Developing Digital Capabilities: Home

“It is estimated that, in 20 years' time, 90% of all jobs will require people to work with digital technologies. Already, 72% of large firms struggle to recruit workers with digital skills.” – Jisc (https://digitalcapability.jisc.ac.uk/our-service/)

You use digital capabilities all the time. Whether phoning a friend, typing a document, taking a photo or booking a holiday online, you are using digital technology.

Employers are increasingly looking for graduates who are digitally fluent. But as well as use of specific hardware and software, employers look for graduates with good communication, collaboration, problem-solving, creativity and organisational skills. In most workplaces, these activities will take place at least partly within a digital environment.

To help you understand digital capabilities, we use the following framework from Jisc. By considering the six different categories, you can start to understand where your strengths lie and where you need to develop further.

• Digital proficiency and productivity: use digital methods to accomplish tasks and manage your time.
• Digital creation, problem-solving and innovation: create digital content, and use novel approaches to fulfil a purpose.
• Digital learning and development: develop yourself and others in digital settings.
• Information, data and media literacies: evaluate, organise and share digital media and data.
• Digital communication, collaboration and participation: communicate and work with others via digital networks.
• Digital identity and wellbeing: manage your online footprint and keep safe online.

For more information, read Jisc building digital capabilities framework: the six elements defined.

The other guides in this section will explain how to use some of the tools available to you at Wrexham University to build your capabilities in these areas.

Discovery Tool

The first step in developing your digital capabilities is to understand your current level. The Discovery Tool is an online self-assessment tool that will provide you with a report of capabilities, as well as suggestions for improvement.

It is anonymous, and only you will be able to access your report. However, we can use overall data to help us see where we may need to improve or increase learning opportunities in certain areas.

There are different questions you can answer. We recommend new students start with the New Students question set, which is a shorter version of the questions covering the main capabilities. You can then take the Current Students version for a more detailed view, and repeat it throughout your studies to see how you are improving.

If you wish, you can also try the questions on Digital skills for AI and generative AI, and Recognising digital skills for employability.

Access the Discovery Tool here.

For more information, read the Discovery Tool: student guide.