The 2017 Bebras Challenge will take place from 6th – 17th November, run by the ICS Foundation, the Bebras® Computing Challenge introduces computational thinking and computer science to students from 8-18 years by allowing them to solve interactive tasks online. It is run in over 30 countries and takes place every November, where you can schedule your classes test any time during these two weeks. Read more
EU Code Week is back again! Taking place from 7th – 22nd October. First launched in 2013 by the European Commission, the initiative aims to make programming more visible, to show young, adults and elderly how you bring ideas to life with code, to demystify these skills and bring motivated people together to learn. Read more
Via Margaret Wente at theglobeandmail.com
Nothing is cuter than pictures of kids sitting at their computers, mastering skills their parents never dreamed of. And nothing is more popular than the current idea that all our children should learn to code.
“Most jobs in the future will most likely have some sort of connection to coding,” Navdeep Bains, the federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, told a room full of children assembled for a recent photo op. He was there to announce a $50-million initiative to teach coding to young people. “Some of you may develop incredible apps,” he beamed. Read more
‘Re-thinking the Role of Qualifications and Skills’
The Digitalisation Agenda Conference will take place on October 24th 2017 at the Radisson Blue Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin 2
Digitalisation is changing how we work and learn. This high-level international conference will explore the implications of digitalisation on the demand, delivery and recognition of skills and qualifications. Read more
Via ec.europa.eu
Having a solid evidence base is essential for effective policy-making in the education sector. In practice the mechanisms used to support evidence-based policy-making differ significantly between countries.
This report describes the mechanisms and practices that support evidence-based policy-making in the education sector in Europe. It provides an initial mapping of a complex area. It compares institutions and practices in evidence-based policy-making, as well as the accessibility, and mediation, of evidence. The report also presents more detailed information, with specific examples of the use of evidence in policy formulation for each individual country. Read more
Well done to the 1,300 students from 50 schools across Ireland who took part in the Bebras Computing Challenge, which took place from 7th to 25th November.
This is the first year that Bebras has been run by the ICS Foundation in Ireland. The Bebras Community is an association of organizations which are involved with informatics and educational activities aiming to promote computational thinking among teachers and pupils of all ages. In 2015 over 1,300,000 students from 35 countries took part. Read more
The European Commission’s e-Skills awareness raising campaigns, launched in 2010, have contributed to reduce the gap in the European Union between demand and supply of digital skills jobs. The predicted shortfall of IT specialists in 2020 has been reduced from 1m in 2010 to 756,000 in 2015. Read more
EU Code Week is back again! Taking place from 15th – 23rd October. First launched in 2013 by the European Commission, the initiative aims to make programming more visible, to show young, adults and elderly how you bring ideas to life with code, to demystify these skills and bring motivated people together to learn. Read more
We are delighted to announce a new component under our education initiatives; The Bebras® Computing Challenge!
The Bebras® Computing Challenge introduces computational thinking and computer science to students, by allowing them to solve interactive tasks online. Taking place every November and run in over 30 countries, the aim of Bebras is to get students all over the world excited about computing. Read more
via Capgemini
The eGovernment Benchmark evaluates the priority areas of the eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015. It looks at how public services can be made ‘twice as good, in half the time, for half as much’.The latest research shows that while European governments succeed in gradually bringing more services online, they should put more emphasis on developing eGovernment services that truly empower citizens and businesses. Read more
FÉILTE 2016 took place on Saturday, October 1st in the RDS, Dublin. The Festival of Education in Learning and Teaching Excellence, is a celebration of teaching which showcases the work of teachers who are leading innovative learning projects.
Now in its fourth year, the day provided a platform for teachers to share their stories of innovation with each other and the public. Read more
In todays working environment, keeping your IT skills up-to-date is important for all employees, regardless of what profession they are in.
Even the Irish Defense Forces need to ensure that their personnel are IT competent.
Flight Sergeant Will Fitzgerald, Chief Information Technologies Instructor at the Defence Forces, has offered some thoughts on the integration of ECDL into the Irish Defence Forces and how important it is for their personal development. Read more
An interview given by Our Deputy CEO Mary Cleary has been featured in the Sunday Business Post.
Titled ‘Back to School for Techies’ Mary discusses the return of the academic year and why professionals should also think about upskilling, she also talks about the introduction of the CPD system and how IT professionals can utilize it to build and track their training profile, by saying;
“It’s a very busy time for us, apart from the school agenda, everyone is thinking about their professional development. The European e-Competence Framework enables people to give a structure to their career planning. One of the things that people lose track of is a career path, as it’s very common to change”
You can read the full interview here
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A new paper from researchers at the University of Oxford, prepared for the European Commission, has examined ways to raise productivity and reduce the digital divide in Europe. The paper, titled, ‘Digitalisation, Jobs and Convergence in Europe: Strategies for Closing the Skills Gap’, looks at the effect that digital technology has had on the workplace, including automation and the introduction of new tasks and activities to existing jobs. Read more
Via ECDL Foundation
The ECDL Foundation have published a new position paper showing the danger of relying on self-assessment to demonstrate digital skills.
How do you measure digital skills? How do you work out whether a candidate for a job has the skills and competences that they will need to do the work? Letting people self-assess their skills can seem like a simple solution, but it brings a big risk that they will misjudge their abilities.
Read more