Awareness of digital literacy on young innovators in the fourth industrial revolution

New technologies are forcing more job-related tasks to be automated. With more jobs becoming obsolete, others will be created, and they will be geared towards greater interaction with digital technologies. Therefore, a new set of digital skills will be required to compete successfully in a new economy driven by Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies. This paper aimed to understand to what extend young innovators are aware of digital literacy in the 4IR, and to determine if there is a need for digital literacy in a university curriculum in preparation for the 4IR. The mixed method nature of this study prompted the use of both a questionnaire and interview schedule to collect data from 250 Information Management students and 4 digital agency executives. The interpretivist nature of this study enabled the use of both frequency statistical analysis and thematic analysis to analyse and interpret the data. The results indicated that the majority of students knew about the 4IR, however they had limited knowledge on digital literacy and its fundamental components for the 4IR. The results further revealed that there is a need for young innovators to become digitally literate in preparation for the 4IR. Most of the students considered themselves as digitally literate and fluent, however some of the findings indicated that they do not understand what really constitutes a digital literate individual. The term digital literacy itself refers to individual abilities for understanding, interpreting, creating, communicating, computing as well as identifying and using printed materials related to different contexts (UNESCO, 2011). Furthermore, the research indicated that there is a need for 4IR related skills, such as coding, to be incorporated within the curriculum. In conclusion it is recommended that a study be conducted on graduates rather than the students and test their understanding of what digital literacy is, the concepts 4IR and whether the university has prepared them enough.