Talent Cultivation Amid Global Digital Economy Competition

With the widespread application of digital technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing, traditional industries are accelerating their transformation and upgrading toward digitalization, intelligence, and networking. At a time when scientific and technological innovation has increasingly become a core indicator of national competitiveness, cultivating digital talent with a high sense of responsibility and exquisite skills, and unleashing their innovative capabilities, will directly affect the speed and quality of the emergence of new economic technologies, new business forms, and new models, and provide important support for promoting high-quality economic development. In September 2024, UNESCO officially released the “Six Pillars of Digital Transformation in Education: A Common Framework,” providing comprehensive and systematic guidance for the digital transformation of the global education sector. The outer layer of the framework consists of three components: education system priorities, goals, and principles, while the inner layer contains six pillars of digital transformation in education: coordination and leadership, connectivity and infrastructure, cost and sustainability, capacity and culture, content and solutions, and data and evidence. The aim is to encourage all education stakeholders to actively adapt to the new developments and changes in education in the digital era. In this context, various countries have made digital talent cultivation a key focus of education reform. By formulating digital education policies, strengthening infrastructure and digital equipment construction, and promoting curriculum and teaching reform, they are actively exploring paths for digital talent cultivation suited to their national conditions, in order to better respond to the opportunities and challenges brought by digitalization.

伴随大数据、人工智能、云计算等数字技术的广泛应用，传统行业正加速向数字化、智能化、网络化方向转型升级。在科技创新日益成为国家竞争力核心指标的今天，培养具有高度责任感、精湛技能的数字化人才，发挥其创新能力，将直接关乎经济社会新技术、新业态、新模式的涌现速度与质量，并为促进经济高质量发展提供重要支撑。2024年9月，联合国教科文组织正式发布《教育数字化转型的六大支柱：共同框架》，为全球教育领域的数字化转型提供全面而系统的指导。框架的外层由教育系统优先事项、目标、原则三个组成部分构成，而框架的内层包含协调与领导力、连通性与基础设施、成本与可持续性、能力与文化、内容与解决方案、数据与证据等教育数字化转型的六大支柱，旨在促使所有教育利益相关者积极适应数字时代教育的新发展、新变化。在此背景下，各国纷纷将数字化人才培养作为教育改革重点，通过制定数字化教育政策、加强基础设施与数字设备建设、推动课程与教学改革，积极探索适合本国国情的数字化人才培养路径，以更好应对数字化带来的机遇与挑战。

Policy Guarantees: Formulation of Digital Education Plans

政策保障：数字化教育计划的制定

With the rapid development of digital technologies, governments around the world have successively introduced a series of relevant policies aimed at effectively guiding and vigorously promoting the process of digital talent cultivation, in order to meet the urgent needs of the times.

随着数字化技术的迅猛发展，各国政府纷纷出台一系列相关政策，旨在有效引导和有力推动数字化人才培养进程，以适应时代发展的迫切需求。

The United States, as a pioneer in digital education, has regularly released the “National Education Technology Plan” since 1996, continuously advancing the informatization of education. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Education again released the “2024 National Educational Technology Plan: A Call to Action for Closing the Digital Access, Design, and Use Divides,” which not only reveals the challenges U.S. digital technology faces in supporting teaching transformation but also demonstrates its determination to use digital technology to optimize learning experiences and promote educational equity. Centered on the three “teaching core” elements of teachers, students, and content, the plan deeply analyzes three key divides that limit the potential of U.S. digital technology to fully support teaching transformation. These are the digital use divide caused by significant differences in students’ application of technology, the digital design divide caused by differences in teachers’ access, processing, application, and creation of digital resources and use of digital technology in professional learning, and the digital access divide caused by differences in information, technology, resources, and knowledge acquisition among different groups due to network connectivity issues. In response to these divides, the plan explores how to use digital technology to assist instructional design, thereby improving students’ equitable access to education.

