- 2019Approved/Agreed
- 2020Implementation
- 2021Implementation
- 2022Implementation
- 2023Implementation
- 2024Implementation
Background
The Slovak economy is among the most open in the EU, heavily depending on exporting industry products, automotive in particular. It is very sensitive to business cycle ups and downs due to missed opportunities to diversify the economy. It is also among the most vulnerable of countries to the challenges of automation and digitalisation. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic for Investments and Informatisation is an ultimate coordinating body, focused on the development of the Strategy of the digital transformation of Slovakia 2030. This strategy was approved by the government on 7 May 2019, as a response to the European Commission's call to prepare until mid-2019 a national artificial intelligence strategy. Its action plan was approved by the government on 3 July 2019.
Objectives
The ambition of the strategy was to present the country's vision regarding digital transformation, the preconditions for its implementation and the priority areas. The strategy set the basis for designing specific measures at a later stage.
Description
In the short term, three priority areas have been identified by the strategy, forming a basis for the 2019-22 action plan:
- promoting digital transformation of schools, improving education environment, enhancing learners' digital competences and improving their employment prospects;
- laying the foundations for a modern data-based and digital economy and the digital transformation of the economy as a whole;
- improving the capacity of public administration to make use of data and innovation for the benefit of citizens.
The long-term priority areas are an extension of the short-term ones, promoting:
- innovative digital and data-based economy;
- educated, healthy and safe society;
- modern and efficient public administration;
- intelligent territorial development;
- world-class quality science, research and innovation.
According to the action plan of the Strategy of the digital transformation of Slovakia 2030, the most important education-related task is the development of the new strategy paper School informatisation programme with a view to 2030, addressing the following areas:
- developing ICT infrastructure at central and regional levels;
- improving electronic services and information systems of the education sector;
- introducing digital technologies for innovation and improving the quality of education;
- developing digital competences and skills;
- supporting the digital transformation of schools;
- promoting cybersecurity.
In the short term, three priority areas have been identified by the strategy, forming a basis for the 2019-22 action plan:
- promoting digital transformation of schools, improving education environment, enhancing learners' digital competences and improving their employment prospects;
- laying the foundations for a modern data-based and digital economy and the digital transformation of the economy as a whole;
- improving the capacity of public administration to make use of data and innovation for the benefit of citizens.
The long-term priority areas are an extension of the short-term ones, promoting:
- innovative digital and data-based economy;
- educated, healthy and safe society;
- modern and efficient public administration;
- intelligent territorial development;
- world-class quality science, research and innovation.
According to the action plan of the Strategy of the digital transformation of Slovakia 2030, the most important education-related task is the development of the new strategy paper School informatisation programme with a view to 2030, addressing the following areas:
- developing ICT infrastructure at central and regional levels;
- improving electronic services and information systems of the education sector;
- introducing digital technologies for innovation and improving the quality of education;
- developing digital competences and skills;
- supporting the digital transformation of schools;
- promoting cybersecurity.
On 20 December 2018, core concepts of the Strategy of the digital transformation of Slovakia 2030 were presented to the professional audience. This strategy was approved by the government on 7 May 2019.
Although partial issues were being implemented, the crucial education-relevant items were pending.
On 1 July 2020, responsibility for the digital transformation agenda was transferred from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic for Investments and Informatisation to the newly created Ministry of Investments, Regional Development and Informatisation.
Within the national ESF project IT academy - education for the 21st century, in-service training of 706 directors and digital coordinators started in November 2020. 353 basic and secondary schools including VET schools, of an envisaged 400 schools, already piloted the digital transformation of schools, as suggested by the 2019 Strategy of the digital transformation of Slovakia 2030. The total budget was EUR 280 000, of which EUR 40 000 covered retraining costs and EUR 240 000 the remuneration of additional duties of teachers serving as digital coordinators.
Experts of this project published in October 2020 a draft proposal for the Programme for the digital transformation of education in Slovakia, including the action plan for the 2021-24 period. This paper serves as a background study contributing to the development of the School informatisation programme with a view to 2030, envisaged by the 2019 Strategy of the digital transformation of Slovakia 2030.
