Presentation of competence areas – Area zero will be placed in the middle

October 2025

As part of the national conference on digital skills in Hannover (you can find a article here), we offered a workshop together with our project partners from Austria.

The aim of the workshop was to provide information about the DigComp reference framework and the EU-project, as well as to present and discuss our specific implementation ideas. Participants included people from adult education institutions, some of them had already worked with the DigComp and some have not even considered it yet.

We received widespread approval for the introduction of the Competence Area 0, because this is particularly important for the target group in adult education. As an educational institution for all citizens we are keen to include those who have only a little or no contact with the increasingly digitalised world. Low-threshold courses teach the basics in a playful way that it suitable for everyday use.

Since Area 0 can essentially be seen as the basis for digital competence, during the workshop the idea came up that we should also emphasise it particularly when it comes to presentation. Until now, area zero has been included in the icon alongside the other areas, which are essentially independent of one another and do not build on each other. By placing competence Area 0 in the centre of the icon, its special significance as a basis is more clearly and quickly recognisable, or at least this is what we assume. We are currently in the process of implementing this idea.

One of our first drafts for a Competence Levels Indicator icon, visually derived from the DigComp logo. The leaves of the flower represent the Competence Areas of DigComp.