On 27 March – 2 April, 2017, 27 national organisations with their 5,000 partners will run thousands of events and activities to bring 73,000 Europeans online and to enhance their digital skills during the eighth Get Online Week (#GOW17).

 

Since its first edition in 2010, GOW has always been a truly multi-stakeholder campaign bringing together formal and informal training providers, local and national authorities, other public institutions, IT and other industries in a joint effort to show the benefits of digital skills and support the digital inclusion. The campaign has transformed over the years, the topics have changed, but the essence has stayed the same –  digital skills underpin every area of our modern internet-connected life and the impact of gaining digital skills, confidence, and security is huge.

In 2017 the campaign highlights the benefits of digital transformation, but also the importance of partnership in helping people and organisations to develop skills and a mindset to adapt to and take advantage of the constant changes.

Telecentre Europe is proud to announce that this year’s Get Online Week is held under the patronage of Mr Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport:

The GOW17 campaign is supported by our corporate partners – Liberty Global, Cisco, Certiport, and Mozilla Foundation. This alliance brings in their expertise and resources, including training and certification programmes, teaching materials with guidelines, lesson plans, videos and other online tools for both trainers and users of various ages and levels of digital skills.

Liberty Global, our long-standing corporate partner, has always seen the importance and relevance of this campaign and over the years has provided their support on raising awareness about digital skills, digital identities and online safety especially to young children.

 

 

Thanks to collaboration with CISCO, 25 Networking Academies will be opened by National Partner organisations from five countries, which will teach NetAcad Courses. Cisco NetAcad is an IT skills and career building programme and platform to take and give courses. For telecentres, relevant courses include the Get Connected Course (basic), IT essentials (IT technician) and Internet of things (no prior knowledge required).

Certiport has joined the GOW alliance for the first time this year. “Certiport, a Pearson VUE Business, is excited to participate in Get Online Week”, says Nicholas Haber, Director STEM & CTE.  “The topics of cybersecurity, e-Services, employability and entrepreneurship resonate because our trusted credentials help individuals and organizations build bridges between education and careers.”

Within GOW, Certiport presents their IC3 Digital Literacy Certification, a solution for those who plan to pursue a career in IT or simply become more effective with technology. With learning and practice solutions, assessment tools, and certifications specifically designed for a variety of ages and occupations, the IC3 Digital Literacy program is a great way to ensure that students and employees are prepared to succeed in a technology-based world.

Through another new partnership, with Mozilla Foundation, Copyright and intellectual property issues will be highlighted within the campaign events. Their Reform Copyright initiative raises awareness on the need to update and harmonise the copyright rules to make room to create, share, and learn on the internet. Mozilla also offers web literacy courses and an array of free teaching activities developed by teachers, educators and technologists. Each activity includes step-by-step instructions and has been tested in schools, afterschool programs, libraries and community centres around the globe. Whether learning how to code, understanding why privacy matters, or creating openly-licensed web content – it is fun and engaging!

“Mozilla supports Get Online Week EU because people everywhere should have the knowledge they need to tap into the full power of the Internet and to use it to make their lives and the world better”, says Melissa Romaine, Advocacy Network Manager at Mozilla.  “This means that everyone needs the skills to read, write and participate online. For this to happen, web literacy must be foundational in education, alongside skills like reading and math. ”

To raise awareness about the campaign, Telecentre Europe’s CEO Laurentiu Bunescu will speak at the European Internet Forum Breakfast Debate ‘Digital skills of tomorrow’ on 29 March. The debate will focus on delivering opportunities for digital skills development to EU citizens – in order to tackle both unemployment and social exclusion. Laurentiu Bunescu says, “We need to make the most of the opportunities provided by Get Online Week, when Europe is again standing up for the importance of digital skills. At the event on 29 March, we will reach out to new stakeholders to partner and to join the campaign, to support more people with the skills they need.”

Are you excited? We certainly are! We wish all our partners a very productive and engaging week.

Let’s get online!