Although the official school informatisation programme was pending, the digital transformation of schools was massively supported by the national ESF project IT academy. Directors and forthcoming school digital coordinators (introduced by law from 1 January 2022) were retrained within this project. By the end of 2021, 657 staff members from 502 basic and secondary schools (including VET schools) had been retrained. All participating schools worked on their action plan of digital transformation valid for the next 3 years making use of online tool SELFIE, supported by regional clubs of digital coordinators. The work of 170 coordinators from basic schools and 180 coordinators from secondary schools was covered for the period of 1 year from the ESIF within national projects edIT 1 and edIT 2. In-service training for teachers based on online webinars and consultations were offered to exploit 1 125 new STEM-related methodologies in classrooms and for passing exams to receive ECDL/ICDL certificates. Also, EUR 187.2 million from the National recovery and resilience plan (RRP) financing are envisaged for improving digital infrastructure in basic and secondary schools. According to RRP, 90% of schools should achieve the entry level standard HECC - highly equipped and connected classroom - by 2024.
The national ESF project IT academy was completed by 31 August 2022 with the following key tangible results:
- a portal with 1 125 innovative methodologies to support research-based learning, develop computational thinking, and improve digital skills;
- a comprehensive proposal for the digital transformation of education in Slovakia that was an important source for the education ministry strategy paper and that led to the ongoing training of school digital coordinators;
- detailed recommendations for education policy and practice in primary, secondary and higher education presented in a thorough and detailed 799-page analysis of outputs and impact of the national project.
The school informatisation programme with a view to 2030 was published in May 2022 as an internal document of the education ministry. It was not submitted to the government, thus, no additional funds are allocated from the State budget. The National recovery and resilience plan (RRP) and ESIF are, therefore, crucial sources for digital transformation. Most important activities launched in 2022 target the senior population. A survey commissioned by the Ministry of Investments, Regional Development and Informatisation (MIRRI), published in January 2022, found that 41% of seniors aged 65 to 88 do not possess any digital equipment: computer, tablet, or even a smartphone. This proved that the development of the digital skills of seniors is hampered by digital poverty. Within the RRP-funded project 'Improving digital skills for seniors and distribution of Senior-tablets', with a budget of up to EUR 70 million, 1 188 seniors were retrained and equipped with tablets in the pilot phase of the project aimed at retraining over 170 000 seniors by 2026. An information campaign started supported by the Digital Ambassador, a popular senior actor, and a dedicated website providing comprehensive information on prerequisites for application and the training itself. Seniors over 65 years of age can apply for the beginner and advanced training composed of four modules (technology basics, searching for information on the Internet, online communication, and cyber security).
The national project 'Improving the digital skills of seniors and disadvantaged groups in public administration', funded by the Operational programme Integrated infrastructure (2014-21) in a total amount of EUR 962 842.11 and run by the Digital Coalition in cooperation with MIRRI, also targeted seniors and their capacity to communicate online with public administration. The goal of this national project was to create and put into use a complex testing and educational IT platform to contribute to the sustainability of lifelong learning and significantly improve the digital skills of target groups. In September 2022, a 20-hour training for beginners took place, complemented by e-testing to get feedback on the skills acquired and the needs for new or modified eGovernment services for disadvantaged groups.
Activities aimed at equipping learners and school staff from the RRP and ESIF were in the final stage of preparation. Works on the improvement of digital equipment for school staff, related to the RRP, continued by processing applications from schools specifying the needs of individual staff members. The Digital Coalition in cooperation with MIRRI finalised a project proposal aimed at the improvement of digital equipment for all first graders of secondary schools including VET schools and the learners at risk due to poverty or social disadvantage.
In 2023, the Supreme Audit Office published a report on the results of an inspection focused on the state of the infrastructure for connecting schools to the Internet for 2018-22. It heavily criticised the weak implementation of the governmental strategy paper The concept of computerisation and digitisation of the education sector with a view to 2020 and even the absence of 'relevant baseline data for the creation of an effective national strategy in the field of informatisation'. As a result, the subsequent strategy paper School informatisation programme with a view to 2030, which includes the 2021-24 action plan, had to be revised. It was necessary to restart the public procurement to ensure the delivery of digital equipment and reliable connectivity to schools. This led to delay, but on 14 December 2023, the education ministry announced the DigiEDU project funded by the NRRP ready to materialise the investment in digitisation of education.
In parallel, the Ministry of Investment, Regional Development, and Informatisation (MIRRI) and the Digital Coalition elaborated an overarching digital skills strategy titled the National digital skills strategy of the Slovak Republic and the action plan for the years 2023-26. Two of the six chapters of this strategy are directly interlinked mainly with regional schooling and education ministry responsibilities
- digital skills of young people and educators in the educational process;
- share of girls and women in ICT.
To increase the share of women in ICT the motivation of girls to enrol in ICT fields of study in secondary schools is advocated and should be achieved in cooperation with the Digital Coalition. A precisely targeted communication campaign popularising the advantages and benefits of ICT work for girls and future women in basic and secondary schools and close cooperation with school digital coordinators and career counsellors in schools is considered essential for success.
