The aim is to develop an action plan for the qualification of employees for digital administrative work, because the need to catch up on skills is still great throughout Germany. The two and a half year project aims to analyze competence requirements and qualification developments, to draw strategic conclusions for the qualification process and finally to prepare concrete recommendations for action.

The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen will helm the project under the leadership of the State Councillor for Finance, Henning Lühr. The Federal Ministry of the Interior as well as the federal states of Berlin, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, selected municipalities, the trade union ver.di and the German Civil Servants' Association as well as other actors from science and education are participating in the project.

Together with the Institute for Information Management Bremen and the German Research Institute for Public Administration in Speyer, Fraunhofer FOKUS is responsible for the scientific expertise and accompanies all project phases.

Juliane Schmeling, scientist in the Digital Public Services business unit and project collaborator at Qualifica Digitalis, sees the eGovernment expertise of several years' within the Digital Public Services business unit at Fraunhofer FOKUS as particularly beneficial for the project: “In the education, youth and social administration, we have worked together with IT service providers to support the introduction of specialist software. This always included being close to the specialist and user community and working with them to determine requirements and needs,” she explains. The experience of accompanying sometimes far-reaching change processes that result from the introduction of IT specialist procedures and digital collaboration tools, as well as a good knowledge of and involvement in IT strategy and IT management, also helps in the preparation of recommendations for action.

Around 70 participants accepted the invitation of the federal and state committee in the IT Planning Council and met for the kick-off workshop on 5 February in Bremen.

Qualifica Digitalis is a project that is being implemented by decision of the IT Planning Council. Until 2022, two million euros are available from the digitization budget of the Federal Government and State Committee.