Abstract:

Population aging is one of the biggest social and economic challenges for European society in the 21st century. According to the 2012 EU report "Aging Europe - Prepare Now", by 2060 almost a third (or 517 million) of Europeans will be over 65 years of age.

According to EC and Eurostat data, people with disabilities currently represent over 85 million of the total population of the Union. More than a third of people over the age of 75 have a disability, with one in seven people in the EU of working age reporting mobility difficulties caused by a disability.

The alarming combination of an aging population and an increase in the number of people with disabilities and their needs, expected in the coming years, requires the provision of appropriate support.

The way to find a way out of the situation necessarily goes through solving the main problem faced by the EU member states, namely – the insufficient quality of the services provided. To have quality, it is necessary to have trained professionals who have the knowledge and skills to identify and assess the needs of those in need and how to satisfy them. This is the reason why the specific target group is aimed at social workers and the need to improve their digital knowledge and skills.

To overcome the described challenges, it is planned to implement initiatives related to the preparation and introduction of flexible innovative training programs, ensuring equal quality digitalized training stimulating opportunities for lifelong learning and conducting training and qualification courses (theoretical and with a practical focus) with purpose of certification of the social worker profession. In this way, the persons from the target group (elderly and disabled people) and their families will be able to receive a comprehensive high-quality service covering their individual needs.

This article is about training of the social worker in order to increase the digital skills of social workers. A training course is offered to improve their knowledge and skills, enabling them to create, save and apply electronic documents. This will provide new training opportunities for social workers with a low level of knowledge, skills and competences in this field.

Keywords:

Digital skills, computer word processing, information technology, key competencies, social workers.