Digital technology is fundamentally transforming our society! The world of work, education and citizenship are faced with the need to integrate digital culture. The Agence du Numérique has put together a summary of the challenges in terms of skills development with which we are faced.
Why do we need to develop the digital skills of the men and women of Wallonia?
Why worry about developing the digital skills of citizens (whether they are school children, students, workers, jobseekers, freelancers, teachers, trainers, pensioners or people with disabilities etc.) throughout their life in Wallonia?
Because, according to:
- Europe, 44.5% of Europeans have inadequate digital skills, and 42% of them are unemployed;
- Agoria, the Federation for the Technology Sector, there are 16,000 unfilled jobs in the IT sector in Belgium (not to mention sectors that have been transformed by digital technology) and, at the same time, our universities and colleges are faced with a lack of vocations in IT sectors.
But also, and most importantly, for cultural and social reasons, because it is becoming hard to live, work and blossom in our modern societies, where digital technology is omnipresent, if we do not understand the language and the “codes”. “Learn how to code so you don’t get programmed”, the slogan used by #WallCode, is an invitation to become (or remain) active citizens, enlightened consumers, multi-skilled workers, capable of adapting and maintaining, or even boosting, our employability.
“Until the 1970s, our businesses needed engineers. Now, they need computer engineers!”, explains Hughes Bersini, member of the Royal Academy of Science. As well as this, computer science is now an integral part of the scientific culture that all citizens should receive. In the same way that we all learned about redox at school, without necessarily becoming chemists, it would be useful and vital for all school children, at some point or another in their education, to have access, at least an introduction, to this discipline in its own right.
The seven challenges of developing digital skills:
- Involve all citizens of Wallonia in the digital CULTURE.
- Teach WITH (ABOUT and VIA) digital technology.
- Encourage IT-related vocations.
- Improve the way initial and ongoing training fulfils requirements.
- Boost employment and re-employment thanks to digital skills.
- Combat the digital divide.
- Draw on the European framework, DigComp.
Challenge 1: Involve all citizens of Wallonia in the digital CULTURE
Involving all citizens of Wallonia in the digital culture, so that everyone can grow in this feel, and nobody is left behind, is a major challenge for society!
Perhaps you don’t feel it is anything to do with you, but whether you like it or not, you are part of this digital culture! Actually, perhaps you’ve never played a computer game, but you must have an opinion on the subject; you might have never visited YouTube, but you’ve heard of it; maybe you don’t have a computer connected to the Internet, but you have bought something online or made a booking thanks to a neighbour, a friend, a loved one... YOU are part of this pervasive digital culture!
The digital culture is right at the heart of the culture of our societies, and computer science is an integral part of the scientific culture that all citizens should receive #CQFD
Which digital skills does everyone need? Digital literacy and algorithmic logic!
Boosting the digital skills of the whole population doesn’t mean that all citizens need to become computer engineers and learn how to program to live, work and flourish! It’s more a question of establishing a kind of “digital humanities” approach, encompassing:
- digital literacy:mastering the most common software applications (e.g. desktop applications);maturing digital habits (socially acceptable/responsible), including in particular when it comes to social networks (e.g. media literacy, digital identity, online reputation, data security etc.);
- algorithmic logic: algorithms are everywhere! At least in most activities that have rules and for which there is a sequence to follow. Thinking about them has therefore become a real challenge for citizens, and understanding them is now essential for getting the most out of the tools around us. You don’t need to be a mechanic to drive a car, but understanding how it works does help prevent you agonising over the mechanics. Likewise, virtual assistants and other smart interfaces with which we can communicate are starting to colonise our day-to-day lives. They learn from us and their responses become more relevant the more interaction there is. To make the most of them, it is important to “feed” them properly and understand how they work, which is based on algorithmic logic.
Agoria confirms that this is a priority for citizens, as it is by widening the base of the pyramid, in other words getting all citizens involved in the digital culture, that the number of applicants/vocations for fields related to specialist IT training will increase. Digital technology is therefore a prerequisite for excellence for everybody!
