If your company operates under a DIGIT-TM framework contract, the move from DIGIT-TM II to DIGIT-TM III is not a cosmetic update. It changes how CVs are laid out, how education and experience are classified, and how the working experience section is structured.
Some of these changes are visible at a glance. Others sit inside field labels that look almost the same but are not, which is exactly how a CV ends up built on the wrong terminology without anyone noticing until it is reviewed.
This post compares the two official templates field by field, so your delivery and recruitment teams know exactly where to look before a DIGIT-TM III submission.
Watch Marco Pincho walk through the DIGIT-TM II and DIGIT-TM III templates side by side:
TL;DR
- DIGIT-TM III removes the header used in DIGIT-TM II and uses wider page margins.
- “External Service Provider” becomes “Service Provider” throughout the template.
- Education now uses explicit EQF levels: EQF-5 (secondary school), EQF-6 (bachelor’s, 3 years), EQF-7 (master’s, 5 years or equivalent).
- “Standard(s) or certificate(s)” is renamed to “Certification(s)”.
- The “Proposed Level” field has been removed entirely.
- The “PROJECT EXPERIENCE” section is now called “WORKING EXPERIENCE”.
- “Project name” becomes “Assignment title”. “Project size” becomes “Team size”. “Project description” becomes “Description”.
- The separate “Role” field has been removed from the working experience section.
Why the DIGIT-TM III Takeover Changes How You Build CVs
Every new iteration of a DIGIT-TM framework contract brings its own template rules, and DIGIT-TM III is no exception. The overall structure stays close to DIGIT-TM II, but a series of field renames and one field removal change how a compliant CV needs to be filled in.
For a company managing a handful of consultants, adjusting to this is an afternoon’s work. For a company managing hundreds of CVs across an active framework contract, it is a different problem entirely.
Current function, CV summary, and the general shape of the document remain close to identical between the two templates. What changes is concentrated in three areas: the front page terminology, the education and certification fields, and the working experience section.
What Changed in the CV Layout and Header
The clearest visible difference between the two templates is the header. DIGIT-TM II includes a header at the top of every page. DIGIT-TM III removes it entirely.
Page margins have also changed. DIGIT-TM III uses noticeably wider margins on every side of the page than DIGIT-TM II, which narrows the usable content width and gives the document a cleaner, less dense appearance.
None of this affects the content fields of the CV, but it does affect how consistent your output looks if some CVs are still built on the DIGIT-TM II layout during a transition period.
Terminology Changes You Need to Catch
The front page label changes from “External Service Provider” to “Service Provider” in DIGIT-TM III. The word “External” is dropped, but the field itself works the same way.
This same change carries through the rest of the template. Wherever DIGIT-TM II referred to the “external service provider”, DIGIT-TM III simply refers to the “service provider”, including in the working experience section covered further down.
This is a small wording change, but it appears in multiple places across the CV, from the front page information block to the roles and responsibilities description inside each working experience entry. A CV still labelled “External Service Provider” is working from the DIGIT-TM II wording.
Education Levels Now Use the EQF Framework
Education classification is one of the more substantial changes between the two templates. DIGIT-TM II asks for a general qualification level: master’s degree or equivalent with at least four years of study, bachelor’s degree, or secondary school.
DIGIT-TM III replaces this with explicit EQF levels, the European Qualifications Framework used across EU institutional contracts:
- ✓EQF-7: master’s degree of five years or equivalent
- ✓EQF-6: bachelor’s degree of three years
- ✓EQF-5: secondary school
The rest of the education section, including certificate or diploma details, the issuing institute, and the dates of secondary school and higher studies, keeps the same structure across both templates.
Certification Labels and the Removal of Proposed Level
Two separate changes affect this part of the CV, and they are easy to conflate because both involve how a consultant’s qualifications are labelled.
First, the field labelled “Standard(s) or certificate(s)” in DIGIT-TM II is renamed to “Certification(s)” in DIGIT-TM III. This is a label change only, the purpose of the field is unchanged.
Second, and separately, the “Proposed Level” field that exists in DIGIT-TM II has been removed entirely from DIGIT-TM III. There is no equivalent field replacing it.
Any CV template, macro, or generation process still producing a Proposed Level field is working from the DIGIT-TM II structure and needs to be corrected. This is distinct from the “Standard(s) or certificate(s)” field, which still exists under its new name, “Certification(s)”.
From Project Experience to Working Experience
The professional experience section carries the largest number of changes, and it is also the section that takes the most time to build correctly, since every field needs to stay consistent across every entry on the CV.
The section title itself changes. “PROJECT EXPERIENCE” in DIGIT-TM II becomes “WORKING EXPERIENCE” in DIGIT-TM III.
Inside the section, several fields are renamed directly:
| DIGIT-TM II field | DIGIT-TM III field |
|---|---|
| Project name | Assignment title |
| Project size | Team size |
| Project description | Description |
| External service provider’s roles & responsibilities in the project | Service provider’s roles & responsibilities in the assignment |
One field disappears completely rather than being renamed. DIGIT-TM II includes a separate “Role” line underneath the roles and responsibilities field. DIGIT-TM III does not have this field at all, the role is expected to be captured within the roles and responsibilities description itself.
