- 2016Approved/Agreed
- 2017Implementation
- 2018Implementation
- 2019Implementation
- 2020Implementation
- 2021Implementation
- 2022Implementation
- 2023Implementation
- 2024Implementation
- 2025Implementation
Background
The establishment of the coalition for digital jobs fulfils the measures of the Strategy for digital education and the digital literacy strategy.
Objectives
The coalition aims to ensure that education in the field of digital technologies is up to date, effective and provides every Czech citizen with the opportunity to develop their own digital competences throughout their lives, so that they are successful in the labour market and able to use digital technologies to meet their living needs and content. The coalition strives for every citizen to have enough support in gaining confidence in the acquisition of digital competences and to conceive career paths and jobs in a synergistic connection with the world of digital technologies when building the career path.
One of the aims is also to increase the number of qualified ICT professionals.
Description
In October 2016, the National Coalition for Digital Skills and Jobs (DigiKoalice) was established by the Ministries of Education, Labour and Social Affairs, Industry and Trade, the Office of the Government, and the Czech ICT Alliance, as part of the digital education strategy. The composition of the coalition is diverse, bringing together non-profit organisations, IT companies, schools, libraries, academic institutions, government agencies and more.
The main tasks of the coalition include activating stakeholders (public administrations, local authorities, employers, trade unions, educators) to help increase the number of qualified ICT professionals by means of initial and continuing education and training and raising awareness about the forthcoming digital changes. The digital jobs coalition is also focused on promoting teacher training and pedagogical research on the use of digital technologies in teaching. The education ministry has announced ESF projects, with the participation of faculties of pedagogy, to develop teaching materials with a view to the updating of curricula.
In 2017, the ministry also provided support to tertiary professional schools that will be engaged in the development of digital teaching materials for foreign languages and vocational subjects and the creation of massive open online courses (MOOC).
The activities of the coalition continued in 2019. Best practice examples were collected, a newsletter, webinars and courses prepared, also for the wider public. The coalition also participated in preparation of priorities in digital education for Strategy 2030 +, took part in the preparation of revisions and updates of basic school, general secondary school and secondary VET school framework educational programmes, and cooperated with the SYPO (System for the support of professional development of teachers and directors) project regional ICT methodologists.
The main topics of 2020 were the innovation of the ICT curriculum for basic education and upper secondary vocational education, the training of teachers and students on safe online behaviour (cybersecurity) and digital infrastructure of schools and its administration.
Following the closure of schools starting 11 March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the coalition’s activities were linked to the evaluation of data provided by the Czech School Inspectorate, secured by a comprehensive survey carried out in schools in the first half of April 2020.
In 2020, the coalition expanded its membership base with new key partners in the field of digital education to the total of 220 organisations dedicated to supporting digital education for children, students and adults.
The coalition’s priorities for 2020 included the prevention of risky online behaviour of children and the digital infrastructure of schools. Two advisory groups were set up, the first for the training of teachers and students on safe online behaviour (cybersecurity); this group maps well-tested and proven best practice programmes of primary prevention. The second advisory group focused on digital school infrastructure and its administration. The aim of the advisory groups was to bring specific recommendations for action that shall be carried out by individual stakeholders, including ministries, regional authorities, and school headmasters, in order to improve the situation in these two areas.
In cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, the coalition held four meetings around various topics of working groups composed of the representatives of the MŠMT, companies and target groups (the so-called meet-ups).
In 2020, the coalition also cooperated with the SYPO project in supporting regional ICT methodologists and participated in the development of adult IT skills within the Upskilling project. The coalition also actively promoted the worldwide Code Week event and its organisation nationally. In collaboration with Czech non-profit organisation Czechitas, the coalition for the first time joined the DigiEduHakaton 2020, which tackles the biggest challenges of digital education.
Within the European network of national coalitions, the Czech coalition for digital jobs is one of the first eight national coalitions that succeeded in the CEF Telecom call: European platform for digital skills and jobs project, and began to help build a European solution for information sharing and transmission. In the framework of that action, a new website of the Coalition on the topic of digital skills and jobs is being prepared for the spring of 2021, which will be technically connected to the central EU platform related to this topic.
In 2021, the Czech National Coalition for Digital Skills and Jobs (DigiKoalice) received 35 new members. At present it unites over 250 organisations (non-profit organisations, IT companies, schools, libraries, academic institutions, public administration entities) seeking to support digital education in basic and upper secondary schools as well as in the adult population.
In 2021, the main activities of DigiKoalice included participation in the EU Code Week; specifically, the creation of three teaching lessons aimed at developing computational thinking of basic school students, both for online and offline environments, and the Codictionary, a glossary explaining basic IT concepts and terminology.
DigiKoalice organised the second year of the DigiEduHack hackathon in the Czech Republic with 101 registered participants: the theme was Smartphone: school in a pocket. During the preparatory week, an inspirational meet-up presenting international best practice, and a meet-up on working in Oracle cloud were organised. Participants also had the opportunity to attend the Grow with Google seminar on the Design Thinking method. The DigiKoalice continued to run a cyber prevention advisory group, which worked on an overview of programmes and methodologies for increasing children’s safe behaviour online. The catalogue was launched by the end of 2021 and contains 142 programmes for students, 30 programmes for teachers and parents, and 62 methodologies and materials. It will be available on the new website (digikoalice.npi.cz) (expected in the first quarter of 2022).
Around 50 weekly reports (a regular Monday digest of the most interesting news on digital skills and jobs) and many other contributions were posted in the Facebook group Digikoalice školám (Digikoalice for schools); good practice examples continued to be collected and shared. Digikoalice organised a workshop to support primary schools in the transition to teaching new IT and digital competences. There were 7 meet-ups, including international ones; one dedicated to sharing of experiences among so called V4 countries (Visegrad Group consisting of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland) in distance education; and a traditional annual meeting of members. On its website, Digikoalice regularly published member’ events, such as reskilling or training courses in various areas of digital skills or cyber security and the labour market. A workshop on the development of adult digital competences was organised in cooperation with ECDL and Czechitas, producing several useful recommendations. Digikoalice promoted the Digital SkillUp courses launched by the European Digital Skills and Jobs Platform with which the new Digikoalice website is linked.
In 2022, the Czech National Coalition for Digital Skills and Jobs (DigiKoalice) continued in its mission to connect relevant stakeholders in the area of digital education. By the end of the year 2022, DigiKoalice as a platform counted 216 member organisations. The decline in the overall number of member organisations compare to 2021 is due to the revision of the inactive member base. DigiKoalice continues to be a common platform of the National Pedagogical Institute of the Czech Republic and the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
In 2022, DigiKoalice organised 13 meetups for schools and its member organisations. Among the major topics were the finances from RRF, best practices at schools (ranging all levels from pre-primary to upper secondary and tertiary) and where to seek advice as a teacher. Additionally, DigiKoalice organised two international webinars (in cooperation with Slovenian and Slovak National Coalitions) on the topic Girls in ICT, where women experts showed to upper secondary students their career path in ICT. Webinars are available on the YouTube channel of DigiKoalice.
In 2022, DigiKoalice took part in EU Code Week initiative. Specifically, DigiKoalice organised a webinar on “How to take part in EU Code Week in the Czech Republic” for Czech teachers and enthusiasts.
DigiKoalice also created in 2022 10 worksheets for teachers to use them in their classes in developing computational thinking and digital competences. As part of it, DigiKoalice created a vocabulary with basic terms in ICT.
In 2022, DigiKoalice continued to transform and expand its online services thanks to the co-funding from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and the Ministry of Education Youth and Sports. The financial support enabled DigiKoalice to launch a new website last year (directly linked to the European Digital Skills and Jobs Platform), improve its content, continue to collect and share good practices (including from abroad) etc. DigiKoalice also continued to be active on social media channels transforming its weekly reports into various digests published throughout the year, better fit to its new website.
In 2022, the topic of children’s online safety was among DigiKoalice’s priorities, resulting in the launch of a catalogue of online prevention programmes and materials. The catalogue contains hundreds of programmes and dozens of materials which can be used by schools to tackle such an important topic. The catalogue is the result of the working group for online prevention coordinated by DigiKoalice. The catalogue is accompanied by 14 points for effective online prevention which provide guidelines for schools to choose the most suitable programmes or materials for their school.
Four meetups took place in 2023, to facilitate the exchange of best practices, updates and experiences among Digikoalice member organisations and schools. The annual meeting for Digikoalice member organisations was also held. Attention was focused on aligning efforts and avoiding overlaps with the National Recovery Plan (NPO), regarding activity 3.1. Innovation in education in the context of digitisation.