美国作为数字化教育的先行者，其教育部自1996年起便定期发布“国家教育技术计划”，持续推动教育信息化进程。2024年，美国教育部再次发布的《2024年国家教育技术计划：缩小数字访问、设计和使用鸿沟的行动呼吁》，不仅揭示了美国数字技术在支持教学变革方面所面临的挑战，更展现了其利用数字技术优化学习体验、促进教育公平的决心。该计划围绕教师、学生和内容三大“教学核心”，深入剖析了限制美国数字技术充分发挥其支持教学变革潜力的三个关键鸿沟，包括学生在技术应用上存在显著差异所造成的数字使用鸿沟，教师在专业学习方面获取、处理、运用、创造数字资源和使用数字技术的差异所造成的数字设计鸿沟，不同群体由于网络连接问题在信息、技术、资源、知识获取方面的差异所造成的数字访问鸿沟，并针对这些鸿沟深入探讨了如何利用数字技术辅助教学设计，以改善学生公平获得教育的机会。

In September 2020, the European Union also issued the “Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027),” proposing two strategic priorities: “promoting the development of a high-performing digital education ecosystem” and “enhancing digital skills and competences for the digital transformation,” along with 13 actions to support these goals. It emphasizes the importance of digital literacy and programming education, as well as the use of technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data to optimize teaching content and methods, thereby adapting to the needs of future society. To this end, the European Commission officially launched the “Digital Education Hub” initiative in 2022, aiming to strengthen cooperation and exchange in digital education at the EU level, and through measures such as strengthening digital skills education, promoting open sharing of educational resources, and supporting teacher professional development, to build an inclusive, innovative, and high-quality digital education system.

欧盟也于2020年9月颁布了《数字教育行动计划（2021-2027）》，提出了“促进高性能数字教育生态系统的发展”“增强数字化转型的数字技能和能力”两个战略重点和13项支持这些目标的行动，并强调数字素养和编程教育的重要性，以及利用人工智能、大数据等技术优化教学内容和方法，进而适应未来社会的需求。为此，欧盟委员会于2022年正式启动“数字教育枢纽”建设工作，旨在加强欧盟层面数字教育合作与交流，并通过加强数字技能教育、促进教育资源的开放共享、支持教师专业发展等措施，建立一个包容、创新、高质量的数字化教育体系。

The “School Digital Strategy (2019-2026)” released by New South Wales, Australia in 2019 depicts a blueprint for educational digital transformation centered on “learners.” This policy focuses on the integration and application of digital technology, emphasizes the improvement of teachers’ digital literacy and the cultivation of students’ digital capabilities, and aims to create connected, collaborative, and digital schools, maximizing the impact and value of digital innovation in the education system, thereby promoting both educational equity and quality improvement. At the same time, the Australian government’s “Digital Economy Strategy 2030” released in 2021, built around three pillars—developing the digital economy, building emerging technologies, and setting digital growth priorities—proposes a national vision of “building a leading digital economy and society by 2030” and requires that by 2030 all Australians will be able to acquire digital skills to adapt to rapidly changing work environments and technological development trends, ensuring the country takes an active position in the global digital economy competition.

澳大利亚新南威尔士州2019年发布的《学校数字战略（2019-2026）》，则描绘了一个“以学习者为中心”的教育数字化转型蓝图。该政策注重数字技术的整合与应用，强调教师数字素养提升，以及学生数字能力培养，旨在创建连接、协作和数字化的学校，最大限度发挥数字创新在教育系统的影响和价值，以促进教育公平和质量双重提升。同时，澳大利亚政府于2021年发布的《数字经济战略2030》，围绕发展数字经济、建设新兴技术、设定数字增长优先事项三大支柱，提出“2030年建成领先的数字经济与社会”的国家愿景，并要求到2030年所有澳大利亚人都能够习得数字技能，以适应快速变化的工作环境和技术发展趋势，确保国家在全球数字经济竞争中占据主动。

Hardware Support: Infrastructure and Digital Equipment Construction

硬件支持：基础设施与数字设备建设

Digital talent cultivation is inseparable from the support of sound infrastructure and digital equipment. In the process of advancing digital education strategies, various countries have increased investment in infrastructure construction, comprehensively improved the penetration rate and performance quality of digital equipment, and provided solid hardware support for digital talent cultivation.

数字化人才培养离不开完善的基础设施和数字设备支持。各国在推进数字化教育战略过程中，纷纷加大对基础设施建设的投入力度，全面提升数字设备普及率和性能质量，为数字化人才培养提供坚实的硬件支持。

Since the 1990s, the United States has been committed to promoting network infrastructure construction. Based on the accessibility, affordability, and usability of infrastructure, it has successively proposed the “Information Superhighway” plan, the “E-Rate” program, the “ConnectED” initiative, and open educational resource initiatives, enabling students to enjoy digital education more conveniently with the support of “hardware” devices such as the Internet and electronic communications. At the same time, the U.S. Office of Educational Technology released in 2022 “Advancing Digital Equity for All: Community-Based Recommendations for Developing Effective Digital Equity Plans to Close the Digital Divide and Enable Technology-Empowered Learning,” proposing to reduce Internet usage costs and increase Internet access speeds so that learners can obtain equal learning opportunities with the support of digital technology.

