empirical studies. The first one is a qualitative study that entails a review of the programs and projects that qualify unemployed people in digital competence for their employability in Extremadura. There have been 38 programs identified; 1519 units that have been registered, categorised, and analysed by the content analysis technique. The second study analyses the digital competence of the unemployed population by means of qualitative and quantitative methods. To that end, 572 unemployed people were surveyed and then analysed in a descriptive and inferential manner. In addition, 4 people from the technical staff and the board team that sets such unemployed-training actions in motion were interviewed and subsequently analysed by the content analysis technique. Both studies contribute to identify a framework of theoretical reference about the digital competence for employability. The results reveal that there are limited actions to foster the acquisition of the digital competence in the context of Extremadura, despite the promotion of regional policies to implement actions of digital nature. Besides, unemployed citizenship has been profiled according to their digital competences, what leads to reflect about the current training being encouraging for digital improvement within the labour scope. Finally, this work presents a guidance proposal for the digital training in terms of renewal of professional profiles.