On 28 February, the Digital Coalition in cooperation with MIRRI launched a project Digital allowance for learners SK (known as A digital learner) aimed at improving digital equipment for first graders of secondary schools and learners at risk due to poverty or social disadvantage. 144 thousand registrations were submitted while over 130 thousand learners applied a voucher to receive equipment worth EUR 350. Over 91 thousand learners from poor families were served but some have no access to the Internet in households. Therefore, Internet vouchers are envisaged as a follow-up to this project according to the priorities of the 2023 Government manifesto. A similar idea was applied to the national project serving Ukrainian learners. Thanks to this project, over 9 300 Ukrainian learners received new digital equipment. During the project, 835 Ukrainian learners took a test in digital skills and 3 436 Ukrainian learners were tested to clarify their Slovak language skills as a precondition for effective learning in Slovak schools.
The two components of the RRP-funded DigiEDU project - Digital equipment for schools (EUR 123.5 million) and Digital infrastructure of schools (EUR 101.1 million) - progressed in 2024. Based on a mapping of individual school needs to achieve envisaged standards, digital equipment and high-speed Internet has been distributed to schools since October 2024. At the same time, teaching staff and professional staff were offered online training organised by the National Institute of Education and Youth (NIVAM). The objective is to gain an overview of utilising new equipment, Microsoft 365 A3 licenses, and applications to improve and innovate education. Topics such as gamification and artificial intelligence to develop learners' digital skills were also addressed.
In a press release dated 29 October 2024, the education ministry announced delivery at a pace of about 300 schools per month meeting the goal of 90% of schools with highly equipped and connected classrooms (HECC standard) by the end of 2025 revised from the original target of end of 2024.
The 2023-28 national project, Digital transformation of education and schools (DiTEdu)‚ funded by Programme Slovakia 2021-27 with a total budget of EUR 20 248 382.87 has been officially launched in 2024. It builds on the 2020-22 IT academy project with the aim of building a sustainable system of support for the digital transformation of education. The National Centre for the Digital Transformation of Education is building the ecosystem for the digital transformation of education and schools. It operates from Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice and Comenius University in Bratislava, cooperating with stakeholders and experts from other universities, and NIVAM, the teacher training institution. Support for the digital transformation of education will include several activities related to formal and informal learning of school digital coordinators, directors, pedagogical and professional staff of kindergartens, basic schools, secondary schools, students of teaching programmes at universities, updating and creating innovative methodologies, networking of schools and employees, certification of the quality of digital schools, popularisation. Networking platforms include clubs of digital coordinators, clubs of directors, and clubs of teachers. In connection with the national project, Support of assisting professions 3‚ funded by Programme Slovakia 2021-27, education and methodological support for school digital coordinators is implemented. Work is also underway to adapt the EU DigCompEdu framework for the training of teachers and other staff.
In October 2024, the project, Improving digital skills for seniors and distribution of Senior-tablets, known as Digital seniors, was relaunched with a budget of EUR 41 million under the RRP. The aim is to teach 105 440 seniors aged over 65 and disabled persons aged over 18 basic digital skills and provide them with quality tablets and a 65 GB data package for one year.
Under Point 3.4.6 of the Action plan for informatisation and digital transformation of education in the Slovak Republic for the period 2021-24, efforts to expand and improve the central repository of digital educational content (VIKI) continued.
The Digital Coalition in cooperation with Ministry of Investment, Regional Development, and Informatisation (MIRRI) started to work on the 2024-27 ERDF national project, Digital skills for a green future of Slovakia (Digital future), developing instruments to assess digital competence initially based on DigComp 2.2. Making use of the FinQ experience related to measuring financial literacy on a scale similar to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages classification: the beginner level being A1 and the expert level C1, this approach should apply also to measuring digital and green skills. The aforementioned project Digital future will offer 20 conferences nationwide also titled Digital future. These conferences in support of the digital and green transformation of companies will also present a diagnostic tool for the assessment of digital and green skills of employees (at levels A1 to C1).
Bodies responsible
- Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic for Investments and Informatisation
- Digital Coalition
- Ministry of Investments, Regional Development and Informatisation
Target groups
Learners
- Learners in upper secondary, including apprentices
- Adult learners
- Learners from other groups at risk of exclusion (minorities, people with fewer opportunities due to geographical location or social-economic disadvantaged position)
Education professionals
- Teachers
- School leaders
Entities providing VET
- VET providers (all kinds)
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.
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.
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.
Subsystem
Further reading
Country
Type of development
Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Digital transformation strategy: Slovakia. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2024 update) [Online tool].
https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/35291