DigiKoalice became an active member in the newly established Committee for Digital Education, convened by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. Regular meetings supported communication with other departments, including the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Within the Digikoalice, cooperation with the Ministry of Interior has been developed, focusing on cyber prevention and digital citizenship.
Cooperation with new member organisations, including international ones, was established. The DigiKoalice website was linked to the central Digital Skills and Jobs platform. The Cyber prevention catalogue was updated and an AI catalogue was added to the DigiKoalice website. Member organisations were encouraged to share news, events, funding opportunities, courses, etc. on the website. The content of the DigiKoalice website expanded significantly, especially in connection with the DigiKoalice - CEF project which aimed to enhance the website's integration with the Digital Skills and Jobs platform, provide translations, and prepare examples of best practices from both Czech and European contexts. Great emphasis was once again placed on updating the calendar of events and revising existing and collecting new examples of good practice. The D.PRESSO section, a digital digest of thematic news in the digital world, was launched on social media to promote website content.
By November 15, 2023, the number of member organisations, including partners, had increased to 250. Leadership from Digikoalice participated in regular meetings of the National Digital Coalitions, which serve as international meetings to facilitate information sharing. Also in 2023, Digikoalice representatives actively participated in the European Programming Week (CodeWeek), creating materials for teachers, producing video content for those interested in CodeWeek and promoting CodeWeek through social media.
Regular meetups with members of the Digikoalice continued. The annual meeting for the Digicoalition took place on November 21. The Cyber Catalogue – first developed in 2022, containing programmes and materials for online prevention and improving children’s safe behaviour in the online space - was updated twice in 2024: in April and in November. The topic of digital wellbeing was also supported and further developed by the coalition. Digikoalice also participated in meetings of national digital platforms. The AI catalogue for schools was updated and communicated through various channels. There was also closer cooperation with the NPO 3.1 project, Europass, the Week for Digital Czech team, and the government project, Women in IT.
In 2025 the Czech National Coalition consisted of 260 partners of which 16 are newcomers.
In 2025, Czech National Coalition Digikoalice made use of financial support from the Champions for the Digital Decade (C4DD) project, which focuses on the specific work of national coalitions for digital skills and jobs.
The fourth Digital Czechia Week took place from September 8 to 14, 2025. It was organised by the Digital Czechia platform under the auspices of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic. The event took place face to face throughout the Czech Republic and online, with the aim of developing digital skills across generations. Topics included the digital future of the labour market, the digital world for everyone, and the digital technologies of tomorrow. DigiKoalice organised interactive webinars for teachers from primary and secondary schools. Over 260 events for 21 000 people were organised within the week.
In September 2025, Digikoalice organised so-called virtual staff rooms, i.e., meetings between teachers and partners in digital education. The DIGIakce call 2025 is intended for school principals and teachers who want to hold online or face-to-face meetings with other schools and promote the exchange of experiences in digital education. Until the end of 2025, Digikoalice will support the school with financial rewards for organisers and presenters, methodological guidance, and promotion.
Digikoalice promoted in October 2025 the European Code Week in the Czech Republic. CodeWeek focuses on promoting the development of computational thinking, including programming. In the Czech Republic, over 100 organisations that educate children, young people, adults, and seniors regularly participate in the event. As part of Code Week, Digikoalice also supported a competition for teachers, who can show how new IT is coming to life in their schools at any time between August and December 2025.
Digikoalice is partner of the traditional Conference"Digital Technologies in Education – Practical Use in Schools" (DigiSeč 2025), which will take place on November 3–4, 2025. This year's conference is intended for teachers of all subjects at primary and secondary schools. The two-day conference programme is filled with information on the topics of digital skills and new information technology. Conference participants gain confidence in working with digital tools, improve their digital skills, and try out activities such as programming and other new technologies in practice.
Bodies responsible
- Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
- Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs
- Ministry of Industry and Trade
- National Pedagogical Institute of the Czech Republic
Target groups
Learners
- Learners in upper secondary, including apprentices
- Young people (15-29 years old)
Education professionals
- Teachers
Thematic categories
Governance of VET and lifelong learning
This thematic category looks at existing legal frameworks providing for strategic, operational – including quality assurance – and financing arrangements for VET and lifelong learning (LLL). It examines how VET and LLL-related policies are placed in broad national socioeconomic contexts and coordinate with other strategies and policies, such as economic, social and employment, growth and innovation, recovery and resilience.
