Austria 2025 – The Role of Adequate Basic Competences in a Digitalised Working Environment

The use of digital technologies changes the content and requirements of work in a given job – a process that has already progressed considerably, at least in some aspects. Today, employers expect a bundle of formal qualifications, competences and skills that notably distinguish human labour from that of robots or programmed algorithms. The acquisition of basic competences as should be furnished by the initial education system is indispensable as a first step. Unfortunately, not all pupils in Austria have acquired these basics by the end of their mandatory schooling. In the past decade, the share of underperformers in reading and arithmetics has remained relatively stable at one in five pupils.