The Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Association of Engineers is preparing a new leap in technology and IT education similar to the Tiger's Leap project at the end of the 1990s which invested heavily into computers for schools.
The main aim, according to Eesti Päevaleht, is to double the percentage of students going on to study sciences including IT, math and technology to 60 percent in three years.
The exact development plan is still in the drawing board, but the following are keywords:
Career counseling. Teaching children about the possibilities in IT and other technological fields. Bringing the reality of a job and a career closer.
Education. Popularization of technology on TV and media, programming lessons in primary schools, robotics clubs in schools, the Wolfram math method tests. All these ideas are already being implemented or in a test phase.
Business involvement. Technology companies to lecture in schools about the opportunities they offer.
Retraining. Many positions will become redundant soon, while more IT jobs are available. Better retraining programs for the 40+ age segment.
The next step is to have a finished plan on paper by the end of the year. The idea is for funding for the project to come from the EU.