Developing Digital Skills in the Accommodation and Food Service Sector: Research Foundations for the Design of a Digital Skills Assessment Tool and Methodological Framework

This report presents the research outputs of Work Package 3 of the Upskilling workers of SMEs with low Digital intensity (USMED) project, a Cooperation Partnership in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The research work, conducted by the Digital Economy Lab of the University of Warrsaw, focuses on digital skills development in the accommodation and food sector, with the aim of supporting sector-specific upskilling efforts through evidence-based tools and methodologies.

The report addresses three core objectives:

• To analyse digitalization trends within the accommodation and food sector.
• To identify digital skills gaps relevant to sectoral roles and functions.
• To develop a methodological framework and Digital Skills Assessment Tool (DSAT) tailored to the sector’s characteristics.

The research applies a mixed-methods approach, combining:

• A literature review covering academic and policy sources, including national reviews from seven countries;
• Statistical analysis of sector-level data from Eurostat and national institutions;
• Text mining of 5,000 job advertisements using NLP techniques and the ESCO taxonomy;
• Focus group interviews with key stakeholders (students, teachers, workers, and managers).

Findings from these components were synthesised to construct a methodological framework based on DigComp 2.2, supplemented by DigCompEdu, Digi-CVET, and Upskill with EdTech. This framework guided the design of DSAT, aligning competence assessment with real job roles, learning needs, and sectoral contexts.

The report is organised into ten chapters, addressing sector-specific digital transformation, skills demand, institutional barriers, and methodological models. Each chapter concludes with an analysis of how the findings contribute to the design and content of DSAT and the supporting framework.

The outputs are intended to support future training design, policy planning, and competence assessment initiatives in the accommodation and food sector.