An examination of basic ICT skills and their workload taught in German administrative degree programs

Public administration in Germany is facing a forced digital transformation with less and less staff available due to reduction of the workforce in general and cost cutting. Therefore, it is important to have an adequate education for the future staff. Currently, on average about three years with approximately 5,400 hours of time are planned for the education of public servants as part of the curricula at the universities of public administration. But with an average of 95 teaching hours for information and communications technology (ICT) topics, it seems quite difficult to generate graduates with sufficient digital competences or digital affinity for today's digitised world. This paper analyses not only the mere figures like contact hours during the degree programs for public administration, but also the ICT topics that are part of the programs as they are listed in the module manuals (if available). To have an impression on the level of qualification, this paper compares the ICT topics (contact hours and self-study hours) with the corresponding modules and content of the International Certification of Digital Literacy (ICDL). The ICDL is an internationally recognised certification of basic ICT knowledge that is nowadays often part of secondary education in European countries and beyond (not so in Germany).