Case demonstration

Case 159

Initiative D21- Education and Qualification for the Information Age (Germany)

A public-private initiative to accelerate Germany into the information society. Some excellent results with schools and proof that partnerships work.

Summary of the case:

Background

The 'Initiative D21' is a public-private partnership initiative with the objective to promote and support the development of the information society in Germany. While the overall objective is to ensure Germany's competitiveness in a knowledge based economy, a number of action lines specifically address social and educational goals. Initiative D21 is an umbrella initiative encompassing a wide range of single projects. The work is carried out in 5 task forces and 15 sub-task forces. The 'Initiative D21' is a non-profit registered association, founded on July 27, 1999 in Stuttgart, Germany. 

Timing of case

The Initiative d21 has been launched in July 1999 and is an ongoing initiative. 

Geographic setting

Germany, mainly Berlin area 

Main contributors

About 400 people are belonging to the Initiative D21 working in one of five task forces. The task forces are: 1) Administrative framework and widening of internet access, 2) The government leads the way in the use of ICT technology, 3) Educazion and qualification, 4) Women and IT, 5) Business start-up offensive. Due to the large number of enterprises and organisation involved in the Initiative D21 it is not possible to specify the number of people directly involved in the field of 'Education and Qualification'. 

Main beneficiaries

It is difficult to specify the number of people directly benefeting from the activities carried out by the task force 'Education and Qualification'. One can only specify the number of people directly benefiting from the projects: For example, within the programme 'Intel®Lehren für die Zukunft' up to now 150 000 teachers have been participated in training programmes and within the framework of the project 'Marketplace for Schools' approximately 1 800 schools with about 900 000 pupils were registered to benefit from the project. 

Objectives

The focus of this case study is on those activities of the initiative that target the fields of education and qualification.

Altogether, the main objectives concerning the field of education and qualification are:
- to contribute to the equipment of all German schools with information and communication technologies
- to raise awareness in order to point out the various possibilities and perspectives of the use of information and communication technologies
- to show the chances of the new technologies for schools leavers
- to support an effective use of technologies in schools
- to introduce new innovative finance systems for Germany's universities
- to introduce differentiated study courses
- to develop and test online study courses
- to mobilise sponsorships between enterprises and schools. 

Resources (apart from ICT)

The initiative is funded by membership fees from industry partners of D21 and from corporate donations. The membership fee is 5,000 Euro annually. In addition, the different projects and activities carried out in the fields of 'Education and Qualification' and 'Women and IT' require various resources in different areas. Projects dealing with the implementation of ICT in schools have initiated sponsor-partnerships between schools and enterprises. 

Activities

Activities in the area of education and training include: equipping schools with up-to-date information and communication technologies, awareness raising activities targeting IT professionals, teacher training activities, facilitation of sponsor partnerships between industry members of the Initiative D21 and schools, and initiating projects and activities in the field of 'Education and Qualification'. 

Outputs and results

The most remarkable results already achieved by projects supported by the Initiative D21are:
- hardware-upgrading within the project 'Marketplace for Schools' completes several previous projects and activities that focused on equipping schools with new computers
- In the project 'Internet Classroom' thousands of software-licenses were allocated, new PCs financed and teachers training programmes have been organised.
- The 'Intel® Lehren für die Zukunft' project was successfully implemented in each German Federal State 

Lessons and conclusions

An important aspect of this success story of the Initiative D21 is the bundling and networking of different projects. Thus, the initiative offers a broad platform for schools providing information, contacts and resources. The amount of IT successfully implemented (which would otherwise probably not have been able to be financed by schools), as well as the many teacher training activities, show that a large scale public-private partnership is a promising approach to achieve goals that require the co-operation of actors from different fields and cannot be financed from public sources only. An important success factor is certainly the establishment of sponsor partnerships between schools and member enterprises of the Initiative D21 on a regional level (e.g. as aimed at by 'Internet Classroom'). Innovative awareness raising activities (e.g. through IT- Ambassadors) are an important accompanying measure.