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Through the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition the European Commission invites companies and organisations to organise activities to equip more women and girls with digital skills and enthuse them to pursue ICT studies and careers.

The European Commission announced plans for a pilot project to provide working experience in the digital field for 5,000-6,000 graduate students in 2018-2020. The paid 4-5 months internships will be available for students of all disciplines.

Last year, almost one million people (970,000) took part in one of the 23,000 EU Code Week 2016 events that took place in more than 50 countries around the world – a 70% increase in participants from 2015. Almost half (46%) of the people creating with code were girls or women and the average age of a coder was 11 years. 2017 marks the fifth anniversary of Europe Code Week, which will take place during two weeks – 7-22 October – to cater for different periods of school holidays in European countries.

Today, Günther H. Oettinger, Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society presented the 2016 Digital Skills Awards. Winners were selected from 258 projects in four categories, focusing on how to boost digital skills in the labour force, in education, amongst ICT professionals and for all citizens.

Sixteen projects which encourage people to develop digital skills for work, education and life in general have been selected as finalists for the Digital Skills Award 2016. The four most outstanding projects will be announced by Günther H. Oettinger, Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, in Brussels on 1 December at the launch of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition.

Code enthusiasts will celebrate EU Code Week between 15-23 October by inviting hundreds of thousands of children, teenagers, young adults, adults and teachers to coding events. Events are taking place in 46 countries in and outside of Europe, in libraries, in schools, universities and tech companies and other digital locations. The aim: to give people of all ages hands on programming experience. Check out coding events close to you on the EU Code Week map. In 2015 more than half a million people took part in more than 7, 500 events in 46 countries in Europe and beyond.

The European Commission invites nominations for the best projects, which encourage people to improve their digital skills. The intention is to identify projects that can inspire others to take similar actions all over Europe.

Almost 570,000 people cross Europe and beyond learned to create with code during EU Code Week that took place from 10 to 18 October 2015. Thousands of events were organised where people, from children to seniors, could learn how the computer works behind the screen. Save the date for this year's EU Code Week: 15 to 23 October 2016!

The EU ministers are discussing the accessibility of public sector information online and EU telecoms framework in the Telecoms Council today.

EU Code Week kicks off on 10 October with thousands of events all over Europe where people can learn the empowering digital skill of coding.