Challenge 2: Teach WITH (ABOUT and VIA) digital technology
This is about taking our education system, in other words initial training (infant, primary and secondary education, whether technical or professional, higher education or specialist training) into the 21st century! One of the main challenges faced by our education system is to teach about and via (in other words with) digital technology, taking a cross-disciplinary approach to everything!
Educating ABOUT digital technology
“Teaching digital technology” relates to the social challenge of involving all citizens in the digital culture (see challenge 1), as a bare minimum by educating young people about digital literacy (desktop applications and media literacy) and algorithmic logic (which can even be done in French lessons!). While it is multi-disciplinary, education “ABOUT” digital technology needs to be based on a dedicated curriculum (without which it might not be covered systematically and rigorously enough), like learning your mother tongue, the most multi-disciplinary subject of all, which nevertheless requires a dedicated curriculum, wherever you are in the world!
There are many educational benefits to introducing people to computer science, algorithmic logic and programming languages:
- Active learning, creativity and enjoyment.By definition, programming is all about learning by doing. Algorithmic logic, in other words sequencing actions, is usually designed to resolve complex problems by describing the different stages accurately, so they can then be automated on a computer. Problem solving, which is a form of active learning, is in the DNA of computer thinking. Furthermore, working on concrete tasks based on problem solving (programming a robot to water flowers, creating your own game or mobile app etc.) generates a real sense of satisfaction and boosts motivation. Lastly, the tools available today mean that everyone can develop software, games etc. themselves at a low cost, or even free of charge.
- Structured and rigorous thinking.An algorithm is a finite, unambiguous series of instructions leading to the answer to a problem. Algorithmic logic therefore makes it possible to reason by reducing the resolution of a problem to a series of simple tasks that can be automated. However, while computer science it similar to mathematics in its logic, the underlying reasoning is fundamentally different from a calculation process.
It is also worth remembering that, when it comes to media literacy, closing a school to smartphones essentially removes the opportunity to help young people develop mature, in other words socially acceptable and responsible, habits on social media networks. It takes the problem home, where the people with the best support will be fine, while others will learn (or not) at their own cost, what they should or shouldn’t do. Not to mention the educational value of children using smartphones in class (or BYOD - Bring Your Own Device), to do research, share information, interact etc.
Teaching VIA digital technology
“Teaching VIA digital technology” refers to the use of digital resources and tools to teach, in other words to support learning and create the right conditions in which children can learn.
But beware, the teaching methods adopted are less about the tools themselves than how they are used. Developing relevant digital habits, evolving teaching practices, even changing approach, relies on a process of acculturating digital technology and re-appropriating tools and processes, which takes time and involves training, support and collaboration among colleagues. Furthermore, the principle of diversification (educational approaches and learning materials) is a topical one, because sometimes, when you try to do too much, you don’t do it very well...
The Pacte pour un Enseignement d'Excellence (Pact for Excellent Education) is designed to complement the Ecole numérique (Digital School) Walloon regional equipment plan with the necessary educational ingredients, which are its responsibility, because the material infrastructure is essential, but totally inadequate, so it is also vital:
- to train (adapt initial and ongoing training) and more importantly help teachers and future teachers to teach WITH digital technology;
- as well as the material tools, to give teachers the educational resources (digital content, software and tutorials) they need to teach;
- to organise communities of practice in order to encourage a culture of collaboration, pooling resources and sharing best practices;
It’s a work in progress...
Find out about the stakeholders and initiatives:
- for teaching via digital technology(ITCE - Information Technology and Communication for Education);
- for training people in digital technology:training and activities for computer science, algorithmic logic and programming languages;training and activities for media literacy.
Challenge 3: Encourage IT-related vocations
Universities and colleges are faced with a problem with orientation towards IT-related fields, even though, according to Agoria, there are 16,000 vacancies in the Belgian IT sector (not to mention the digital transformation of other industries).
This vocational lack is a direct result of the previous challenge! Indeed, without real courses dedicated to digital technology in compulsory education (where even the rare “optional IT” courses usually focus on desktop applications), fewer students, especially female ones, are moving into these fields. Youngsters come out of secondary school with mistaken ideas about computer science and its prospects, or even no idea at all, which results in the perpetuation of the stereotypes associated with IT.
