Fighting for equality during the Digital Skills Special
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In the Netherlands, hundreds of thousands of children grow up in an environment with a lot of unemployment and few role models. At the moment, the place in which a child is born still determines what opportunities it will have in the labor market. During the Dataweek NL, JINC, a national non-profit organization that fights for equality of opportunity, and Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS), organize the Digital Skills Special, with the aim of letting children from various backgrounds discover whether the IT sector suits their talents.
Stimulating IT talent in the region
On June 28, 2022, during the Dataweek NL, JINC and JADS organize the Digital Skills Special. During the event, more than 140 primary school students from group 7 and group 8 from primary school Nour, De Kameleon and De Duizendpoot come to JADS for a morning filled with a lecture for children and IT workshops. The children’s lecture is about the theme of artificial intelligence and is given by professors Max Louwerse and Eric Postma. The students then participate in a workshop in groups from 15 different IT companies, including ASML, Floryn, Erfgoed Den Bosch and Ordina. During the event, the children learn about the different professions and activities in the IT sector in order to discover whether this suits their talents. JADS, strategic partner of JINC, believes it is important to stimulate IT talent in the region.
About JINC
JINC is a national non-profit organization that fights for equal opportunities for children in the Netherlands, so that the place where you are born does not determine your future. JINC does this through various projects in which children learn what kind of work suits their talents. The Digital Skills Special is a festive kick-off of the JINC project Digital Skills in the Den Bosch region. The regular project is for primary school groups 5 and 6 and focuses on computational thinking, in which students learn to approach and solve problems logically using computer technology. The students will learn the principles of programming in an accessible way.
Group 6 student: ‘I enjoyed programming a robot during class that had to lubricate a sandwich with chocolate sprinkles. Thank you for teaching us great lessons!”.
In addition to vocational orientation in the IT sector, the project also aims to make children aware of the digitizing world around them. The JINC projects are closely linked to the Equal Opportunities program of the Municipality of Den Bosch.
About JADS
JADS is a collaboration between Eindhoven University of Technology and Tilburg University, the Province of Brabant and the Municipality of Den Bosch. It was founded on the basis of the increased demand for experts who can improve decision processes within organizations based on ‘big data’.
At the JADS Mariënburg location, researchers and students work closely with the business community. In addition to education and research, JADS Mariënburg also offers space for innovative, data-driven entrepreneurship and public-private partnerships.
