Bits4Teens - Inspiring young talent for IT and AI with innovative educational projects
The aim of the "Bits4Teens" project in Gelsenkirchen is to get young people from educationally disadvantaged families and girls interested in IT. With practical offers and in cooperation with local IT companies, it promotes young IT talent - not least with a view to future careers.
Little interest in bits and bytes
The subject of computer science is not an easy one in NRW schools: it is only a compulsory subject in the lower school and is not very popular as an optional subject in the middle and upper school. In particular, only a few girls are enthusiastic about bits and bytes. Extracurricular computer science courses have also hardly reached many pupils in Gelsenkirchen - this is particularly true for those from families with a low level of education. Their proportion in Gelsenkirchen is significantly higher than the national average. As a result, many apprenticeships in the IT sector remain unfilled - and this increases the existing shortage of skilled workers in the Emscher-Lippe region.
Providing a practical approach to IT
This is where Bits4Teens comes in: The project brings together young people from lower and upper secondary schools with IT companies in the region. Together with the participating IT companies, the zdi network Gelsenkirchen, as the project sponsor, develops modular offers that are tested and improved in the extracurricular educational facility "Schülerlabor EnergyLab" in the Gelsenkirchen Science Park. The range of topics on offer is broad and extends from app development, AI and data science to 3D printing and CAD design. It offers participating young people an insight into real-life applications in a practical and low-threshold way. The company employees involved are not only technical experts, but also role models who make IT professions tangible.
New skills - new prospects for more skilled workers
In addition to pupils from schools in difficult social situations, there is a special focus on addressing girls: In a course specially designed for them, they create software-based creative design patterns and realize them with a plotter. The careers advice service of the employment agency is involved in the project in order to not only strengthen young people's skills with such extracurricular IT offers, but also to make them aware of new career prospects. After all, more young IT talent is urgently needed in a region that is in the midst of a transformation process.