This thematic category covers partnerships and collaboration networks of VET stakeholders – especially the social partners – to shape and implement VET in a country, including looking at how their roles and responsibilities for VET at national, regional and local levels are shared and distributed, ensuring an appropriate degree of autonomy for VET providers to adapt their offer.
The thematic category also includes efforts to create national, regional and sectoral skills intelligence systems (skills anticipation and graduate tracking) and using skills intelligence for making decisions about VET and LLL on quality, inclusiveness and flexibility.
This thematic sub-category refers to the integration of VET into economic, industrial, innovation, social and employment strategies, including those linked to recovery, green and digital transitions, and where VET is seen as a driver for innovation and growth. It includes national, regional, sectoral strategic documents or initiatives that make VET an integral part of broader policies, or applying a mix of policies to address an issue VET is part of, e.g. in addressing youth unemployment measures through VET, social and active labour market policies that are implemented in combination. National skill strategies aiming at quality and inclusive lifelong learning also fall into this sub-category.
This thematic sub-category refers both to formal mechanisms of stakeholder engagement in VET governance and to informal cooperation among stakeholders, which motivate shared responsibility for quality VET. Formal engagement is usually based on legally established institutional procedures that clearly define the role and responsibilities for relevant stakeholders in designing, implementing and improving VET. It also refers to establishing and increasing the degree of autonomy of VET providers for agile and flexible VET provision.
In terms of informal cooperation, the sub-category covers targeted actions by different stakeholders to promote or implement VET. This cooperation often leads to creating sustainable partnerships and making commitments for targeted actions, in line with the national context and regulation, e.g. national alliances for apprenticeships, pacts for youth or partnerships between schools and employers. It can also include initiatives and projects run by the social partners or sectoral organisations or networks of voluntary experts and executives, retired or on sabbatical, to support their peers in the fields of VET and apprenticeships, as part of the EAfA.
Modernising VET infrastructure
This thematic category looks at how VET schools and companies providing VET are supported to update and upgrade their physical infrastructure for teaching and learning, including digital and green technologies, so that learners in all VET programmes and specialities have access to state-of-the-art equipment and are able to acquire relevant and up-to-date vocational and technical skills and competences. Modernising infrastructure in remote and rural areas increases the inclusiveness of VET and LLL.
This thematic sub-category focuses on establishing and upgrading to state-of-the-art digital infrastructure, equipment and technology, such as computers, hardware, connectivity and good broadband speed that should ensure quality and inclusive VET provision, especially in blended and virtual modes. It also includes specific measures to remove the digital divide, e.g. supporting geographically remote or rural areas to ensure social inclusion through access to such infrastructure for learning and teaching. It also includes support measures for learners from socially disadvantaged backgrounds to acquire the necessary equipment.
Modernising VET offer and delivery
This thematic category looks at what and how individuals learn, how learning content and learning outcomes in initial and continuing VET are defined, adapted and updated. First and foremost, it examines how VET standards, curricula, programmes and training courses are updated and modernised or new ones created. Updated and renewed VET content ensures that learners acquire a balanced mix of competences that address modern demands, and are more closely aligned with the realities of the labour market, including key competences, digital competences and skills for green transition and sustainability, both sector-specific and across sectors. Using learning outcomes as a basis is important to facilitate this modernisation, including modularisation of VET programmes. Updating and developing teaching and learning materials to support the above is also part of the category.
The thematic category continues to focus on strengthening high-quality and inclusive apprenticeships and work-based learning in real-life work environments and in line with the European framework for quality and effective apprenticeships. It looks at expanding apprenticeship to continuing vocational training and at developing VET programmes at EQF levels 5-8 for better permeability and lifelong learning and to support the need for higher vocational skills.
This thematic category also focuses on VET delivery through a mix of open, digital and participative learning environments, including workplaces conducive to learning, which are flexible, more adaptable to the ways individuals learn, and provide more access and outreach to various groups of learners, diversifying modes of learning and exploiting the potential of digital learning solutions and blended learning to complement face-to-face learning.
Centres of vocational excellence that connect VET to innovation and skill ecosystems and facilitate stronger cooperation with business and research also fall into this category.
