Data Science and Internet of Things have been recognized as the technologies among the key drivers of change regarding the skills and competences required by IT professionals. The forecasted skills’ gap together with the rapid and continuous evolution of Data Science and Internet of Things technologies and their broad application at many economy’s sectors make the skills required by the related occupational profiles increasingly sophisticated, and the need to be constantly updated imperative.

The Sector Skills Alliance for the design and delivery of innovative VET programmes to Data Science and Internet of Things professionals (SEnDIng) project aims to address the skills’ gap of Data Scientists and Internet of Things professionals and provide them with knowledge, skills and competences that meet the labor market needs. To achieve this goal, SEnDIng will develop and deliver to the two aforementioned occupational profiles two learning outcome-oriented modular VET programmes using innovative teaching and training delivery methodologies. Each VET program will be provided according to the blended learning model incorporating a strong work based learning component. Furthermore, a common reference scheme of competences, skills, knowledge and proficiency levels for Data Science and Internet of Things professionals will be designed in accordance with European frameworks (European eCompetence Framework and ESCO), together with a certification scheme following the ECVET framework, to ensure that the produced results will be transferable and recognized among European countries.  

The SEnDIng alliance brings together twelve partners coming from Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Ireland with different profile, expertise and culture (higher education institutes, VET providers, IT associations, SMEs and a certification body) that share a common vision: to provide the European labor market with high qualified DS and IoT professionals.

Project target groups

• IT professionals and associations
• VET providers
• Certification bodies
• Higher Education Institutes
• Companies & SMEs
• Policy-makers

SEnDIng is a 3 year project coordinated by University of Patras, Greece and co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. It started on 1^st December 2017 and will end on 30^th November 2020.

The SEnDIng kick-off meeting took place in Patras, Greece, on 31^st January and 1^st February 2018. During the two days many fruitful discussions took place for the project’s smooth start and implementation according to the defined work plan and schedule. During the first day of the meeting, the project was initially presented to the partners and the Work Package leaders of WP2, WP3, WP4 and WP5 presented in detail the tasks and objectives of the core Work Packages. The first day of the project was closed with a discussion concerning the role of each partner in the project. The second day of the meeting was focused on management, financial and quality assurance aspects of the project and discussions regarding the project dissemination and exploitation plan. The kick-off meeting was closed with its evaluation and the scheduling of the next project meeting and action points.

The first half-year of the SEnDIng project was successfully completed in May 2018.

During this period many deliverables was implemented: the project management plan, the project quality assurance plan, the project dissemination plan and the evaluation methodology for measuring project impact to the key stakeholders. In addition the first version of the learning outcomes for the Data Science and Internet of Things vocational trainings was produced. The second half-year of the project will be also busy and two additional core deliverables will be produced: (a) the reference model of skills, e-competences and qualifications for Data Scientists and Internet of Things professionals and (b) the vocational curricula/educational modules for the Data Science and Internet of Things VET programs.

European Software Institute Center Eastern Europe produced the first version of the learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and competences of the two occupational profiles targeted by the project: Data Scientists and Internet of Things professionals. The learning outcomes is the starting point for the design and development of the curriculum for IT professionals who want to enrich their competences in Data Science and Internet of Things technologies.

We performed a desktop research on existing Data Science and Internet of Things studies, curricula and courses in order to formulate the first draft version of the Learning Outcomes.  Then the Learning Outcomes were discussed among project partners and key experts in the respective fields and finally they were validated in an online survey among 43 stakeholders. Based on the above, we are confident that the Learning Outcomes are relevant to the current trends in Data Science and Internet of Things and they correspond to the needs of the industry.

Timely definition of the learning outcomes was a very important first step for the project success. Based on them the project team will develop a reference model of skills, e-competences and qualifications needs and vocational curricula educational modules for Data Science and Internet of Things VET programs. We believe that with this first step we are on the right track to design a high quality VET program that will be piloted within the project and further used by the VETs in Europe.

For more information, please refer to Deliverable 2.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES IN TERMS OF KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND COMPETENCES published on the SEnDIng project web site.

One of the key objectives of SEnDIng project is to design a vocational curricula for Data Science and Internet of Things VET programs. The vocational curricula is planned to be completed at the end of the 1^st year of the project and will consist the base for the design of the VET programs that will be delivered to the key beneficiaries, named ICT professionals.

The core Data Science thematic areas that will be covered are python for Data Science, statistics for Data Science, storing and retrieving data, applied machine learning, data visualization and data models validation. In addition, the core Internet of Things thematic areas that will be covered are smart cities and homes, wearables, location tracking, information security and communication technologies for IoT systems.

The two VET programs will be delivered into three phases:

(a) asynchronous online training (100 hours),

(b) face to face training (20 hours) and

(c) work-based learning with (4 months).

At the end of the vocational trainings, the trainees will be evaluated for certifying the skills provided.

For more information about the VET programs please contact the project coordinator (Dr. Maria Rigou This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or project technical manager (Dr. Vasileios Gkamas, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

The Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) is a composite index that summarizes relevant indicators on Europe’s digital performance and tracks the evolution of EU member states in digital competitiveness.

Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and the Netherlands have the most advanced digital economies in the EU followed by Luxembourg, Ireland, the UK, Belgium and Estonia. Romania, Greece and Italy have the lowest scores on the DESI. In 2017, all Member States improved in the DESI. Ireland and Spain progressed the most (close to 5 points as opposed to an EU average of 3.2). On the other hand, there was low increase in Denmark and Portugal (below 2 points).

For more information please visit https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/desi