THE ROLE OF EDUCATION IN BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE AND ENSURING DIGITAL INCLUSION

Abstract

The relevance of the research topic is because in the context of the transition to the sixth technological order and the related use of both existing and new technologies of Industry 4.0, one of the critical determinants that allow these technologies to realize their full potential is a high level of digital inclusion. The workforce and consumers of digital services, which lack the necessary digital skills and physical and material access to information and communication technologies and the Internet, are incompatible with the needs of the digital economy. These problems are also relevant for Ukraine since 53% of the Ukrainian population have digital skills below the basic level, 15.1% of Ukrainians do not have such skills, and 37.9% of citizens have a low level. The consequence of this is the growth of economic and social inequality, the growth of information and cyber threats, implemented cyber-attacks, the loss of innovative technological advances, and the like. Considering the above and the lack of research in this area, the significant specificity of the endogenous nature of convergent processes in the chain "education – digital breaks – digital inclusion", the solution to this problem is relevant and has a practical focus. In their research on digital inclusion, the authors base themselves on the digital divide, which is seen as inequality in access and use of information and communication technologies and the Internet. The article contains a logical and comparative analysis and generalization of scientific literature on the concepts of digital inequality and systematization of its levels, taking into account the specifics and factors of influence. Explore the levels of the digital divide in descriptors of access (first level of digital divide), digital skills and digital competencies required to use the Internet competently (second level of digital divide), inequalities in the capacities to get the benefits from the access, and use of the Internet (third level of digital divide), and learning divide (fourth level of digital divide). For each level of the digital divide, the role of education as a determinant of overcoming it is examined.