The promises made by the "Pacte pour un Enseignement d'Excellence"
The Pacte pour un Enseignement d'Excellence seems to have got the measure of the challenges involved. New skills frameworks are being put together, within the context of the reform of the core curriculum, and the resulting new programmes of courses is set to incorporate digital skills in the broadest sense of the term, including computer science, algorithmic logic and programming languages, and not limiting themselves to digital literacy alone (media literacy and desktop applications). As a result, a reform of initial training for future teachers and an overhaul of ongoing training programmes for teachers should incorporate new programming requirements. The process is underway, but it still needs more time...
Operation #WallCode: “Learn how to code so you don’t get programmed”
That’s why, as we wait to see the results of the Pacte, Wallonia has launched operation WallCode.be, to introduce youngsters from a very young age to computer science, algorithmic logic and programming languages.
WallCode has two main goals:
- Introducing youngsters, so that they can hone their skills and explore different areas of digital technology, via introductory activities:in the classroom with [profiles type="single" slug="kodowallonie" display="link"]Kodo Wallonie[/profiles] or [profiles type="single" slug="interface3namur" display="link"]Interface 3 Namur[/profiles];at the [profiles type="single" slug="le-pass" display="link"]Pass[/profiles];as an extracurricular activity, at the weekend, thanks to the [profiles type="single" slug="coderdojo-belgium" display="link"]Coder Dojo Belgium[/profiles] network, or during school holidays thanks to lots of courses organised by partners;Etc.
- Raising awareness and training teachers and future teachers, via:the [profiles type="single" slug="sicarre" display="link"]SI²[/profiles] (Sciences Informatiques pour le Secondaire Inférieur - computer science for lower secondary schools) Consortium, coordinated by ICTeam-UCL, and bringing together all universities and colleges, and the IT sector;the [profiles type="single" slug="hypothese" display="link"]not-for-profit organisation Hypothèse ASBL[/profiles], who specialise in teaching science and primary education;the LEGO® Education Innovation Studio(LEIS) run by [profiles type="single" slug="technobel" display="link"]Technobel[/profiles], which trains teachers and lends them equipment;the Class'Code initiative, organised as part of the Plan d'équipement Wallon Ecole Numérique, in collaboration with all the WallCode partners;Etc.
Not forgetting Algo-Bot, a video game introducing players to programming languages, which can be downloaded to your PC for free!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoDiyg6f6ec
Read more about:
- all the “Coding” stakeholders
Challenge 4: Improve the way initial and ongoing training fulfils requirements
This is another major challenge, and is linked to the digital transformation of different sectors and the way skills development needs to evolve. Adapting training services to the needs of the world of work affects not only IT-related fields, but also all sectors and industries, which are all affected by digital technology, as shown in the prospects for different sectors put together by the Forem, as well as the very thorough study carried out by Agoria “Shaping the future of work” which highlights, among other things, that:
- 5 million people work in Belgium and need to update their skills, and digital skills are highly valued;
- 310,000 people are in the “danger zone” and will need to improve their digital skills quickly, within between 6 months and 1.5 years! This particularly impacts unqualified manual workers, checkout assistants and ticket clerks and admin workers;
- Ultimately, 3.7 new job vacancies will be available for each job vacancy that will disappear, and there are already lots of vacancies in the field of technology, where the demand for highly qualified workers is high;
- Education (along with health and services) is also one of the sectors where the demand for applicants with digital skills is highest, due to their role in the construction of skills that will be available in the future;
- In 2021 the labour supply will be lower than demand, whereas until now, the potential workforce has always exceeded demand... So in 2030, 11% of vacancies in Belgium (and 7% in Wallonia) will run the risk of not being filled.
Lastly, the adaptation of training services concerns both the substance (the skills targeted) and the form of the training available (learning methods), in order to follow the evolution of consumption patterns (information and training).
The importance of cross-disciplinary skills
However, we need to make sure we don’t exaggerate the situation, because it would not be right to say that all workers (or future workers) will have to learn how to program in order to keep their job. They will at most need to get involved in the digital culture (digital literacy and algorithmic logic) so necessary for the development of individual citizens (see challenge 1).
