Letterkenny Institute of Technology was today announced as a recipient of a Google grant scheme aimed at supporting STEM education internationally.
The LYIT is one of three third-level institutions in Ireland to share in a €413,000 grant awarded to 24 universities and non-profits across Europe and Africa this year.
The grant will support institutions in delivering computer science professional development programs to 22,000 primary and secondary school teachers, as well as undergraduate trainee teachers.
The project at LYIT is based on digital citizenship and the computer science curriculum in Ireland. Workshops will be provided to 500 teachers on digital citizenship and online safety in the new Computer Science curriculum.
Technological University Dublin and the University of Limerick will also receive funding in Ireland.
On the announcement of the grants, Claire Conneely, CS Education Programme Manager at Google, commented, “The European Commission predicts that in the next 10 to 15 years, 90 percent of all jobs will require some level of digital skills. Therefore, it has become more important for teachers to incorporate coding and digital skills in the classroom, something that both the Educator Grants and EU Code Week Grants aim to address from different perspectives.
“The interest and standard of applications this year was unprecedented and I am thrilled to see these schools, nonprofits and third level institutions in Ireland receive grants to support their important work. The grants are part of Grow with Google’s mission to create more economic opportunity for everyone and its commitment to helping an additional one million people in Europe find a job, grow their business or build their career by 2020.”
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