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Across the world, governments are modernizing their digital infrastructure – creating interoperable systems, upgrading platforms, and delivering services faster, more securely, and with greater transparency.
But what’s the point of building advanced digital platforms if the people meant to use them can’t? One essential element often lags behind: digital skills. Without a workforce and citizen base able to operate confidently in the digital space, even the most advanced platforms risk being underused. In fact, some studies show that up to 77% of organizations see the lack of digital skills as the main barrier to transformation.
Digital government is not just about replacing paper with screens – it changes the very nature of public sector work. Some tasks disappear, others evolve, and new responsibilities emerge. This shift can trigger resistance, capability gaps, and even drive away digitally capable employees who see the sector as too “rigid” or “bureaucratic.” To succeed, governments need a clear, data-driven strategy for skills development that grows in parallel with technology.
A Framework for Closing the Gap
Drawing on global best practices and more than 30 years direct collaboration with governments, NRD Companies developed the Digital Government Competence Framework (DGCF). The goal is clear: align skills growth with infrastructure investments so transformation delivers real value.
The DGCF builds on the European Commission’s DigComp framework and the OECD’s Framework for Digital Talent and Skills in the Public Sector, adapted for real-world government contexts. It defines five interconnected competence layers:
- Digital Citizen Skills: Basic digital literacy every public servant must have, from secure use of digital tools to managing data, creating digital content, and solving common technical problems.
- Digital Government Transformation Skills: Core capabilities for all public servants to support a digitally enabled state, including understanding user needs, working openly in multidisciplinary teams, and using data ethically and effectively.
- Professional Digital Skills: Specialized roles such as service designers, product managers, data scientists, and technology architects, each requiring advanced technical expertise.
- Socio-Emotional Skills: Team-level abilities such as vision, analysis, diplomacy, agility, and protection, ensuring that technology adoption is supported by collaboration, adaptability, and trust.
- Leadership Skills: The capacity of senior decision-makers to lead digital change, manage risks, and blend traditional public service strengths with modern, data-driven approaches.
Crucially, development of digital competences in civil service starts with the basics: the first two layers provide the foundation without which professional, socio-emotional, and leadership skills cannot be effectively applied.
Through its Consultancy services, NRD Companies supports governments in applying this framework in practice – from assessing existing competencies and identifying gaps, to designing training roadmaps, introducing organizational incentives, and fostering cross-sector collaboration. Our experts work closely with institutions to ensure skills development is not a stand-alone initiative but an embedded, sustainable part of the digital transformation journey.
The Skills That Make the Difference
While all five areas matter, NRD Companies’ experience highlights three that are especially critical for long-term transformation:
- User-Focused Service Design: The ability to understand citizens’ needs and integrate them into service delivery from the start.
- Trustworthy Data Use: Skills to manage, protect, and ethically leverage data as a strategic asset.
- Adaptive Collaboration: The socio-emotional capacity to work across disciplines, institutions, and sectors, ensuring services are cohesive and inclusive.
How to Build and Sustain Digital Skills
A common mistake is treating skills training as a one-off initiative. The DGCF approach embeds continuous and sustained development through different models and methods:
- Competence Assessment: Using surveys, focus groups, and HR interviews to map current capabilities against transformation needs.
- Targeted Training Roadmaps: Tailoring programs to roles and levels, from ICDL-based digital literacy modules to leadership-specific digital governance workshops.
- Institutional Incentives: Linking competence development to promotion criteria, performance reviews, and recognition schemes.
- Cross-Sector Learning: Encouraging knowledge exchange between public, private, and civil society actors to keep government skills in step with technology trends.
A Digitally Confident Public Sector
When skills and infrastructure evolve together, digital transformation becomes a living system – one that adapts continuously to public needs, builds trust, and strengthens resilience.
The message is simple: technology delivers value only when people are ready to use it. With the right competence framework – and the right strategic guidance – governments can ensure their investments in digital infrastructure translate into lasting, citizen-focused results.
Is your government building skills at the same pace as systems? Get in touch to learn more!
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Is your government building skills at the same pace as systems?
Contact our team to learn how the Digital Government Competence Framework can support your transformation journey.
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