The Digital Skills EU Days are an annual event that brings together over 150 representatives working in digital skills, including digital skills projects, academies,finalists of the European Digital Skills Awards, representatives of national coalitions for digital skills and jobs as well as professionals in the sector and European Commission representatives.
Digital Skills Academies
Europe's competitiveness and leadership is tied to its talent, particularly in digital. This is reflected in the Union of Skills, the AI Continent Action Plan, the Apply AI Strategy, and the Digital Decade Policy Programme.
To ensure Europe continues to grow the skills it needs, at this year's digital skills days, three new Digital Skills Academies were launched in quantum, artificial intelligence and virtual worlds.
These academies, funded under the Digital Europe Programme, will establish training in these critical technological domains and help EU reach its digital decade targets.
The academies add to other initiatives under the Digital Europe Programme, which has invested over €294 million to support skilling, upskilling and reskilling in the EU, covering areas such as data, cloud, cyber and artificial intelligence.
The Digital Europe Programme also finances initiatives to attract young talent to the field of ICT, build a strong EdTech ecosystem, and facilitate secure data sharing through the Common European Data Space for Skills.
European Digital Skills Awards
During the Digital Skills EU Days, Excecutive Vice Presidents Henna Virkkunen and Roxana Mînzatu gave keynote speeches on the importance of digital skills before presenting the European Digital Skills Awards 2026.
Organised since 2016, these awards celebrate the outstanding contributions of projects and organisations dedicated to empowering individuals with essential digital competencies.
The 2026 edition’s winners by category were:
- Upskilling @Work winner: Consortium FAIRmat - an ecosystem of tools and services for FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) research data management integrated into academic and research environments.
- Digital Skills for Education winner: Generation AI - an AI literacy research and education initiative, for novice learners, that explains how AI works, the opportunities it offers and its dynamic effects.
- Inclusion in the Digital World winner: Scratch Tactile - an ecosystem of tangible coding resources and an accessible app that ensures equitable access to digital skills from an early age through an accessible, inclusive, hybrid approach to coding.
- Women in ICT Careers winner: THRIVE – Upskilling for women - a programme that combines flexible online learning with personalised support and targeted career preparation, designed to support refugee and migrant women in Germany in accessing employment in the ICT sector.
- Cybersecurity Skills winner: HackShield (Future Cyber Heroes) - through an online game, equips children with the digital and cybersecurity skills they need to safely navigate today’s online world.
Further information is available on the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform.