Digital transformation in healthcare is often discussed in terms of technologies: electronic health records, telemedicine platforms, AI-supported systems, remote monitoring tools, and digital communication environments. Yet one of the most important questions is rarely asked directly: who prepares the workforce to use these systems confidently, safely, and meaningfully?
The answer increasingly points toward vocational educators, trainers, and workplace mentors. As healthcare environments become more digitally integrated, educators are no longer only teaching care practices — they are also helping care professionals navigate rapidly evolving digital realities.
This is the challenge the DIGIHEALTH Academy was created to address.
As the DIGIHEALTH project moves into its implementation phase, the Academy represents one of its central outputs: a practical training framework designed specifically for VET educators and trainers working with care assistants, home helpers, and frontline healthcare staff. Its goal is not simply to introduce digital tools, but to strengthen the ability of educators to teach digital competences in ways that are accessible, inclusive, and directly connected to everyday care practice.
Across Europe, healthcare systems are investing heavily in digital infrastructure. However, the success of digitalisation depends not only on technology itself, but on whether healthcare workers feel capable of using it effectively in real-world settings.
This creates a growing responsibility for educators.
In many care education programmes, digital competences have historically been treated as secondary skills rather than core professional capabilities. Training often focuses on technical procedures, while digital communication, data handling, online documentation, and digital ethics receive limited practical attention. At the same time, many educators themselves are navigating rapidly changing expectations without structured support or updated teaching resources.
The DIGIHEALTH research phase highlighted this challenge consistently across partner countries. Interviews with educators and stakeholders showed that while digital literacy is increasingly included in curricula, many training environments still lack practical methodologies adapted to the realities of frontline care work. Educators frequently identified the need for:
The Academy was developed as a direct response to these needs.
The DIGIHEALTH Academy is a transnational training programme and curriculum framework designed to support vocational educators in delivering digital health competence training to frontline care workers.
Developed collaboratively by the DIGIHEALTH consortium, the Academy combines:
Rather than focusing only on theoretical digital literacy, the Academy is structured around real care scenarios. This means educators are encouraged to teach digital competences in direct connection with everyday healthcare situations:
This applied approach is especially important in care professions, where learners often engage most effectively through practical, experience-based learning rather than abstract technical instruction.
A Human-Centred Teaching Model
One of the Academy’s defining principles is that digital competence is not purely technical. Confidence, motivation, communication, and emotional safety all influence how people engage with technology.
For this reason, the Academy promotes a human-centred teaching model that recognises the diversity of the care workforce. Across Europe, care assistants and home helpers represent highly varied educational, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds. Some learners are highly confident with digital tools, while others may have had limited exposure to structured digital learning.
The Academy therefore encourages educators to:
This is particularly important for adult learners returning to training environments after many years in the workforce. Interviews conducted during the DIGIHEALTH research phase showed that many professionals are willing to learn digital skills but fear making mistakes or feeling inadequate in formal learning settings.
The Academy aims to reduce this barrier by promoting learning approaches that build confidence gradually through realistic, applicable tasks.
Traditional digital training often relies heavily on presentations, manuals, or passive demonstrations. The DIGIHEALTH Academy instead prioritises active participation.
Its methodology includes:
For example, participants may work through practical scenarios involving:
This approach helps learners understand not only how to use digital tools, but why they matter within care processes.
Emerging research in digital healthcare education consistently shows that practical and contextual learning methods improve engagement and increase confidence in technology adoption among healthcare staff. In care professions especially, learning becomes more effective when digital competences are directly connected to patient care and daily workflows.
The Academy is not intended as a one-time training event. It is designed as a scalable and adaptable framework that can continue evolving beyond the project lifetime.
Through the DIGIHEALTH pilot activities, educators from partner countries are testing and refining Academy materials in real educational environments. This process allows the consortium to identify:
A transnational training programme will further support educators in applying the methodology locally, while strengthening collaboration between vocational education providers and healthcare organisations.
The long-term goal is to contribute to a more sustainable model of digital competence development in care professions — one where educators are recognised not only as trainers, but as key facilitators of healthcare transformation.
The digital transformation of healthcare will not succeed through technology alone. Its success depends on whether people feel prepared, supported, and included in the process of change.
Care assistants and frontline healthcare workers are increasingly expected to work across digital systems while maintaining the human dimension of care. Educators play a critical role in helping them develop the confidence and competences needed to navigate this environment safely and effectively.
The DIGIHEALTH Academy recognises that empowering educators is ultimately an investment in the quality, sustainability, and inclusiveness of future healthcare systems.
As the project continues, the Academy will remain a central space for experimentation, collaboration, and learning — helping ensure that digital transformation in healthcare is not only technological, but genuinely human-centred.
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https://health.ec.europa.eu/ehealth-digital-health-and-care_en
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https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC144121
Eurofound. Long-term care workforce: Employment and working conditions (2020).
https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/en/publications/2020/long-term-care-workforce-employment-and-working-conditions
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DIGIHEALTH — Emerging Digital Competences of Healthcare Staff — is an Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership in Vocational Education and Training (KA220-VET), funded by the European Commission. The project runs from December 2024 to November 2026. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.