DigComp 3.0 AT
Digital competence. Visible. Applicable. Measurable.
DigComp 3.0 AT is the consistent further development of the Austrian digital competence model – built on two model generations of national practice (DigComp 2.2 AT and 2.3 AT), extensive stakeholder consultation and research. It is fully compatible with DigComp 3.0 EU and the National Reference Framework for Digital Competences (NRDK) in Austria, but more consistently and practice-oriented aligned with the needs of an inclusive labour market and everyday company practice in the digital transformation.
How the model works
How DigComp actually works
DigComp describes digital competence on four interlocking levels – from the broad overview down to concretely assessable statements. That is what turns a framework into a working tool for education, guidance and HR practice.
6
Competence areas
The thematic map: from foundations and access (Area 0) through information, communication, content and safety to problem-solving and continued learning.
30
Individual competences
Each area contains concrete competences – such as “conducting digital transactions” (2.7) or “human-centred use of technology” (0.5).
8
Proficiency levels · NQF 1–8
How well someone can do something: eight levels from “elementary” to “innovative”, grouped into four stages and directly mappable to the National Qualifications Framework.
719 + 666
Statements & learning outcomes
For each competence and level, competence statements describe observable action; learning outcomes (knowledge, skills, attitudes) make them usable for curricula and qualification.
How to read the model: pick a competence, check the statements at the target level, and adopt the matching learning outcomes into curricula, occupational profiles or qualification offers.
Continuity across two model generations
From DigComp 2.2 AT via 2.3 AT to 3.0 AT
Competence Area 0 is not an innovation but established Austrian practice: DigComp 2.2 AT already introduced the preceding area “Foundations and Access” – as the structural answer to the inclusion and connectivity gaps UNESCO constructively noted in 2018. Every model generation has refined this approach without changing the methodology and structure of DigComp EU.
DigComp 2.2 AT
2021 · BMDW
- Upstream area “0. Foundations and Access” with three competences: understanding concepts of digitalisation, operating digital devices, inclusive forms of access
- Prerequisites of self-determined digital participation made explicit – against a deepening digital divide
- Methodology and structure of DigComp EU fully preserved
DigComp 2.3 AT
2022 · Nárosy et al.
- 27 competences; Competence Area 0 extended to four
- Explicit transaction competence (2.4 purchases and sales) and publication/authorship competence (3.5)
- Eight directly NQF-mappable proficiency levels (“elementary” to “innovative”), everyday transversal scenarios
- Anchored as a viable national standard in the National Reference Framework for Digital Competences (NRDK) until 2026
DigComp 3.0 AT
2026 · Domany-Funtan et al.
- 30 individual competences; numbering aligned with DigComp 3.0 EU – national additions always at the end of the sequence for full comparability
- New: 0.5 human-centred, reflective, responsible technology use (Digital Humanism) and 5.5 recognising opportunities, creating value and benefit
- 2.7 digital transactions extended (incl. payment systems, wallets and crypto-based transactions); 4.5 consumer protection sharpened
- AI literacy transversal across all six areas ([AI-E]/[AI-I]); 719 competence statements on 8 levels; 666 learning outcomes
Economy & labour market
Developed for an inclusive labour market and everyday company practice
Digital inclusion and reducing digital inequality are among the central challenges in the labour market, education and further training – especially for older people, digital newcomers and structurally disadvantaged groups. This assessment comes from the Austrian Taskforce for Digital Competences and was shared by partner institutions such as the labour and education ministries. DigComp 3.0 AT translates it into model structure:
In use at the AMS
The occupational information system (BIS) of the Austrian Public Employment Service (AMS) classifies over 500 occupational profiles by the six competence areas – including Competence Area 0. This ensures a high level of digital participation and practical orientation, and allows low-threshold use in analysis, career guidance and qualification.
Source: fit4internet, DigComp 3.0 AT communication (2026)
Competence Area 0 unlocks potential
Those who cannot operate devices or find digital access cannot act in Competence Areas 1–5 either – and remain out of reach for qualification and participation. Area 0 makes the prerequisites of digital participation visible, learnable and supportable: inclusion as a skilled-labour and business-location issue.
Source: Medienimpulse 64(1), Revision Notes / Taskforce Digital Competences
NQF as the shared qualification reference
The eight NQF-oriented proficiency levels enable precise requirement profiles for occupational profiles, qualification strategies and certification systems – with directly assignable learning outcomes. The AMS, large qualification providers and companies already use this application framework in practice.