VET standards and curricula define the content and outcomes of learning, most often at national or sectoral levels. VET programmes are based on standards and curricula and refer to specific vocations/occupations. They all need to be regularly reviewed, updated and aligned with the needs of the labour market and society. They need to include a balanced mix of vocational and technical skills corresponding to economic cycles, evolving jobs and working methods, and key competences, providing for resilience, lifelong learning, employability, social inclusion, active citizenship, sustainable awareness and personal development (Council of the European Union, 2020). The thematic sub-category also refers to establishing new VET programmes, reducing their number or discontinuing some. It also includes design of CVET programmes and training courses to adapt to labour market, sectoral or individual up- and re-skilling needs.
This thematic sub-category focuses on developing and updating all kinds of learning resources and materials, both for learners and for teachers and trainers (e.g. teachers handbooks or manuals), to embrace current and evolving content and modes of learning. These activities target all kinds of formats: hard copy and digital publications, learning websites and platforms, tools for learner self-assessment of progress, ICT-based simulators, virtual and augmented reality, etc.
This thematic sub-category refers to acquisition of key competences and basic skills for all, from an early age and throughout their life, including those acquired as part of qualifications and curricula. Key competences include knowledge, skills and attitudes needed by all for personal fulfilment and development, employability and lifelong learning, social inclusion, active citizenship and sustainable awareness. Key competences include literacy; multilingual; science, technology, engineering and mathematical (STEM); digital; personal, social and learning to learn; active citizenship, entrepreneurship, cultural awareness and expression (Council of the European Union, 2018).
Teachers, trainers and school leaders competences
Competent and motivated VET teachers in schools and trainers in companies are crucial to VET becoming innovative and relevant, agile, resilient, flexible, inclusive and lifelong.
This thematic category comprises policies and practices of initial training and continuing professional development approaches in a systemic and systematic manner. It also looks at measures aiming to update (entry) requirements and make teaching and training careers attractive and bring more young and talented individuals and business professionals into teaching and training. Supporting VET educators by equipping them with adequate competences, skills and tools for the green transition and digital teaching and learning are addressed in separate thematic sub-categories.
The measures in this category target teachers and school leaders, company trainers and mentors, adult educators and guidance practitioners.
This thematic sub-category is in line with the EU policy focus on the digital transition, and refers to professional development and other measures to prepare and support teachers and trainers in teaching their learners digital skills and competences. It also covers measures and support for them to increase their own digital skills and competences, including for teaching in virtual environments, working with digital tools and applying digital pedagogies. Emergency measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic also fall into this sub-category.
Supporting lifelong learning culture and increasing participation
Lifelong learning refers to all learning (formal, non-formal or informal) taking place at all stages in life and resulting in an improvement or update in knowledge, skills, competences and attitudes or in participation in society from a personal, civic, cultural, social or employment-related perspective (Erasmus+, Glossary of terms, https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/programme-guide/part-d/glossary-common-terms). A systemic approach to CVET is crucial to ensure adaptability to evolving demands.
This broad thematic category looks at ways of creating opportunities and ensuring access to re-skilling and upskilling pathways, allowing individuals to progress smoothly in their learning throughout their lives with better permeability between general and vocational education and training, and better integration and compatibility between initial and continuing VET and with higher education. Individuals should be supported in acquiring and updating their skills and competences and navigating easily through education and training systems. Strategies and campaigns that promote VET and LLL as an attractive and high-quality pathway, providing quality lifelong guidance and tailored support to design learning and career paths, and various incentives (financial and non-financial) to attract and support participation in VET and LLL fall into this thematic category as well.
This thematic category also includes many initiatives on making VET inclusive and ensuring equal education and training opportunities for various groups of learners, regardless of their personal and economic background and place of residence – especially those at risk of disadvantage or exclusion, such as persons with disabilities, the low-skilled and low-qualified, minorities, migrants, refugees and others.
This thematic sub-category refers to providing the possibility for individuals who are already in the labour market/in employment to reskill and/or acquire higher levels of skills, and to ensuring targeted information resources on the benefits of CVET and lifelong learning. It also covers the availability of CVET programmes adaptable to labour market, sectoral or individual up- and reskilling needs. The sub-category includes working with respective stakeholders to develop digital learning solutions supporting access to CVET opportunities and awarding CVET credentials and certificates.
Subsystem
Further reading
Country
Type of development
Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2026). National Coalition for Digital Skills and Jobs (DigiKoalice): Czechia. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2026). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2025 update) [Online tool].
https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/da/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/28109