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The Malta Independent | Thursday 14 January 2016
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The Malta Independent | Thursday 14 January 2016
The eSkills for Jobs 2015 European competition T
he eSkills for Jobs 2015 European competition, is organised within the context of the eSkills for Jobs awareness raising campaign. The European Competition is an opportunity to highlight and reward persons with a high level of digital skills and literacy at a European level. The competition was divided into 5 categories:
New Mobile application for Tarxien Temples
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uring a press conference held at the Tarxien Neolithic Temples, MITA in collaboration with Heritage Malta, launched a mobile application with various interactive audio visual features to enhance visitors’ experience when visiting Tarxien Temples. This will allow visitors to further appreciate the importance of this archaeological site. Otus, the startup selected to develop the mobile app, gave an overview of the main features. A first of its kind for the local cultural heritage, the app is essentially a human centred interactive guide that provides information about the site including artefacts found both physically on site or displayed at the National Museum of Archaeology. The guided tour integrates Geo-Location technology whereby the app will automatically update the information presented on the device to the visitor according to the one’s position.
The Tarxien Temples app provides the visitors with additional information to that found on the physical placards. The app includes photographs of the Temples and also of Sir Temi Zammit’s team who discovered the site. Another interesting feature of the Tarxien Temples app is the 3D representation of artefacts which incorporates features that are no longer visible on site. Visitors can download the free version of the app using title “Tarxien Temples” from Google Play Store and App store. Tarxien Temples App also provides other optional premium features through in-app purchases. Parliamentary Secretary Hon. Dr Jose Herrera, addressing the event, stated that “through innovation and experimental approaches such as those carried out at the MITA Innovation Hub, startups like Otus are given the opportunity to develop their ideas into concrete projects, which they can then showcase and transform into business ventures of their own”.
Dr Herrera also emphasised that government is giving all its support to initiatives that can help stimulate social innovation through technical entrepreneurship and technology. Also addressing the press event, MITA Executive Chairman Mr Tony Sultana underlined the importance of encouraging students and startup founders to participate in these type of calls which MITA launches from time to time to help stimulate innovative thinking and solutions. Mr Sultana added that based on the positive feedback received, the MITA Innovation Hub has launched yet another call for proposals earlier last month called StartAPP 2.0. In this case, startups will be helped to develop solutions using satellitebased data sourced from satellites operated by the European Space Agency. For more information visit https://mitainnovationhub.gov.mt /tarxienapp
tinue improving. This is the mentality that we, as Europeans need to instil in our policy makers, NGOs and youth. We need to remain innovative, competitive and engage more of these European winning teams.” Etienne Buttigieg – Honorary President ICTSA To see the winning video please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=oHizfT0j5tc. The awards ceremony was followed by a high level conference. The eSkills for Jobs 2015 and Watify for Digital Entrepreneurs conference ‘Transforming Europe towards the digital age’ took place on 15th December in Luxembourg. The conference was held under the presence of Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxembourg and was hosted under the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Digital Citizenship; Digital Entrepreneurship; Career Campaigner; Young Digital Talent Competition; Outstanding use of ICT for teaching. ICT Student’s Association (ICTSA) are the winners of this year’s Digital Entrepreneurship Category. The ICT Students’ Association, ICTSA, is a student organisation which represents all students studying an ICT course based at the University of Malta. For the second year running, ICTSA took part in the eSkills for Jobs competition and have used this platform to showcase the work they do as an organisation throughout the year. ICTSA strongly believes in the potential of students and young adults and have provided a framework to empower Malta’s youth through digital eSkills and entrepreneurial flair over a five year-long project. ICTSA’s mission is to bridge the gap between students and the industry and have witnessed a high engagement with students especially when made aware with the opportunities they can exploit when equipped with the right eS-
About eSkills Malta Foundation eSkills Malta Foundation is a multistakeholder partnership between the industry, the education authorities and Government committed to improve the variety, quality and quankills. The Digital Entrepreneurship category was open to entrepreneurs working on creative entrepreneurial projects building on ICT tools and/or media and eSkills. As part of that category each participant submitted video presenting entrepreneurial project using ICT tools and/or media. The winners were announced during the eSkills and Ada Awards Dinner held in Luxembourg on 14th December 2015. Etienne Buttigieg ICTSA’s Honorary President who is currently
a final year student reading for a Bachelor in IT studying Computing and Business was in Luxembourg to receive the award. “The eSkills Digital Entrepreneurship award is meaningful in the sense that it translates to recognition on a national and European level. We know that Europe is currently lacking in the innovation it needs to remain competitive to compete with other large economies. This is a problem we must not take lightly and as Europeans, it is our duty to take a proactive stance on this issue. I have been serving the ICTSA executive for three terms and as president of this organisation, I have witnessed a high rate of student engagement when it comes to the entrepreneurial competitions and initiatives that we organise. I believe that to have a winning team, it must be equipped with members from different backgrounds with different expertise. This motivation showed in all the events we organised, and so far we have witnessed levels of success which I have no doubt will con-
tity of ICT competences for economic growth. The eSkills Malta Foundations is currently Malta’s national point for the European Union’s eSkills for Jobs 2015 campaign – a communication and awareness raising campaign encouraging citizens to improve their command of ICT skills. www.eskills.org.mt About eSkills For Jobs 2015-2016 eSkills for Jobs 2015-2016 is a major cross sector, multi-stakeholder campaign from the European Commission, involving more than 650 organisations across Europe including companies, associations, education and training bodies and NGOs. The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness of the need for citizens to improve their command of information and communication technology (ICT) skills for work. The campaign is a response to the growing demand for ICT-skilled professionals which is currently not met, despite high levels of unemployment in Europe. http://eskills4jobs.ec.europa.eu
The Malta Independent ICT Feature MITA Communications and PR Team uring a press conference held at the Tarxien Neolithic Temples, MITA in collaboration with Heritage Malta, launched a mobile application with various interactive audio visual features to enhance visitors’ experience when visiting Tarxien
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Temples. ICT Student’s Association (ICTSA) won the Digital Entrepreneurship Category during the eSkills award ceremony held in Luxembourg on 14th December 2015. The Digital Entrepreneurship category was open to entrepreneurs working on creative entrepreneurial projects building on ICT tools and/or media and eSkills. All ICT Features are available on www.mita.gov.mt/ictfeature