Source: fit4internet, DigComp 3.0 AT communication (2026)
2.7Digital transactions
Purchases and sales, bookings, contracts, subscriptions, payment systems and wallets – including crypto-based transactions. The most everyday-relevant economic competence: in the model since DigComp 2.3 AT, now EU-compatible as 2.7 and extended.
Source: Medienimpulse 64(1), Competence Area 2
4.5Protection against digital fraud & consumer protection
Manipulative patterns (dark patterns), subscription and service processes, informed decisions: 4.5 makes consumer protection a competence – and trust the foundation of the digital economy.
Source: Medienimpulse 64(1), change logic CA 4
5.5Creating value and benefit – digital entrepreneurship
The new competence 5.5 integrates the innovation and impact dimension for economy and society and forms the bridge to entrepreneurial action: recognising opportunities, assessing benefit, implementing solutions.
Source: Medienimpulse 64(1), change logic CA 5
Digital Humanism as the guiding principle
Technology should serve people – not the other way around. Vienna and Austria have a strong tradition of Digital Humanism; with the Center for Digital Humanism (CDH) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, it is being further strengthened scientifically. DigComp 3.0 AT anchors these principles twice: as the new competence 0.5 – explicitly learnable and assessable for the first time – and as a cross-cutting principle throughout all six competence areas, from critical judgement and responsible collaboration and co-creation to the human-centred use of digital technologies. Digital Humanism thus turns from a socio-political guiding vision into a competence goal that can be concretely described and developed.
As Alexander Schmölz, Endowed Professor of Digital Humanism at the UAS BFI Vienna and Researcher in Residence at fit4internet, emphasises:
“Digital Humanism places people at the centre of the development and use of technologies. Ethical digitalisation, digital sovereignty and respect for human rights and human dignity form its core.”
Inclusion · digital participation · foundational understanding
Why Competence Area 0 must be explicit
DigComp 3.0 EU explicitly recognises the importance of foundational digital prerequisites, describes conditions for reaching the basic level – and cites the Austrian model as the example. Yet it did not include an Area 0 in its own structure. DigComp 3.0 AT keeps it, for four reasons:
Explicit, not implicit
What a framework model wants to make visible, it must name explicitly. An analysis of the 523 EU learning outcomes of DigComp 3.0 EU (Cosgrove & Cachia, 2026) shows: 9 of the 30 competences of the extended model – the entire Area 0 plus 2.7, 3.5, 4.5 and 5.5 – have no coverage of their own there. DigComp 3.0 AT therefore adds 144 of its own learning outcomes.
Source: analysis fit4internet, 2025 (internal)
Internationally confirmed
In May 2024, Romania adopted DigCompRo by ministerial act with a Competence Area 0 as a core area – functionally and substantively closely modelled on the Austrian approach. DigComp 3.0 EU itself also refers explicitly to the Austrian model: in the section on the preconditions of basic digital competence (2.4.2), Austria's Competence Area 0 is cited as an example of how the framework can be extended to cover access, equipment and support – along with the warning that ignoring these preconditions can deepen digital exclusion.
Source: Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization (RO), 2024; Medienimpulse 64(1); Cosgrove & Cachia, DigComp 3.0 EU, p. 22
Backed by the education system
The compulsory subject “Media and Democracy” planned from 2027/28 (upper secondary academic schools; legal basis adopted in July 2026) turns exactly what Competence Area 0 makes visible into curriculum content: foundational knowledge of analogue, digital and synthetic media including AI (0.1), inclusion and societal visibility (0.3), judgement between information, persuasion and manipulation (0.4), and self-determined, responsible participation (0.5). The curriculum thereby confirms: these topics are not a by-product of other competences but a structure of thinking in their own right.
Source: BMB, draft curriculum “Media and Democracy” (consultation, July 2026); detailed analysis fit4internet (internal, 2026)
On the agenda since UNESCO 2018
As early as 2018, UNESCO constructively noted deficits of DigComp regarding inclusion and connectivity in its global reference framework for digital literacy (indicator 4.4.2) – Competence Area 0 is Austria's structural answer, refined over two model generations (DigComp 2.2 AT and 2.3 AT). What began in 2018 as an international suggestion has now arrived at EU level: DigComp 3.0 EU addresses the topic explicitly for the first time in its section on the preconditions of basic digital competence (2.4.2) – citing the Austrian model as an example.
