To code or not to code: Mapping digital competence

We’re kicking off the next phase of our “Should everyone learn how to code?” project. This time around it’s a series of public workshops over late January and early February in Melbourne, Geelong, Sydney, Western Sydney, Hobart, Brisbane, and Adelaide. The purpose of the workshops is to try and create a mud-map describing what a digitally competent workforce might look like.

As the pitch goes…

Australia’s prosperity depends on equipping the next generation with the skills needed to thrive in a digital environment. But does this mean that everyone needs to learn how to code?

In the national series of round tables Deloitte Centre for the Edge and Geelong Grammar School hosted in 2016, the answer was “Yes, enough that they know what coding is.”

The greater concern, though, was ensuring that everyone is comfortable integrating digital tools into their work whatever that work might be, something that we termed ‘digital competence’. This concept was unpacked in an essay published earlier this year.

Now we’re turning our attention to the question: What does digital competence look like in practice, and how do we integrate it into the curriculum?

We are holding an invitation only workshop for industry and education to explore the following ideas:

  • What are the attributes of a digitally competent professional?
  • How might their digital competence change over their career?
  • What are the common attributes of digital competence in the workplace?
  • How might we teach these attributes?

If you’re interested in attending, or if you know someone who might be interested in attending, then contact me and we’ll add you to the list. Note that there’s only 24-32 places in each workshop and we want to ensure a diverse mix of people in each workshop, so we might not be able to fit everyone who’s interested, but we’ll do our best.