20世纪90年代以来，美国便一直致力于推进网络基础设施建设，并立足基础设施的可获得性、可负担性、可使用性，先后提出“信息高速公路”计划、“教育宽带”项目、“连接教育”倡议、开放教育资源倡议等，使学生能够在互联网、电子通信等“硬件”设备支持下更加便捷享受数字教育。与此同时，美国教育技术办公室于2022年发布的《推进全民数字公平：基于社区建议制定有效的数字公平计划，以消除数字鸿沟，实现技术赋能的学习》，提出通过降低互联网使用费用和提高互联网接入速度，让学习者能在获得数字技术支持下平等获得学习机会。

The European Union has successively issued documents such as the “Digitising European Industry Strategy,” “Building a European Data Economy,” and “European AI Strategy” around infrastructure and digital equipment construction, and has provided financial support to universities and research institutes for digital talent cultivation, helping the EU maintain a leading position in the fierce global digital competition. In this process, the EU has also utilized multiple financing channels such as the Erasmus+ program, the Digital Europe Programme, the Horizon Europe programme, the European Social Fund, and the European Regional Development Fund to promote the construction and upgrading of European infrastructure and digital equipment, thereby providing strong funding guarantees for the implementation of digital education projects.

欧盟围绕基础设施与数字设备建设等方面，先后出台《欧洲工业数字化战略》《建立欧洲数据经济》《欧洲人工智能战略》等文件，并围绕数字化人才培养为高校和科研院所提供资金支持，以帮助欧盟在激烈的全球数字竞争中保持领先水平。在此过程中，欧盟还通过“伊拉斯谟+”计划、数字欧洲项目、地平线欧洲计划、欧洲社会基金、欧洲区域发展基金等多项融资渠道，促进欧洲基础设施与数字设备的建设和升级，进而为数字化教育项目实施提供有力的经费保障。

Japan passed the GIGA School Concept in 2019, aiming to achieve the goal of providing every student with an information learning device, and through measures such as improving the network environment, popularizing digital textbooks, and standardizing school education data, to encourage students to use information and communication technology for learning, achieving deep integration of information technology and education and teaching. At the same time, to ensure the effective implementation of the concept, the Japanese government set up a “Concept Implementation Task Package” covering hardware environment construction, cloud service security, information and communication technology application, 5G network education, and campus local area network services, to promote the construction of infrastructure and digital equipment, thereby providing strong hardware support for Japan’s digital transformation in education.

日本在2019年通过了GIGA School构想，旨在实现每个学生都能拥有一台信息化学习设备的目标，并通过改善网络环境、普及数字教材、规范学校教育数据等举措，促进学生利用信息通信技术进行学习，以实现信息技术与教育教学的深度融合。同时，为确保“构想”的有效落地，日本政府围绕硬件环境建设、云服务安全、信息通信技术应用、5G网络教育、校内局域网服务等内容，设置了“构想实现任务包”，以推动基础设施和数字设备建设进程，进而为日本教育数字化转型提供有力的硬件支持。

Key Link: Digital Education Curriculum and Teaching Reform

关键环节：数字化教育课程与教学改革

The deepening reform of curriculum and teaching is regarded as a key link in the chain of digital talent cultivation. In order to more effectively cultivate talents that meet the needs of the digital era, countries around the world are comprehensively improving the overall quality and effectiveness of digital talent cultivation through measures such as carefully optimizing the curriculum system and innovating diversified teaching methods.

课程与教学的深化改革被视为数字化人才培养链条上的关键环节。为了更有效地培养适应数字时代需求的人才，世界各国正通过精心优化课程设置体系、创新多样化教学方法等举措，全面提升数字化人才培养的整体质量与效果。

In terms of curriculum and teaching reform, the United States has strengthened STEM education (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) to cultivate composite talents capable of meeting the requirements of the digital era. From the “Federal STEM Education Five-Year Strategic Plan” in 2013, to “STEM 2026: A Vision for Innovation in STEM Education” in 2016, to “Charting a Course for Success: America’s Strategy for STEM Education” in 2018, and the “Federal Strategic Plan for Advancing STEM Education and Cultivating STEM Talent” in 2024, the United States has continuously deepened the connotation and extension of STEM education and integrated it throughout the entire process of student education and growth. At the same time, the “Four-Dimensional Education” concept (knowledge, skills, character, metacognition) introduced by the U.S. Center for Curriculum Redesign provides new ideas for curriculum design in the digital era. By introducing methods such as project-based learning and inquiry-based learning, students are encouraged to solve practical problems through practical activities, cultivate innovative thinking and teamwork skills, thereby comprehensively improving the quality of digital talent cultivation.

