With Samsung, the non-profit organizations Link In De Kabel and Libraries Without Borders help young Belgians to improve their digital skills.
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Teaching at least 5,000 young Belgians to program, code and master video technology in 2021 – and free of charge – is Samsung’s ambition. The tech company will work in collaboration with the ASBLs Link In De Kabel and Bibliothèques Sans Frontières. Together, they want to improve the technological knowledge of young people through, among other things, “STEM” camps (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), workshops and video training. Additional teaching materials should also help teachers to teach their students digital skills in the classroom. The Secretary of State for Digitization, Mathieu Michel, welcomes any initiative aimed at reducing the digital divide.
Young Belgians score significantly lower than their neighbors in terms of digital skills. 46% of them even have limited digital knowledge. This is reflected in the most recent figures from Eurostat. As one of the world’s leading tech players, Samsung wants to develop the digital knowledge of young people and collaborates with local organizations to do this. By working with two specialist non-profit organizations, Samsung is building on existing knowledge, ideas and experience. This collaboration also makes it possible to overcome the financial obstacles encountered by some of our young people. Organizations want to make their initiatives available to everyone.
“As a technology company, we are aware of the importance of digital skills in the society in which we live. These skills provide opportunities and challenges for everyone. We therefore want to facilitate access to digital technology for young people. In collaboration with local non-profit organizations, we have developed solid projects aimed at teaching young people relevant technological skills in a pleasant, yet in-depth manner ”, says Aron Wils, CSR Manager of Samsung Belgium
“International research shows that Belgium lacks qualified specialists in the field of IT. This can be a serious obstacle to growth and innovation. It is therefore imperative to remedy the shortage of IT specialists in order to achieve the digital transformation of the Belgian economy, and this initiative contributes to it ”, declares for his part Mathieu Michel, Secretary of State for Digitization
Coding, video technology, robotics … These are just some of the digital areas on which Samsung and the non-profit organizations will focus their training. Together with Link In De Kabel, the tech company will organize “STEM Training”, a mobile project which will allow young people aged 10 to 18 to participate in workshops in different Flemish provinces over the coming months. Real STEM camps are even planned in summer. With Libraries Without Borders, Samsung will fully rely on online courses. In particular through videos specific to STEM which will be mainly intended for teaching and which will offer educational material and support to teachers in order to ensure the learning of digital skills in an accessible way in the classroom.
“Following the pandemic, our children are more connected than ever. However, in most cases, they remain passive consumers (games, online courses, social networks) and do not understand what digital can bring them in terms of creativity, expression, civic action or even professional professions. ‘to come up. We have created fun and educational video capsules to explain to children how to use digital technology in a simple and creative way through concrete achievements, reproducible at home or in the classroom! We enrich each capsule with a course of activities for teachers in order to deepen the subject at school ”, explains Dimitri Verboomen, president of Bibliothèques Sans Frontières
Samsung will implement various initiatives with non-profit organizations throughout the year and will make more than 100,000 euros available for this purpose. This budget will be invested in the necessary technical equipment, trainers and practical support.
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