Computer coding comes to Luxembourg schools

Luxembourg is to introduce free computer coding for youngsters by launching “Maker Spaces” at three secondary schools starting in the coming school year.

The ground-breaking initiative dubbed “Bee Creative” aims to improve the employability of young people in the world of work and engender a spirit of entrepreneurship. 

Place of discovery

The Maker Spaces will be installed at the Lycée Technique Ettelbrück, Lycée Technique des Arts et Metiers in Limpertsberg and the Forum Campus Geesseknäppchen in Merl/Hollerich.

“They (Maker Spaces) will be a place of discovery but above all a place to create, where young people can develop their own digital tools,” Luxembourg's Education Ministry outlined, adding: “The activities proposed there will allow people to discover, to stimulate or reinforce their talents and to motivate them to get more involved in this field to become future specialists in the digital economy.”

The Maker Spaces will be open to the schools which host them as well as other schools, after-school clubs, youth clubs, parents and associations.

Bee Creative will be supported by the National Youth Service and SCRIPT, a service coordinating innovative teaching methods. A full list of activities to be run at the Maker Spaces will be sent out to schools shortly. 

Digital Education Strategy

The initiative is among a raft of new schemes making up Luxembourg's new Digital Education Strategy, which was announced on Wednesday afternoon.

The strategy report explained that to “make Luxembourg a highly connected country and an attractive setting for national and international ICT firms, huge structural efforts and considerable investments have been made on several levels.

“The durability of the ICT sector also depends on Luxembourg's capacity to develop a national pool of competences and human resources adapted to the diversity of the trades of the digital age.”

Other projects include training teaching staff and offering access to digital teaching resources as part of eduSphere, the introduction of a maths teaching software (for cycle 4) to be used at home and at school as part of MathemaTIC and Digital Classroom Lëtzebuerg, providing comprehensive computer literacy training to enable students to better manage their lives through digital tools.

Another pilot scheme dubbed Innovative Schools, will see tablet devices distributed among students at five secondary schools over the next school year to be used in their daily lives.

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