Insights from "Small.com" Program Questionnaire

Understanding Digital Skills and Sector-Specific Proficiencies: Key Findings and Implications

In the wake of the "Small.com" project questionnaire distribution, a total of 794 responses have been collected. These responses were obtained through the efforts the four partner companies who actively participated in sharing the questionnaire. The questionnaire itself is structured around three key parameters: "Business Enablers", "Digital Human Skills", and "Digital Human Soft Skills”. Upon analyzing the data retrieved from the answers obtained, interesting correlations between age groups and skills have surfaced. For the "Business Enablers" category, the age group with the highest correlation of skills is between 20 to 30 years old. On the other hand, the age group between 41 to 50 years old exhibited the highest correlation of skills in both "Digital Human Skills" and "Digital Human Soft Skills."

Moreover, a deeper examination of the questionnaire responses revealed how the different skill categories relate to specific sectors. "Digital Human Soft Skills" and "Digital Human Skills" displayed a stronger correlation within the primary sector, whereas "Business Enablers" demonstrated a more prominent correlation within the tertiary sector. Furthermore, it was possible to observe a noteworthy correlation between the size of companies and their skill levels. Medium enterprises showcased a greater proficiency in "Digital Human Soft Skills" and "Digital Human Skills," whereas large enterprises excelled in "Business Enablers."

One of the standout findings was related to the distribution of responses among the partner companies. "T2I" and "EDIT Value" partners received more responses from individuals working in large enterprises while, "Globalnet" gathered a higher number of responses from small enterprises and "AEP" managed to attract more participants from medium-sized enterprises. 

As the project continues to evolve, these findings enabled the adaptation of the questionnaire based on the statistical results, in order to develop a tool capable of assisting companies in identifying their digitalization needs, as well as helping individuals understand their needs for improving their digital and human soft skills.

Small.com events

Spreading the word of digitalization

Following the completion of the first 2 deliverables of the Small.com project, the e-book "Digital Transformation in Micro and Small Companies: Trends and Needs" and Maturity Assessment Model Tool, 4 multiplier events were held in Portugal, Italy and Poland.
In Portugal, the event took place in May, in Vila Nova de Famalicão, with the theme "Brand Management and Communication in digital media", where the presentation of the project and its results helped those present to understand the positioning of their companies in the current digital scenario and its importance in communicating with the market.

In Italy, two events were made, in Rovigo in May and in Rimini in June. The first event “Digital Technologies and Energy Efficiency” was focused on two important issues: the use of IoT technologies to improve energy efficiency in industrial, commercial and domestic sectors and the assessment of the digital maturity of companies to optimise their performance, competitiveness and sustainability.
The second one occurred within the international trade fair of technological and digital innovation “WMF2023 – We Make Future”. It was an incredible opportunity to network, learn about the most current technologies and experts in the field, and above all to tell about the outputs that are developing in the project and the results achieved so far.

In Poland, in Poznan, it was organized an event in June to disseminate the project and brought together SMEs managers and employees as well as adult learners and adult education providers, representatives of educational institutions from various fields who were interested in the project's outcomes. The attendees were actively involved in the event. After the presentation of the results, there was a space for questions, which allowed the attendees to clarify any doubts they had about the project.

These events involved 137 participants in person and 46 in online mode.

Transnational Meetings