Skip to content
Menu
0
Employer's Guide
Employer's Guide
Site content

Finally, programming and digital creation on the school schedule!

Digital inclusion Digitalization Skills supply Public procurement Education and training

Today, the government decided on changes to the course and curricula for primary and secondary schools, which means that programming and other forms of digital creation are explicitly included in the policy documents. Those of us in the digital industries who are already crying out for digitally savvy boys and girls naturally applaud. All that remains is to equip teachers to teach the new elements, and to encourage head teachers to implement the necessary digital change. These are difficult tasks, which we in the industry are happy to help with!

The wording of the government's press release this morning speaks for itself:

In summary, the amendments concern

  • the introduction of programming as an explicit element in several different subjects in primary schools, especially in technology and mathematics
  • that students are strengthened in their source-critical skills
  • students to be able to solve problems and put ideas into action in a creative way using digital technologies
  • students to work with digital texts, media and tools
  • students to use and understand digital systems and services
  • students to develop an understanding of the impact of digitalization on individuals and society

For many years, IT&Telekomföretagen, in collaboration with the Computer in Education Foundation and IT-Gymnasiet/Academedia's Language of the Future initiative, has been pushing the issue of developing school education with digital tools. From the outset, we have emphasized that the use of digital technology is not an end in itself, but that it should be used as a tool to enhance learning.

Getting programming and other digital skills onto the curriculum is an important milestone, but it does not mean that everything is now set and ready for all pupils to become fully-fledged digitally competent. On the contrary, the difficult job of training and re-training teachers in the digital knowledge and skills they need to impart and, not least, training and encouraging headteachers to drive the complex change processes involved in moving to fully digitally supported teaching begins now.

We at IT&Telekomföretagen consider the last point to be the most prioritized, which we expressed during our visit to Minister of Education Gustav Fridolin on 16 November 2016. We therefore intend to launch a mentoring program during the autumn where IT company leaders and principals can mutually discuss challenges. For principals, it is about how to implement digital change processes and for IT company leaders how to lead learning organizations and what the driving forces of the future generation look like.

IT business leaders interested in participating in the mentoring program are welcome to register their interest with me.