Companies and enterprises, adapting to external changes, are increasingly beginning to use complex digital automated information systems, artificial intelligence, and digital devices. According to the forecast, already in 2025 the share of automated machines and algorithms in working time was about 52% [1]. The results of a study by experts from Microsoft companies show that more than 65% students will be employed in an industry directly related to the level of development of digital skills [2]. There is also a forecast in the “Atlas of New Professions” that by 2030 the list of professions will not include more than 55 current professions and new 186 will appear [3]. The level of digital skills will determine the success of school graduates entering universities for “new” specialties and their further successful employment.  In this direction, the government of Kazakhstan launched the state program “Digital Kazakhstan”[4]. The importance of developing digital competencies of school graduates is especially relevant in an era of unstable external environment [5], when the level of development of digital competencies is directly proportional to the level of competitiveness of graduates in the labor market.

Based on the relevance of this problem, there is a need to create a framework of digital competencies for school graduates, which could be a guideline for revising the content of educational programs in high school.

 Purpose of the study: to create a framework of digital competencies for school graduates in the era of digitalization.

To clarify the essence of the concept of “digital competencies,” a terminological analysis was carried out. In the guidance for the use of the European e-Competence Framework, the concept of “competence” is defined as “the demonstrated ability to apply knowledge, skills and attitudes to achieve specified results”[6]. The description of           е-сompetence includes such concepts as “knowledge”, “skills” and “attitudes”. “Skills” in this context mean “the ability of a person to perform specific managerial and technical tasks,” “attitudes” mean “cognitive abilities and the ability to establish connections,” and “knowledge” means “the totality of what I know”.  This interpretation of the concept reinforces the idea of EQF (The European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning), where “competence” is defined as “the demonstrated ability to use knowledge, skills and personal, social and/or methodological abilities in work and educational situations and professional and personal development” [ 7]. The Digital Education Action Plan (DEAP), prepared by the European Commission, notes that “the individual’s conscious and responsible use of digital technologies in learning, at work and in public life” is particularly significant in developing digital competence [8].

The concept of “digital competence” is interpreted differently in these sources, but we can conclude that it includes three important components: “certain knowledge in the field of digital technology and techniques for its application”, “certain skills and abilities based on this knowledge” and “a certain level of cognitive abilities and values”. This description of the concept will be taken as the basis of the author’s framework.

Analysis of  literature allows us to determine the presence of various frameworks of digital competencies. Over the past decade, a lot of research has been carried out in this direction [9-16]. Among the most known approaches, four digital competency frameworks should be noted:

1. DigCompEdu 2018: European Model of Digital Competences for Education;
2. EU DigComp 2.1. Model of digital competencies for citizens;
3. Target Competency Model 2025;
4. European Competency Framework (e-CF).

The authors constructed a comparative table of these models, reflecting the features and structure of a certain model, and a detailed explanation of the components of competence. The results of the comparative analysis will be clearly presented on the poster.

To conduct the research, methods and tools were used such as terminological analysis of concepts, study and creation of a knowledge base on existing competency models (a base of best European practices as a guideline in the formation of the structure), selection of reliable sources and a comparative analysis of their content to prepare the initial draft of the framework digital competencies. The goal of the first stage was to compile a more detailed list of possible digital competencies and determine their frequency of use in existing models, as well as to identify the correspondence of competency data to educational programs in high schools in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The competencies that best met these criteria were exported into the initial draft of the digital competency framework. The initial draft of the digital competency model presents 5 types and 35 components of competency. At the next stage of the study, 4 focus groups (representatives of the school administration; practicing teachers, parent committee, high school students)were created. These experts held working group meetings to identify the most appropriate competencies and evaluate each of them in order of importance. For this purpose, the technique of T. Saaty and A. Kearns was used - The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which makes it possible to solve the problem of multicriteria selection of weakly formalized alternatives [17-18]. The hierarchy analysis method allows for mathematical processing of expert assessments based on matrix calculations and additive convolution of criteria. As a result, the relative degree of interaction between components in the hierarchy is determined. There are various variants of the AHP, which differ in the type of connections between the criteria and alternatives located at the lower level of the hierarchy, as well as in the method of comparison of alternatives. In our case, we used a type of hierarchy with a different number and functional composition of alternatives under the criteria. The results of quantitative assessment of the quality of alternatives and assessment of the homogeneity of expert judgments using the example of one criterion will be presented on the poster. As a result of the work done, a refined structure of digital competencies for high school students was developed and includes 5 core competencies and 21 components. This framework will be presented clearly on the poster.

Summarizing the study, we can draw the following conclusions: 1. Based on comparative analysis and The Analytic Hierarchy Process, a model of digital competencies of school graduates has been developed, consisting of 5 core competencies and 21 components. Selected significant components for each type of competencies can be accepted as mandatory when revising high school educational programs. 2. The research conducted to determine a set of digital competencies made it possible to construct a specific algorithm for developing a competency model, which is universal in nature. 3. The graduate’s digital competency framework includes, in addition to technical competencies, a certain set of values, which is an important aspect of the formation of a hormonal personality with the correct attitudes of behavior in the digital environment; 4. The graduate’s digital competency framework is not static in terms of the composition of competency components. Each educational organization, based on the proposed components of competence, can supplement them taking into account the specifics and current level of development of the educational institution; 5. The Graduate Digital Competency Framework is a new product for the school education system of the Republic of Kazakhstan. It can be used as a basis for revising and finalizing educational programs for middle and high schools and developing personal educational trajectories for students when schools operate in a mixed (hybrid) learning format in an unstable external environment; Prospects for the development of the research include the development of effective automated tools for assessing the level of digital competencies of school graduates, the construction of adaptive educational systems and the creation of personal educational platforms for the development of digital competencies of students in the context of digital transformation.

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