Indeed, case studies carried out by the Agence du Numérique in a few companies that have taken the Industry 4.0 route and fundamentally transformed both the products and services that they offer, and their processes (internal functioning, production, sales etc.), indicate that “No, not all employees will need to learn about computer programming to keep their job”. In fact robots, cobots (collaborative robots) and more generally the automation and digitalisation of processes are only introduced to businesses if or when they actually make work easier. “As long as they are a potential source of problems, they stay outside!” (Pierre-Yves Guidi, Operations Director BEA).
The skills expected from workers are actually increasingly cross-disciplinary! Cross-disciplinary skills (or soft skills) do not replace job-specific skills, but rather complement them (knowing how to communicate, collaborate etc.). Furthermore, above and beyond these rather technical skills, there is an emerging interest in behavioural or interpersonal skills: curiosity, creativity, attitude to change, capacity to adapt, capacity to learn etc. While this recent trend has not yet been translated into training opportunities, even though training integrating the idea of “learning how to learn” is becoming more common, it can already be seen in recruitment where there is an increasing preference for adventurous, curious spirits who aren’t afraid of change, and who even seek out challenges.
Increasingly high level IT skills
In contrast, providers of IT products and services are faced with a real need for increasingly high level candidates, capable of developing solutions that are more and more smart, efficient, integrated and easy to get to grips with.
Added to this demand is the need for a more cross-disciplinary approach, with candidates capable of translating the needs of different sectors into IT language (business analysts and technology analysts), who can also communicate/collaborate with their partners and clients, who are ultimately able to be creative by, for example, coming up with new uses for existing technologies (e.g. drones, IoT etc.).
#CQFD
While there is indeed a need for more specialist IT profiles in the technology sector, it is cross-disciplinary skills (including acculturating digital technology) that are favoured most in the majority of fields affected in some way by digital technology. This distinction marks the difference between a “user” of technologies (more and more integrated and easy to get to grips with), and a “developer”, responsible for coming up with increasingly smart solutions.
New ways of learning
These fundamental changes relating to the content of training must go hand in hand with changes to the form when it comes to training methods, to adapt to the way information is consumed, starting with learning processes. A long way away from the clichés about digital natives (see note below), these developments affect all generations, swept up by the channel-hopping reflex, the habit of getting quicker access to information that is increasingly easy to consume, or the quest for immediate satisfaction. This development requires a paradigm shift and a new approach by the teacher or trainer, who is no longer someone who knows things and transmits them to docile, passive learners, and is now someone who supports the learning process, who creates the right conditions for learning, who hones potential, feeds, challenges and encourages.
The stakeholders understand this (universities, colleges, professional training providers etc.), and they now need to be able to offer modular training that responds to the current needs and challenges, in a much more flexible and faster way (short training courses).
NB: There is no such thing as a digital native!
There is no such thing as a digital native! At least, while there are certainly differences between generations, it isn’t the digital component, but rather classic socio-cultural factors that explain them. The fact that someone is born into a digital environment does not give them any special superpowers! On the contrary, they are often slightly ignorant about and under-use the tools that they seem to be able to handle so easily and intuitively. They mainly use them for private, personal and fun purposes. Not to mention the significant proportion of youngsters who don’t like technology, and who use this to stand out... But as a majority of youngsters use this expression to describe themselves, why not adopt it... While inter-generational differences are very real, they are mainly value-based. Youngsters these days do not have the same relationship with work or money as previous generations, for example. Recruiters and HR departments are very aware of this! They need a job that makes sense to them, and that fulfils their own aspirations. They are capable of changing job several times if they haven’t found the right environment to feed their development. It is very hard to grab their interest and get them to settle down. Money, career prospects or benefits in kind do not really influence their choice. But when the right conditions are in place, they are completely committed. Less conditioned than previous generations, they also find it difficult to throw themselves into long-term processes, and need regular satisfaction to achieve interim goals. This last point explains why they are less and less motivated to sign up to longer term, decontextualized training courses, and why universities, colleges and training centres are introducing modular courses, gamified by reward systems, in which the associated personal output and satisfaction (or dissatisfaction, as failure is a kind of method, a source of feedback encouraging you to persevere, like in a computer game) are central to the process...
