The wait is over! The winners of the European Digital Skills Awards 2024 have been announced: 5 projects from around Europe bring back the trophy for best practices in the 5 awards categories.
On 4 July evening in Brussels, during the EDSA24 awards ceremony, Rehana Schwinninger-Ladak, Head of Unit ‘Interactive technologies, Digital for Culture and Education’, at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Network, handed out the awards to 5 outstanding projects that are successfully supporting Europeans in getting the fundamental – and advanced – digital skills they need.
This year’s winners highlight a lively and varied mix of projects and organizations, showing the exciting progress in digital skills across Europe. The winners include everything from public-private partnerships to local grassroots efforts, as well as citizen groups, local schools, and EU consortia of top technical universities.
And the awards go to….
Cybersecurity Skills: Hele Norge øver – Secure Practice
“How would you react if you woke up to a cyberattack in the company where you work?” asks Erlend Andreas Gjære, who is co-founder and CEO of Secure Practice. “The problem is that most people don’t know what to do because they have not received proper training,”!
Secure Practice provides data-driven tools to cultivate security among colleagues in a workplace. Supported by scalable cloud services, the company is putting special focus on the role of employees in cybersecurity. The project was chosen as the winner of this category because it addresses a critical gap in cybersecurity: the lack of proper training among employees. Their EU-wide campaign for interactive preparedness exercises brings together IT and security professionals to train, share perspectives, and learn collaboratively, significantly enhancing the overall security posture of organizations.
Digital Skills for Education: CitizenCode
CitizenCode is an initiative launched by TRALALERE in 2021 to make digital culture, skills, and jobs accessible to everyone, from primary and middle school onwards.
CitizenCode supports children, teens, and educators, with essential digital skills and an understanding of the key elements of digital culture – with a focus on digital jobs. The project emphasizes promoting diversity in tech by including girls and structurally marginalised groups within its approach. CitizenCode won the Digital Skills in education award for its efforts to make digital culture, skills, and careers accessible to students from primary and middle school onwards. CitizenCode’s emphasis on diversity and inclusion, including collaboration with organizations like HandiTech to support children with special needs, addresses important gaps in digital education and prepares a wide range of students for the digital job market.
Digital Upskilling @ Work: Digital Inclusion – Digitální inkluze
Digital Inclusion, by Česko.Digital and Notum, is creating an educational platform to enhance the digital skills of social workers in the Czech Republic.
This initiative aims to help social workers provide better digital support to their clients and improve the digital skills of the digitally excluded and vulnerable, who make up 30% of the population. Digital Inclusion enhances digital literacy among social workers and clients, addressing critical needs for digitally excluded populations. Recognized for its impact, Digital Inclusion promotes independence and well-being among vulnerable individuals in the Czech Republic through effective digital education… and this is why the project is the winner of the Digital Upskilling @ Work category.
Women in ICT Careers: Women Go Tech
‘Women Go Tech’ is a Lithuania-based NGO whose mission is to guide women towards careers in tech through mentoring sessions, providing content, organising events, and community building.
‘Women Go Tech’ empowers women to enter the technology sector through mentoring sessions led by industry professionals, curated tech content, engaging events, and a supportive community. The organization has become a vital partner to businesses, helping women navigate and meet the sector’s needs and requirements. This initiative is responding to a real need within the ICT sector: the underrepresentation of women in the ICT sector in Lithuania, and the broader European region. “Women Go Tech” aims to continue scaling in the Central and Eastern Europe region with a focus on Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The project ‘Women Go Tech,’ was recognized with the EDSA24 Awards in the Women in ICT Careers Award due to its impactful efforts in addressing the underrepresentation of women in the tech sector.
Inclusion in the Digital World: ReDI School of Digital Integration
Founded in 2015, ReDI School of Digital Integration is a non-profit tech school that offers migrants and marginalized locals free and equitable access to digital education. The school provides high-quality coding and basic computer courses alongside a distinctive career and mentorship program.
This includes opportunities for collaboration with tech companies, startups, and industry leaders. ReDI School’s mission is to equip learners with essential digital skills, foster a growth mindset, enhance career capabilities, and build a robust network of tech professionals. More than 1.500 IT experts from over 30 countries are trained every semester as coaches, mentors or teachers, making the ReDI network an engaging success and encouraging more and more people to jumpstart their careers. ReDI’s career support network also bridges the gap between companies seeking talent, and jobseekers and helps learners become confident players in the world of work, no wonder the project was chosen as the winner for the Inclusion in the Digital World category.
On behalf of the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform, we extend our heartfelt thanks to all 267 projects, organisations and initiatives that applied this year. Your dedication to advancing digital skills across Europe is truly commendable. Each application showcased innovation, commitment, and a profound impact on our communities.
We celebrate your achievements and look forward to seeing the continued impact of your work across our continent. Thank you for your inspiring contributions to the European digital landscape!