The urgent need of 21st century citizens to acquire digital skills (OECD, 2019) places high demands on teachers of all educational levels for digital educational competence (Benali et al., 2018 ∙ Redecker, 2017).

Educators belonging to the field of Sciences, Engineering and Informatics have been found in various studies with a higher self-assessed level of digital competence compared to their colleagues from other fields (Fernandez-Cruz & Fernandez-Diaz, 2016 ∙ Ghomi & Redecker, 2019). Also, educators’ positive attitudes towards ICT in education have been linked to higher level of self-assessed digital competence and vice versa (Fernandez-Cruz & Fernandez-Diaz, 2016 ∙ Ghomi & Redecker, 2019). However, there is limited research on assessment of adult educators’ digital competence (Maderick et al., 2015). In addition, there are limited and conflicting findings regarding the relation between adult educators' level of digital competence and gender, age, level of education and teaching experience (Benali et al., 2018 ∙ Casillas et al., 2017 ∙ Fernandez-Cruz & Fernandez-Diaz, 2016 ∙ Gallego-Arrufat et al., 2019 ∙ Ghomi & Redecker, 2019 ∙ Guillén-Gámez et al., 2020 ∙ Guo et al., 2008 ∙ Napal Fraile et al., 2018).

In Greece, a European country with a low ranking in international surveys regarding digital competence (European Commission, 2020), a very limited number of empirical studies, without any widely accepted theoretical framework, has been conducted on educators' digital competence. Therefore, taking into account that a European Framework for Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu) has been developed by the Joint Research Centre (Redecker, 2017) and a research instrument based on this framework has been used in various countries in order to measure self-assesed educators' digital competence (Caena & Redecker, 2019 ∙ Ghomi & Redecker, 2019), it was deemed important to conduct a similar study in Greece using the DigCompEdu framework.

According to the DigCompEdu framework, the digital competence of an educator includes all the necessary skills for the full use of digital technologies in order to enhance teaching and learning and to properly prepare learners on how to live and work in a digital society (Redecker, 2017). In particular, digital competence of educators consists of three dimensions: their professional digital competence, their pedagogical digital competence, as well as their ability to facilitate the development of learners' digital competence (Redecker, 2017).

As no empirical research in the field of education based on DigCompEdu framework has been conducted in Greece until now, the aim of this study is to investigate educators’ self-assessment of their competence in using digital technologies in adult education in Greece, and specifically in Public Vocational Training Institutes, based on DigCompEdu.

The research questions of the present study are:

1. Based on the Digital Competence Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu), what is the level of self-assessed digital competence of adult educators in Public Vocational Training Institutes in Greece regarding (a) their professional digital skills, (b) their pedagogical digital skills and (c) their skills in facilitating the development of learners' digital skills?
2. Is there a difference in the self-assessed level of digital competence of adult educators in Public Vocational Training Institutes in Greece based on gender, age, level of education and teaching experience?

The research hypotheses of the present study are:

1. There is a positive correlation between adult educators’ attitudes regarding the use of digital technology in education and their self-assessed level of digital competence in Public Vocational Training Institutes in Greece.
2. The self-assessed level of digital competence of adult educators in Public Vocational Training Institutes in Greece belonging to the field of Informatics, Sciences or Engineering is higher compared to their colleagues’ from other fields.

The target population of the research was the adult educators in Public Vocational Training Institutes of Attica, the largest metropolitan region of Greece in terms of population that encompasses Athens, the country's capital and largest city. Data collection took place in March 2020. The sample of the present study includes 220 adult educators (60% female, 40% male) from various fields of education, selected using cluster sampling, from 12 out of 30 Public Vocational Training Institutes of Attica in Greece. The research instrument used in the current study to measure self-assessed adult educators’ digital competence was the DigCompEdu CheckIn self-assessment questionnaire, adapted for the field of adult education. The questionnaire is based on the DigCompEdu framework, which consists of 22 competences grouped in 6 areas (Ghomi & Redecker, 2019) and has been translated into Greek. A pilot study was conducted, which led to the revision of the Greek version, improving the clarity of some questionnaire statements. Good internal reliability of the questionnaire is supported by the calculation of Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α = 0,92), which is consistent with previous studies (Benali et al., 2018 ∙ Ghomi & Redecker, 2019). The DigCompEdu CheckIn self-assessment questionnaire includes 22 action statements grouped in 6 areas of digital competence and a number of demographic/background questions (e.g., gender, age, subject of expertise, level of education, years of teaching experience and educators’ attitudes regarding the use of digital technology in adult education). For each of these statements, participants were asked to indicate to which extent this statement reflects their own educational practice by selecting one of five options. The five answer options are organized progressively, reflecting the overall progression logic of DigCompEdu and the specific progression typical for each competence (Caena & Redecker, 2019). Regarding ethics, the research instrument was accompanied by an introductory note, which sets out the research objective, assuring participants of their voluntary contribution to the research and ensuring the anonymity of the data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for the analysis of data (ANOVA, t-tests for independent samples, Pearson r correlation) with SPSS v.26.0.

Educators in Public Vocational Training Institutes in the region of Attica in Greece that took part in the current study, based on their statements in the self-assessment questionnaire, seem to have a medium to low level of digital competence, being most competent in the areas including digital skills that they had acquired during their studies. Factors such as gender, age, teaching experience and education level do not seem to be related to their level of self-assessed digital competence. Despite the rather low level of self-assessed educational digital competence, the vast majority of adult educators in the current study indicated very positive or positive attitudes regarding the use of digital technology in education (85%). Thus, a weak positive, statistically significant, correlation was found between educators’ self-assessed level of digital competence and educators’ attitudes towards the use of digital technology in adult education. Finally, a statistically significant difference in the self-assessed level of digital competence was found between educators in the field of Informatics and the educators in other fields of education, with the former stating a higher level of digital competence. Based on the findings of the present study, adult educators in Public Vocational Training Institutes in the region of Attica seem to need further training in order to upgrade and enhance their digital competence in education. Further research should be conducted in this field in Greece in order to confirm these findings regarding educators’ digital competence and, consequently, develop a new institutional framework that provides significant incentives for the development of educators’ digital skills, while promoting the use of digital technology in the educational process. This research study is the first attempt to investigate the digital competence of adult educators according to the DigCompEdu framework in Greece, thus enriching the relevant available research data at a European level.

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