Drivers of Digital Talent Readiness Among Higher Education Students in Portugal

Abstract

The increasing digitalization across industries has highlighted the need for enterprises to develop and expand their pool of digitally talented individuals to meet evolving standards. A key strategy to address this demand involves hiring university graduates whose academic experiences may have fostered high levels of digital talent readiness. However, research on the factors influencing digital talent readiness among Portuguese university students remains limited, forming the focus of this master’s thesis. A structural model was developed based on existing literature, accompanied by an online survey that collected 182 valid responses from students across different Portuguese universities. The results indicate that the development of digital skills among university students significantly impacts their levels of digital talent readiness. Additionally, students’ socioeconomic background and digital self-efficacy positively influence the development of their digital skills, thereby indirectly contributing to their digital talent readiness. However, the results also indicated that students’ literacy in artificial intelligence, their engagement with collaborative learning, the provision of ICT resources by academic institutions, and the influence of professors on students do not significantly impact their development of digital skills and, consequently, have no influence on digital talent readiness.