在课程与教学改革方面，美国通过加强STEM教育（科学、技术、工程、数学），以培养能够胜任数字化时代发展要求的复合型人才。从2013年的《联邦STEM教育五年战略规划》到2016年的《STEM 2026：STEM教育创新愿景》再到2018年《绘制成功之路：美国STEM教育战略》，以及2024年的《推进STEM教育和培养STEM人才的联邦战略计划》，美国不断深化STEM教育的内涵与外延，并将其贯穿于学生教育成长全过程。同时，美国课程重构中心推出的“四维教育”理念（知识、技能、品格、元学习），为数字化时代课程设计提供新思路，并通过引入项目式学习和探究式学习等方法，鼓励学生通过实践活动解决实际问题，培养创新思维和团队协作能力，从而全面提升数字化人才培养的质量。

As one of the earliest countries to implement educational digitalization, the United Kingdom began integrating information technology into core subjects and implementing interdisciplinary teaching methods since the 1980s to enhance students’ information technology capabilities. Through the “Education Reform Act” and subsequent amendments, information technology became an independent compulsory subject from “Design and Technology,” later renamed information and communication technology, emphasizing its application in various courses, and building a systematic information and communication technology education plan. At the same time, in the specific practice of curriculum teaching, schools at various stages in the UK adopt blended teaching models, utilizing online teaching tools, online classrooms, online course platforms, online examination and assessment systems and other online teaching platforms to provide teachers and students with rich teaching interaction methods and content sharing channels, and actively explore the integration of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality into teaching practice, to meet digital teaching needs and support digital teaching reform.

作为最早实施教育数字化的国家之一，自20世纪80年代起，英国便开始将信息技术融入核心科目，并推行跨学科教学法以提升学生的信息技术能力。通过《教育改革法》及后续修订，信息技术从“设计与技术”中独立成为必修课程，后又更名为信息通信技术，强调其在各课程中的应用，并构建了系统的信息通信技术教育计划。同时，在具体课程教学实践过程中，英国各学段的学校围绕混合式教学模式，通过利用在线教学工具、线上教室、线上课程平台、线上考试与评估系统等在线教学平台，为师生提供丰富的教学互动手段和内容共享途径，并积极探索将人工智能、虚拟现实和增强现实等新兴技术融入教学实践，以满足数字化教学需求，支持数字化教学改革。

The Singapore government has collaborated with schools to develop the “Singapore Student Learning Space” platform, providing rich and high-quality curriculum resources for major subjects across all school levels, enabling students to conveniently and efficiently access learning content, thereby supporting independent learning and collaborative learning. At the basic education stage, primary school students can be exposed to simple coding knowledge through the “Code for Fun” program and co-curricular activities, stimulating students’ love and curiosity for computer science. Secondary school students are equipped with personal learning devices, deeply study STEM courses, and take elective computer courses to enhance their digital skills and literacy. At the higher education stage, Singapore’s higher education institutions keep up with technology and industry demands, offering cutting-edge digital technology courses related to big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, etc., ensuring that university students master the core knowledge and skills needed in the digital era, fully preparing for their future careers.

新加坡政府与学校合作共同开发了“新加坡学生学习平台”，为全学段主要学科提供丰富而优质的课程资源，使学生能够便捷、高效地获取学习内容，以助力自主学习与协作学习。在基础教育阶段，小学生通过“乐趣代码”计划和联合课程活动，可以接触简单的编码知识，以激发学生对计算机科学的热爱和好奇心。中学生则配备个人学习设备，深入学习STEM课程、选修计算机课程，以提升自身的数字技能和素养。在高等教育阶段，新加坡高等教育学院紧跟技术与行业需求，开设了与大数据、人工智能、云计算等相关的前沿数字技术课程，确保大学生能够掌握数字化时代所需的核心知识和技能，为未来的职业生涯做好充分准备。

(The authors: Lin Jing and Cheng Molei, respectively professor and doctoral student at the School of Marxism, Northeast Normal University)

（作者：林晶、程沫雷，分别系东北师范大学马克思主义学部教授、博士研究生）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