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2018); Cosgrove & Cachia (2025), p. 22
DigComp 3.0 AT and the National Reference Framework (NRDK)
The National Reference Framework for Digital Competences (NRDK) in Austria, published in 2026, translates the European DigComp 3.0 EU as a reduced basic model: five competence areas, 21 individual competences, four proficiency stages as a simplified competence model compared with previous DigComp AT practice. DigComp 3.0 AT, by contrast, encompasses the European core completely and with identical numbering, and extends it – from two model generations of Austrian practice and research – with Competence Area 0, nine individual competences, the eight NQF-oriented proficiency levels and its own learning outcomes.
For context: the NRDK in use until 2026 had anchored DigComp 2.3 AT – including Competence Area 0 – as a viable national standard, and it was broadly established in Austria: from the Public Employment Service to large qualification providers, this practice-oriented framework geared to digital participation was successfully implemented. In the consultation process on the new NRDK, numerous stakeholders likewise identified Competence Area 0 and the structure of DigComp 2.3 AT with its extensions as sensible to continue.
For this reason, this online resource juxtaposes the extended competence model DigComp 3.0 AT – geared to digital participation and compatibility with the needs of the labour market and the economy – with the current NRDK, essentially reduced to the DigComp 3.0 EU model. This makes the compatibility with both DigComp 3.0 EU and the NRDK easy and accessible to see.
To the interactive comparisonOverview of the Competence Framework
DigComp 3.0 AT identifies the key components of digital competence across 6 areas.
Sources & references
All statements on this page are substantiated; internal, not yet published analyses are marked as such.
- 1Domany-Funtan, U., Schmölz, A., Motschnig, R., Schwarz, S. & Bieg, T. (2026): Digitales Kompetenzmodell für Österreich: DigComp 3.0 AT (2026). Medienimpulse, 64(1), 299 Seiten. https://doi.org/10.21243/mi-01-26-29
- 2DigComp 3.0 AT – Leitfaden (Kurzfassung, fit4internet): f4i.hbox.at/s/K8tSeSTeg5ygcjT
- 3Cosgrove, J. & Cachia, R. (2025): DigComp 3.0 – European Digital Competence Framework, Fifth Edition. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxemburg. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/0001149, JRC144121
- 4UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2018): A global framework of reference on digital literacy skills for indicator 4.4.2. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000265403
- 5Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization (MCID) (2024): Act normativ de aprobare a DigCompRo (Normative act approving DigCompRo), 04.07.2024. https://www.mcid.gov.ro/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Act-normativ-de-aprobare-a-DigCompRo-04.07.2024-site.pdf
- 6Nárosy, T., Schmölz, A., Proinger, J. & Domany-Funtan, U. (2022): Digitales Kompetenzmodell für Österreich: DigComp 2.3 AT. Medienimpulse, 60(4). https://doi.org/10.21243/mi-04-22-23
- 7fit4internet (Juni 2026): Analysen der 523 EU-Lernergebnisse – Reverse Engineering der Kompetenzbereiche und Zuordnungsgutachten auf DigComp 3.0 AT. (intern, unveröffentlicht)
- 8Bundeskanzleramt Österreich (2026): Nationaler Referenzrahmen für Digitale Kompetenzen – Sichtbarkeit, Vergleichbarkeit und Orientierung. Wien: Bundeskanzleramt Österreich.
- 9Digital Austria (2024): Nationaler Referenzrahmen für digitale Kompetenzen – Sichtbarkeit, Vergleichbarkeit & Orientierung. Wien: Bundeskanzleramt. https://digitalekompetenzen.oead.at/fileadmin/Dokumente/oead.at/Bildung_Digital/Digitale_Kompetenzen/NRDK/2024_Nationaler_Referenzrahmen_fuer_Digitale_Kompetenzen__1_.pdf
- 10Bundesministerium für Digitalisierung und Wirtschaftsstandort (BMDW) (2021): Digitales Kompetenzmodell für Österreich: DigComp 2.2 AT. Wien.
- 11Schmölz, A. (2026): Digitale Kompetenzen zur Förderung des Digitalen Humanismus. In G. Krause & M. Giesswein (Hrsg.), Management Guide Digitaler Humanismus: Unternehmensführung in der digitalen Welt (S. 75–81). Springer Fachmedien. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-49869-6_7
- 12Schmoelz, A. (2020): Die Conditio Humana im digitalen Zeitalter. Zur Grundlegung des Digitalen Humanismus und des Wiener Manifests. MedienPädagogik, 20, 208–234. https://doi.org/10.21240/mpaed/00/2020.11.13.X