Digitally skilled or digitally competent? Evaluating the impact of e‐Facilitation on young volunteers in Italy

Abstract

Abstracte‐Facilitation services are one of the instruments employed by policymakers to foster digital inclusion. Literature has hypothesized several benefits stemming from these services, including positive effects on the tutors (e‐Facilitators) in terms of competences and employability. Our study takes advantage of a new e‐Facilitation program implemented in Italy—the Servizio Civile Digitale (SCD)—to assess whether the policy is impacting the tutors' skills and to evaluate whether there is a trade‐off in effectiveness due to an ambiguous policy formulation. To deepen these aspects, we have administered two survey waves to SCD applicants, following treatment (recruited) and control group (non‐recruited) for 7 months after the launch of the program. Next, we applied Difference‐in‐Differences, panel models, and a matching model to estimate the treatment effect and control for potential confounders. Results show that volunteers are more active online, use more devices, and perceive improvements in their soft skills, but do not improve in other dimensions of digital competence. This can be explained by the recruitment strategies followed by SCD organizations to maximize their impact on citizens. Our identification is threatened by several sources of potential bias. We address these threats whenever possible, but unobservable factors might still play a role.