Last December, the European Commission published version 3.0 of the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens. This is a detailed framework that sets out the skills that adults should have depending on how competent they want to be. Nevertheless, it is often understood as a curriculum framework for primary and secondary schools, combined with a high use of digital tools (including AI) from an early age. Worse still, the adults who make such plans forget how much digital literacy they have acquired themselves in adulthood or in intensive courses and how much they owe to their screen-free kindergarten and school years in terms of creativity, mental health and psychomotor skills.

And it is precisely these skills, which can only be acquired in the analogue world, that the European Commission is concerned with, describing the HERMMES approach as the one that "helps children and young people become digitally resilient, media-mature adults". The HERMMES approach was developed by 15 partner organisations under the coordination of our member, the European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education (ECSWE), which we have already reported on here.

The latest addition to these activities is a 15-month HERMMES ambassador training programme, which starts in September 2026 and for which it is now possible to register here. Further information on the HERMMES approach for teachers and parents can be found here: