European Award for the Skills Labs in Greece
The Skills Labs, developed by the Ministry of Education of Greece, member of the Greek National Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition, give children the opportunity to discover and cultivate multifaceted knowledge, skills and inclinations, in order to become active citizens in a changing environment with challenges related to the use of new technologies. This action is aligned with the Digital Transformation Bible 2020-2025, the national strategic document for the digital transformation of Greece.
The goals of the programs have been determined based on the so-called skills of the 21st century: life skills, soft skills and technology and science skills. The addressed skills include critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, flexibility and adaptability, initiative, organizational ability, empathy and social skills, problem solving, digital and technological literacy.
The Ministry of Education has included the Skills Lab in the compulsory timetable of all kindergartens, primary and junior high school from September 2022, after the pilot implementation in 218 schools across the country. According to the Statistical Service, the students who are expected to benefit from this initiative are about 1.000.000.
The program and training material of the Skills Labs are grouped into four thematic pillarsfrom the Global Indicators of Sustainable Development (environment, well-being, security, civil society, modern technology and entrepreneurship) and is adapted by age group.
Children's digital skills are given the opportunity to be cultivated in several topic units, such as the so called 21st Century Skills (e.g. Digital Communication, Digital Collaboration, Digital Creativity, Digital Critical Thinking, Combined Digital Skills technology, etc.) and Digital Citizenship Skills (E-Government, Safe Browsing, Protection from Technology Addiction, etc.). Also, more specialised skills in engineering technology and computer science are taught (e.g. creation and production of digital content, use of new technologies etc. Finally, Media Management Skills (Computer literacy, Digital literacy, Media literacy, Internet security, Robotics with modeling and simulation skills and computational thinking) and organisational and mind skills such as Strategical thinking, problem solving and many more.
The pioneering program of Skills Labs is published in the collective edition of the Network with Good Practices for Quality in Global Education (GENE Award 2021 Compendium of Quality in Global Education) and can be a good practice for other countries.
