Programming and computational thinking skills are becoming ever more important in our society and working life. Today, a growing number of countries in Europe and internationally are refocusing their ICT curricula on developing students’ computer programming and coding skills, and introducing the topic in national, regional or school curricula.

The CODESKILLS4ROBOTICS project pioneers to design an innovative programme which aims to introduce ‘coding and robotics’ to primary school students (9-12) by:

– Supporting schools to design their own DIGITALSKILLS@SCHOOL Strategy / Action Plan in order to implement the CODESKILLS4ROBOTICS programme.

– Utilizing the extra-curricular time available in a constructive way to set up CODESKILLS4ROBOTICS Clubs in schools / educational institutions for students who voluntarily want to learn how to code, as purported by the COM(2015)408 ET2020 report.

– Creating Synergies between the school and various stakeholders such as ICT professionals, providers, NGOs, enterprises etc. based on the principle of Volunteers Mentors who will support and guide throughout the process the primary school (teaching staff) to set up and run a CODESKILLS4ROBOTICS Club.

– Introducing the Open Badges as a method to validate and award the coding skills and competences acquired by both the teachers and the students.

The direct target group is primary school children aged 9-12 years old with emphasis on children with fewer opportunities (+ girls) who will learn how to code.

The indirect target group is school teachers whose profiles will be upgraded and strengthened through the professional development programme to acquire the essential digital and coding skills to be gradually involved in the implementation of the programme as Trainers.