EU Code Week is a European initiative, organised every year, with the main aim of encouraging the general public, in particular children and adolescents, to take an interest in and become aware of programming, computational thinking, robotics and related digital skills. The initiative mobilises millions of participants each year, including schools, institutions and people of all ages, cultures and diverse backgrounds. The initiative mobilises millions of participants each year, including schools, institutions and people of all ages, cultures and diverse backgrounds.
The activities of EU Code Week, which culminate in October, are organised by volunteer teachers, coaches, private companies, non-profit organisations (NGOs) and many other organisations, as well as programming enthusiasts, who aim to bring coding and learning to everyone, from children and younger people to parents and older people. The main target group is teachers, regardless of the subject they teach and prior knowledge of programming, who want to introduce their students into computational thinking.
Code Week offers seminars, courses, teaching and learning sources/learning resources/learning sources, as well as free training courses for teachers.
During EU Code Week, participants have the opportunity to explore computational thinking, programming, robotics and computing skills. They learn more about digital skills and why they are important — and entertain while experimenting with hardware.
EU Code Week is one of the most well-known and internationally recognised EU initiatives with a proven impact on the target audience, also supported by the European Commission and EU Member States’ Ministries of Education, including neighbouring countries from the Western Balkans.
Since it was launched for the first time in 2013, so far EU Code Week has evolved into an annual global event with remarkable potential for outreach and expansion: from 2015 to 2020, i.e. over five years, the number of activities organised under the patronage of the initiative increased more than 10 times — from 7,600 to over 70,000. In 2019 alone, over 4 million participants from all over the world participated and activities have spread well beyond the EU (in a total of 80 countries).
EU Code Week successfully takes place every year thanks to the mobilisation of a network of volunteers. Due to its decentralised organisational structure and the availability of open and free activities and accessible learning sources, it can easily be expanded and replicated. As such, it has succeeded in engaging and promoting a wide community of key stakeholders — from industrial partners to public organisations and non-profit organisations, while strong community involvement has contributed to the dissemination of the initiative.
In Greece, EU Code Week Ambassadors coordinate EU Code Week Ambassadors with the support ofthe Ministry of Education & Religious Affairs and the National Alliance for Digital Skills & Employment.
Republishing text from the Digital Skills & Jobs Platform, EU Code Week, Galina Misheva
Translation editing: National Alliance for Digital Skills & Employment
