Promoting Social Inclusion through Coding and ICT skills

"Competitiveness, innovation and job creation throughout the EU are increasingly being driven by the use of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). There is also an increasing need for workforce in the ICT sector in Europe: It is estimated that there will be 756.000 unfilled vacancies for ICT professionals by 2020 (Source: EU Skills and Jobs, Update 2016). The high demand of IT jobs seems to be in contradiction with the EU unemployment figures, especially with the fact that unemployment is high among those at risk of poverty and social exclusion (AROPE), such as: disabled people, victims of domestic violence, young people between the ages of 18 and 30 (the so-called “digital natives”), people over 40 years of long-term unemployment and non-EU immigrants. The actual barriers for disadvantaged groups to get IT jobs are mainly related to the ""digital confidence"" where they are in a worse situation than others. This is due both to the lack of ICT available role models and to a wide range of issues related to the lack of accesibility, usability and engagement to quality education on coding/programming. The EU 2020 strategy promotes social inclusion by aiming to lift at least 20 million people out of the risk of poverty and social exclusion. Looking at the risk of poverty after social transfers (meaning that their disposable income was below their national at-risk-of-poverty threshold), 1 in 4 persons was at risk of income poverty in Romania (25.4%) and about 1 in 5 in Spain (22.1%), Bulgaria (22.1%) and Italy (19.9%), meaning that these are amongst the top ten of the highest rates in 2015 across the EU Member States. Therefore the private and NGO sector, as well as education bodies should unite forces to change the barriers that stand between the people AROPE and the ""ivory-towered"" culture of ICT experts. This partnership intended to provide access to quality IT learning and to help persons AROPE to get out of the education-poverty trap where they are kept due to prejudices and low quality IT education by offering better chances to access lifelong learning opportunities and employment In the ICT sector. Thus the objectives of Code-n-Social were: • Raise awareness about the value of empowering people at risk of social exclusion in ICT and coding to find their way in the labour market inspiring other persons at risk of social exclusion targets to consider careers in the digital technology market • Compare good practices, showcase inventions, developments, innovations, successful tangible products coming from the community of people at risk of social exclusion and join the EU Code Week in 2018 • Build an innovative curriculum and enable people at risk of social exclusion to improve their confidence through a brand new learning and role modelling program • Broaden the horizons of the target learners to experience innovation being inspired by the experience of others in a similar situation to theirs’ • Support the education and training community to empower in a motivational and engaging way those at risk of social exclusion through ICT up skilling and confidence building. Our project has: 1. We created a Short report on recommendations for the development of learning platform for introducing persons AROPE to the world of coding and Curriculum. 2. We developed the Code-n-Social CAPACITY BUILDING Course including a transnational CURRICULUM with an overall content of 65,5 hours. 3. We established an OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCE: More than an online learning platform, a competence and confidence building open education resource for introducing persons at risk of social exclusion to the world of coding from the very first steps to advanced levels depending on the existing users’ competences. 4. We developed GUIDELINES: Empowering and bridging the accessibility gap in ICT that present ICT competence and confidence development as an empowerment tool for people at risk of social exclusion. 5. We set up a VIDEO GALLERY including stories and role model presentations to inspire and overcome the ICT gap for the socially excluded. The project was run by a consortium of 7 partners from 6 countries and with a wide range of backgrounds including research and development centres, associations and SMEs. All partners had relevant experience in innovation applied to adult education, community development through education and promoting international cooperation.Impact of the project:• Persons AROPE were actively involved in project development: 130 • Teachers and educators actively involved in project activities: 118 • Learners using the platform 76 • Learners participating at the national pilots: 35 • Indirect stakeholders informed about the Project: 10.285• Number of dissemination activities: 204• Number of participants at the Multiplier events: 154• Number of participants at the Training Events:20• Number of learning hours for the Code-n-Social CAPACITY BUILDING: 65,5"