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Good practice Imported

SmartLabs - new tutors

Estonia · Tallinn · National · See the Estonia profile · See the Tallinn profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 100% 12/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

SmartLabs new tutors is a programme to train new tutors to deliver the highly successful SmartLabs to school children. The project aims to support the growing SmartLabs which promote ICT related after school hobby education that will contribute to the IT awareness of the youth a

200 tutors
New tutors trained (autumn 2016)
75 %
Tutors willing to start or teach in an IT-club
22 %
Tutors who had started their own club within two months (2 months post-training)

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Vaata Maailma SA/ Look@World Foundation — website
Type
Service
Status
Ended
Target groups
Unemployed and those facing social problems, Marginalised young people and children
Period
2016-01-01 – 2016-12-31
Region (NUTS)
EE00
Keywords
inlcusion, digital, skills, training, ICT

Context

Estonia has a strong digital economy - birthplace of Skype - with high internet penetration (76.5% per capita, 70% per household) and a tech-literate population, but faced a shortage of people able to run after-school IT clubs for children.

Objectives

Train members of the public with no prior teaching background to become IT-club tutors, growing the SmartLabs after-school ICT programme and, in the long run, increasing the number of IT specialists and reducing youth unemployment in Estonia.

Activities

In autumn 2016, 200 new tutors - drawn from the private sector, youth centres and parents - were trained, supported by experienced mentors and new teaching materials on robotics, programming and related topics for running IT-clubs.

Results

More than 75% of trained tutors said they were willing to start or teach in an IT-club, and 22% had already started their own club within two months of finishing the training.

Conclusions

Early uptake was strong, but no independent, longer-term evaluation of tutor retention or club sustainability was found in the available sources.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Low-cost model relying on training delivery and mentor support; no infrastructure capital costs described.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Single autumn 2016 training cohort with results assessed within 2 months of course completion.
Staffing & skills
Experienced mentors to support new tutors, Trainers to deliver initial training sessions

Conditions for success

  • Target audience with interest in IT but no formal teaching background
  • Availability of teaching materials for robotics/programming
  • Ongoing mentor support after initial training

Common failure modes

  • No data on longer-term retention of tutors beyond the 2-month follow-up window

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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