Every working experience entry needs to reflect the new labels consistently: assignment title instead of project name, team size instead of project size, description instead of project description, and no separate role field. The technologies and methodologies listed still need to match what is declared under specific expertise at the top of the CV, and this needs to stay consistent whether the CV lists two entries or nine.
Why Manual DIGIT-TM III Compliance Is Hard to Sustain at Scale
None of the individual changes above are complicated on their own. The difficulty is applying every one of them correctly and consistently, across every CV a company submits under DIGIT-TM III.
The first time I did my European institutions CV template, that was DESIS II, it took me 3 hours. If you are doing this exercise for 300 consultants, good luck. It consumes a lot of time. Marco Pincho, Founder & CEO, Sprint CV
Compliance is not optional here. A CV still using “Project name” instead of “Assignment title”, or still carrying a “Proposed Level” field that no longer exists in the template, risks looking inconsistent or non-compliant before the consultant’s actual profile is even evaluated.
This is where an Enterprise CV Manager changes the equation. Updating a consultant’s profile once, rather than re-editing every field across every CV, keeps the output aligned with whichever framework template is currently required.
If your team is now converting an existing consultant base from DIGIT-TM II to DIGIT-TM III, DIGIT-TM III CV Conversion: Cutting Manual Rework During the Takeover Phase covers exactly how that conversion works in practice.
Preparing for a DIGIT-TM III takeover?
If your company is managing this transition across dozens or hundreds of consultants, doing it field by field is where the real cost sits. See how CV management for consulting and staffing companies handles framework contract compliance, or book a short demo to see it applied to your own framework contract.
DIGIT-TM II vs DIGIT-TM III at a Glance
| Field or element | DIGIT-TM II | DIGIT-TM III |
|---|---|---|
| Header | Present | Removed |
| Page margins | Narrower, uniform | Wider on all sides |
| Service provider label | External Service Provider | Service Provider |
| Education classification | General tiers (master’s/bachelor’s/secondary) | EQF-5, EQF-6, EQF-7 |
| Certification field | Standard(s) or certificate(s) | Certification(s) |
| Proposed Level field | Present | Removed |
| Section title | Project Experience | Working Experience |
| Assignment naming | Project name | Assignment title |
| Team size field | Project size | Team size |
| Description field | Project description | Description |
| Role field | Present, separate line | Removed |
Compliance Checklist Before Submission
- ✓Confirm the header has been removed on every DIGIT-TM III CV
- ✓Replace “External Service Provider” with “Service Provider” throughout
- ✓Reclassify education using EQF-5, EQF-6, or EQF-7
- ✓Rename “Standard(s) or certificate(s)” to “Certification(s)”
- ✓Remove the Proposed Level field entirely
- ✓Rename the section from Project Experience to Working Experience
- ✓Rename Project name to Assignment title, Project size to Team size, Project description to Description
- ✓Remove the separate Role field and fold it into roles and responsibilities
- ✓Cross-check every technology listed in an assignment against the declared specific expertise
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between DIGIT-TM II and DIGIT-TM III CV templates?
DIGIT-TM III removes the header used in DIGIT-TM II, widens the page margins, renames “External Service Provider” to “Service Provider”, switches education classification to EQF levels, renames “Standard(s) or certificate(s)” to “Certification(s)”, removes the Proposed Level field, renames the Project Experience section to Working Experience, renames several fields inside it, and removes the separate Role field.
What does “Service Provider” mean instead of “External Service Provider” in DIGIT-TM III?
It refers to the same role. DIGIT-TM III simply drops the word “External” from the label used throughout DIGIT-TM II.
Does DIGIT-TM III still require Proposed Level?
No. Proposed Level has been removed from the DIGIT-TM III CV template entirely, and is not replaced by another field.
What EQF levels does DIGIT-TM III use for education?
DIGIT-TM III uses EQF-5 for secondary school, EQF-6 for a bachelor’s degree of three years, and EQF-7 for a master’s degree of five years or equivalent.
What replaced “Project name” in the DIGIT-TM III CV template?
“Project name” has been renamed to “Assignment title” within the section now called “Working Experience”, formerly “Project Experience”.
Does DIGIT-TM III still have a separate Role field?
No. The separate “Role” field present in DIGIT-TM II has been removed from DIGIT-TM III.
Final Thought
None of the changes between DIGIT-TM II and DIGIT-TM III are dramatic on their own. Together, they touch the front page, the education section, and nearly every field inside working experience.
For a small team, catching all of this by hand is manageable. For a company scaling its DIGIT-TM III delivery across a large consultant base, it becomes the kind of detail work that quietly consumes entire weeks, with the risk of an outdated label or a missing field slipping through on any single CV.
Explore how the AI CV Parser and Enterprise CV Manager fit into a DIGIT-TM III workflow, or see how other consulting and staffing companies have handled similar framework contract transitions.
Marco Pincho has spent years inside the CV compliance requirements of EU framework contracts, comparing official templates field by field to see exactly where companies lose time and where compliance breaks down. He founded Sprint CV in 2018 to remove that manual work from recruitment and delivery teams operating under institutional contracts. He holds an Executive Master in IT Management from Solvay Brussels School and speaks daily with recruitment leaders and delivery directors managing these takeovers.
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