stimulating interest in it: the example of eskills

Rome4-5 December 2008

Stimulating interest in IT:the eSkills portal

Alexa JoyceCommunications and Development Manager European

Schoolnet


Today’s presentation

•Falling interest but rising use• Influencing factors on young people’s

interest in IT•EU and national actions in the field of

education•Multi-stakeholder example: e-Skills career

portal•Next steps


Falling interest but rising use•Paradox: young people have falling interest in maths, science and technology in general

•Low interest in IT careers, particularly among girls

•Yet young people are keen users of IT tools– IT consumers

– Majority use a blog, Facebook or MySpace account, or other IT tool regularly (particularly girls)

– Majority play computer games in some form

– Now spend more time on YouTube than watching TV


Factors influencing students in IT interest and career choice

Student

Formal Informal

Parents PeersTeachersCareer

guidance

Culture

Pedagogicaluse of IT

Rolemodels

eConfidence

Leisureuse of IT

Perceptionof IT

CurriculumSchool

IT facilities

Gender


Multitude of actions in public sector

But we play “catch up” with IT sector: new products and services arrive thick and fast!

Need for all stakeholders to cooperate to improvedigital literacy, from young children upwards.

These initiatives are all supporting a transformationof education, using technology as a pedagogical tool.


e-Skills career portal• e-Skills Industry Leadership Board driving multi-

stakeholder approach targeting secondary and early tertiary students:– Private companies in IT– Organisations offering IT training and certification– Education sector– European Commission closely linked


e-Skills career portal: aims and goals

• Offer a portal on IT skills targeting:– Students at secondary and tertiary level– Early career IT professionals– Educators– IT stakeholders: companies, EU level

actors, etc.


e-Skills career portal: aims and goals

• Provide a range of relevant information and services:– Interviews, career profiles, self-tests– News, publications, surveys, etc.– Competitions for young people (digital creativity)– Community tools to network stakeholders and

actors

• Bring together results from as many initiatives as possible


Visit the portal• http://eskills.eun.org


Next steps

•Bring new partners into the initiative•Continuous content updating and

additions•Dissemination actions for young people,

first “career of the month” event•Finalising of roadmap and planning for

future developments• Interoperability


What else is needed?• Focus on teachers:

– Update skill sets– Enhance mechanism to ensure up to date technologies– Enable schools to take advantage of community learning

opportunities• Support students:

– Values-based curricular content– Role models, authentic learning contexts– Research on ICT perception– Favour “digital media” over IT in communication

• Structural changes:– More multi-stakeholder approaches– View schools as community learning hubs and facilities– Make inter-school cooperation fundamental in approach


e-Skills portal: http://eskills.eun.org

Join partnershiphttp://eskills.eun.org/web/guest/partnership

• Contact: [email protected] European Schoolnet: g

Thank you!

stimulating interest in it: the example of eskills

Education

eskills portal

portal http

career profiles

tertiary level early

young peoples

young children

early tertiary students

rising use paradox