Portugal wins awards in two of five categories in the eSkills for Jobs 2015 competition

This competition ended in November and recognized a group of people who demonstrated a high level of digital skills and literacy. Awards were given infive categories: Digital Citizenship; Digital Entrepreneurship; Most Inspiring Career; Young Digital Talent; Use of ICT in Education.

In the Digital Citizenship category, João Baracho's video camefirst and received the prize sponsored by Fujitsu (tablet).

The Digital Citizenship category was open to applications from young people, business leaders, politicians, ICT professionals, and NGOs. Participants were asked to demonstrate, through a short 1.5-minute video, the positive impact of a program, software, or application (designed and developed by them) on people's lives in general or on a specific community.

The Young Digital Talent category awarded Beatriz Anunciação and Sara Damião first place. With their video, the two young women won a trip to Berlin to participate in Academy Day (February 18, 2016) as part of the CISCO Live EMEAR event.

Second place went to another Portuguese entry, the video by Nuno Silva, who also received a tablet, a prize sponsored by Samsung.

The Young Digital Talent category was aimed at young people aged between 16 and 30 who were interested in animation and programming. Contestants were asked to submit an animated video created using HTML5.

The finalists were selected based on the number of likes and shares on the eSkills for Jobs YouTube channel and the evaluation of a jury of ICT experts.

It should be noted that the eSkills for Jobs 2015-2016 is an initiative of the European Commission within the framework of Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs, under the international coordination of DIGITALEUROPE and European Schoolnet. This initiative aims to raise awareness among citizens of the opportunities that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) represent in terms of employability.

At the national level, the FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology is the entity that, within the scope of its duties and powers, coordinates the eSkills for Jobs campaign.