The entire IT Fitness Test is a joint effort of partner organisations from all of the V4 countries, aiming to study the digital competence of the youth and test their readiness for stepping into the ever-changing job market. – The V4 edition of IT Fitness Test will allow everyone to test their skills for free. Our test will assess the competence of participants in five areas: Internet, security and computer systems, collaborative tools and social networks, office tools and complex tasks solutions, by testing their practical skills – explains Michał Kanownik, President of Digital Poland Association. He is responsible for the project in Poland.

Every respondent will receive a certificate describing their score and feedback regarding the need for improvement. Initiators of the project state that while the test will be aiming to test digital skills of students in primary and secondary schools, Digital V4 group will make the test available for every citizen interested in taking it. The official start of IT Fitness Test 2022 Visegrad Group is planned for April 2022.

Proven methods
The project has its roots in the Slovak IT Fitness Test, coordinated by Slovak National Coalition for Digital Skills and Jobs and has been run for a decade now. With support of the European Commission, more than 300 000 Slovak citizens have tested their digital skills. – Our test was awarded in 2014 by the European Commission for a comprehensive and innovative approach to increasing the digital literacy of young people in Europe. Now, thanks to the support of the Visegrad Fund and in cooperation with partner organisations in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, we are adapting it to the needs of all V4 countries. Starting next year, citizens of all of these countries will be able to test the digital skills in their native language – says Mario Lelovsky, 1st Vice-president of IT Association of Slovakia (ITAS).

Organisations of the Digital V4 group, engaged in the project highlight the fact that as digitisation progresses, competence requirements in the job market and our daily activities change. The pandemic sped up this phenomenon and forced citizens to adapt to the digital era even faster. This shift has been particularly obvious in case of students, as their educational activity had to be moved into the online realm as well. According to the initiators of the IT Fitness Test, digital skills of citizens will determine the competitiveness of Visegrad Group countries’ economies as Industry 4.0 develops.

The project is co-financed by governments of the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary via Visegrad Grants of the International Visegrad Fund. The Fund’s mission is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.