Next Up: Let's take the leap to schools!

Digitization Innovation Gender equality Skills supply Education and training
Image Snurran Next Up

After a year of probing, focusing, inspiring, persuading and anchoring, we are ready to go. Our twelve DataTjej team leaders are now going out into the schools with Next Up folders, one for each of the 400 students participating. Together with the teachers, the classes will start work on developing proposals for solutions to our five cases.

The cases, and everything else you need to know about Next Up, can be found at http://nextup.se.

The ultimate aim of the project is not only to show what is actually going on behind the facades of the IT industry, but also to make secondary school students understand that it is exciting and fun for everyone - not least for all the girls who think that "computers" and "programming" are only for (semi-social) boys. If the 400 students after the competition days in early April did not have their image of IT professions pushed at least a little bit, it would be an "epic fail" ...

However, I do not think there is any risk. With the enthusiasm shown by the DataGirls and the partner companies, we can rest assured that we are making an impact. Then we will see how deep our imprint will be. After all, it has happened before that the solutions proposed at various youth competitions have been turned into world-leading products...