Lastly, it is worth pointing out that, very gradually, all generations end up colonising digital tools (even though older generations take a more analytical approach by reading the instructions rather than trial and error), dedicating themselves to the thrill of getting lots of likes, and learning what you can or can’t do on social networks. In the end, every generation is affected by this culture of channel-hopping and this need for an instant response when communicating or looking for information.
Challenge 5: Boost employment and re-employment thanks to digital skills
This follows on from the previous challenge, but focuses on jobseekers and NEETs, or people Not in Education, Employment or Training. According to the Institut wallon de l'évaluation, de la prospective et de la statistique (Walloon institution for assessment, forecasting and statistics, IWEPS): “In Wallonia, in 2016, 16.4% of 18-24 year-olds are neither employed nor in education or training”. It is in this field that we are seeing trials of the most innovative educational methods (e.g.: Play-Zone and MakersLab from Technobel, versions of L’Ecole 42, BeCode, etc.).
Challenge 6: Combat the digital divide
This is a sub-challenge of challenge 1 (involving all citizens in the digital culture), with a focus on combating the digital divide, which is no longer characterised so much in terms of access (level 1 divide) and more in terms of use, or the ability to use digital resources in a relevant way, and get the most out of its potential (level 2 divide). The PMTIC (Plan Mobilisateur TIC, or ICT action plan) and the EPN network (Espace Public Numérique, or public digital space) are Wallonia’s two main responses to this issue, and are regularly developed and adapted. Exclusively aimed at jobseekers, the PMTIC is worth opening up to everyone, within the context of supporting the EPN.
Challenge 7: Draw on the European framework, DigComp
The European framework, DigComp grades the digital skills that need to be acquired, from the most basic levels to the highest.
There are several different versions of DigComp:
- the DigComp 2.1 version, illustrated in the graphic below, for citizens’ digital skills;
- DigCompEdu, for teachers;
- DigCompOrg, for organisations.
Education (FWB) and training (Forem and Skills Centres) providers in francophone Belgium share the same vision, with the goal of establishing a system to assess citizens’ digital skills, whether they are school children, students, teachers, employees, freelancers, jobseekers etc., so that their skills development can be more targeted, and so that they can offer more flexible, modular training, focusing on real needs!
So, via mon profil (my profile), Le Forem already gives every citizen who wants to do so the opportunity to test their digital skills via some of the tools listed below.
(Non-exhaustive) list of stakeholders and initiatives
Assessing digital skills
Lots of assessment tools are already available:
- Europass CV: a self-assessment test for citizens (based on their own statements), based on DigComp 2.0;
- PIX: a real assessment tool, based on DigComp 2.1, and developed by the French Ministry for National Education, aimed at secondary school pupils (accessible free of charge);
- SELPHIE: a tool exclusively for teaching organisations and based on DigCompOrg;
- TOSA Tests, also in line with DigComp, including in particular the general test, TOSA Digital;
- ENI Tests, also in line with, ENI numérique (ENI digital);
- Tanu;
- Digital Duel (SPF Economie);
- Safeonweb.be, testez votre santé digitale;
- etc.
Developing digital skills
Digital skills for youngsters:
- assessing digital skills with PIX;
- an introduction to computer science, algorithmic logic and programming languages,
- looking after your digital identity with media literacy stakeholders and initiatives;
- miscellaneous:optional courses and one-off initiatives in compulsory education;specialists in higher education.
Digital skills for teachers in order to teach:
- VIA digital technology(ITCE - Information Technology and Communication for Education);
- ABOUT digital technology:computer science with WallCode:
Digital skills for jobseekers:
- basic:
- independent:
- experienced:ICT Skills Centre Academies:Data Academy run by TechnofuturTIC;Huawei Academy and the IoT Academy (Eliot) run by Techno.bel;etc.
Digital skills for employees and freelancers:
- professional training stakeholders and initiatives;
- higher education stakeholders and initiatives;
- etc.