Pretesting of special module on ICT at work, working conditions & learning digital skills (English Version)

English version:

Have you undergone any of the following learning activities to improve your digital skills during the past 12 months?

German version:

Haben Sie in den letzten 12 Monaten an einer der folgenden (Weiter-) Bildungs/ Trainingsmaßnahmen zur Verbesserung Ihrer digitalen Kenntnisse teilgenommen?

English version:

Please tick all that apply

German version:

Bitte kreuzen Sie alle zutreffenden Antwortmöglichkeiten an

English version:
a) Training courses paid by yourself
b) Training courses paid or provided by your employer
c) Training courses paid or provided by public programs or organisations other than your employer
d) On-the-job training (e.g. co-workers, supervisors)
e) Self-study using free online courses

German version:
a) Bildungskurs(e), selbst bezahlt
b) Bildungskurs(e), bezahlt durch den Arbeitgeber
c) Bildungskurs(e) bezahlt oder organisiert durch öffentliche Programme oder Organisationen (andere als der Arbeitgeber)
d) Ausbildung am Arbeitsplatz (z.B. durch Kollegen, Vorgesetzte)
e) Selbststudium durch Nutzung kostenloser Online-Kurse

Question: No changes recommended.
Answer categories: Answer category 12e) might have a too narrow scope. Respondents stated that they had used online courses but that these courses were not free of charge and some respondents used websites for training activities instead of online courses. These respondents are not covered by the answer category 12e).
Therefore, we recommend deleting the term “free” [“kostenlos”] in this sentence to increase the scope of this category. The answer category 12e) should be phrased as follows:
English version: “Self-study using online courses”
German version: “Selbststudium durch Nutzung von Online-Kursen“
In addition, we recommend substituting the term “Bildungskurse” with “Weiterbildungskurse” in the German version. The term “Bildungskurse” does not really exist in the German language.

Cognitive Techniques:

Specific Probing.

Question 12 asked respondents whether they have undergone any of the listed learning activities to improve their digital skills during the past 12 months. The listed learning activities were: “Training courses paid by yourself,” “Training courses paid or provided by your employer,” “Training courses paid or provided by public programs or organisations other than your employer,” “On-the-job training (e.g. co-workers, supervisors),” and “Self-study using free online courses.” Respondents were asked to tick all answer categories that apply and, therefore, percentages do not necessarily add up to 100 percent.

All respondents (n=145) received question 12. Only a minority of respondents reported that they have undergone training courses that they paid by themselves (British respondents: 8.00 percent, German respondents: 4.29 percent) whereas around one fifth of the British respondents and German respondents had undergone training courses which were paid or provided by their employer. A few British respondents indicated that they had taken a training course that was paid or provided by public programs or organizations other than their employer (British respondents: 5.33 percent). None of the German respondents chose this answer category. In total, 21.33 percent of English-speaking respondents and 8.57 percent of German-speaking respondents had undergone on-the-job training. Lastly, 14.67 percent of English-speaking respondents as well as 17.14 percent of German-speaking respondents reported that they have used free online courses for self-study.

The intention of Probe 14 was to assess whether question 12 captures the full range of possible learning activities to improve digital skills and to evaluate whether any activities are missing in this list. Therefore, we asked the respondents whether they were missing any further relevant type of learning activities that they have undertaken and encouraged them to describe these activities. A few respondents wrote specific course topics, such as Microsoft Excel or CLAiT (computer literacy and information technology) courses (British respondents: 5.33 percent, German respondents: 1.43 percent) or further specified the course type (British respondents: 8.00 percent, German respondents: 1.43 percent). For example two respondents (1 British respondent, 1 German respondent) indicated that they took a webinar. These respondents could not necessarily select answer option 12e) (“Self-study using free online courses”) since these webinars might not have been free. In a similar vein, two British respondents mentioned that they self-educated by acquiring knowledge through websites. For example, respondent 366 wrote: “I have just gained knowledge myself by finding websites etc.” These respondents also could not select answer option 12e) since these respondents used websites instead of online courses to improve their digital skills. One German respondent listed training courses offered by their employer’s insurance agency. However, the majority of respondents (British respondents: 85.33 percent, German respondents: 94.29 percent) answered that they did not miss any digital activity in the list of question 12. Given the high percentage of respondents that could not name any further learning activity, the list of learning activities of question 12 seems to be exhaustive.

For a more detailed breakdown of the respondents‘ answers please refer to the tables in the attached PDF document.

Digitalization/ Use of digital systems

Learning activities to improve digital skills