Training for the Digital Economy

Introduction

The term Digital Economy was coined by Don Tapscott in 1996. From the conclusions made in this fundamental work, we note related to the subject of this article:

• •

  In the new economy knowledge is the driver and other traditional resources are secondary.

• •

  Organizations will be forced to change their old opinion of employees and try to retain and develop the capabilities of knowledge workers. Traditional organizational structures are giving way to a more fluid and flexible work environment. Project teams are more the norm with people from all parts of the world coming together, and people should be ready for such work.

• •

  In the innovation economy, human imagination and creativity are the main sources of value. In a digital economy, the challenge lies in creating an environment which encourages and rewards innovation.

• •

  The problem is that in the new age, the gap between the technologically literate 'haves' and the 'have-nots' who do not have access to technology, is growing and may cause significant problems to society in future.

At the same time, the paper highlights the main areas in which the digital economy will cause fundamental changes, including learning and education. Today, the digital economy has become an important part of the world economy. Suffice it to say that in the list of the largest companies in the world by capitalization, the first 4 places, as well as places from 6 to 8 are occupied by companies of the digital economy. The development of the digital economy provides tremendous opportunities, but also carries serious challenges associated with the massive obsolescence of professional skills and even entire professions, data privacy, computer security, etc.

The importance of the digital economy is recognized by almost all countries, in the US the Council on Competitiveness shapes policies and runs programs to jump-start productivity and grow America's economy. The national project “Digital economy” has been launched in Russia. In the framework of the national project selected 6 of the Federal projects:

• 1.

  Regulation of the digital environment

• 2.

  Information infrastructure

• 3.

  Cadres for the digital economy

• 4.

  Information security

• 5.

  Digital technology

• 6.

  Digital public administration

Background

In this chapter, we will focus on training, because it was noted above that the success of the digital economy is determined by knowledge, and therefore the people who create and apply them. In the context of the digital economy, training has two main contexts: training with competencies that are in demand for the digital economy (regardless of the learning technology) and e-learning, in fact, implementing digital technologies in education, for training in any field. In general, the Federal project “Personnel for the digital economy” offers a fairly comprehensive approach to training. It is planned to create conditions for the implementation of personal trajectories of development and profiles of competencies of citizens, the development of the education system for the training of competent specialists in the field of digital economy, the implementation of retraining programs for the professions in demand in the digital economy, the involvement of highly qualified foreign specialists, the implementation of promising educational projects with the support of the venture fund.

The Project traces the activities aimed at the following areas of training (although they are not formally divided into groups):