We are in front of the 4.0 revolution, where any human activity interfaces with digital tools, meaning that we have now to accept to change language and to become literate of a language spoken by the ICT tools. Programming is everywhere and fundamental to the understanding of a hyper-connected world. To learn programming means to learn the language of the ICT tools we use every day and it is fundamental to the comprehension of our contemporary society.
Being the digital language spoken by our ICT tools, coding is eventually necessary for the enhancement of human peculiarities. Coding helps us practicing 21st century skills such as, problem solving, team work, analytical and critical thinking, deductive and inductive reasoning, as well as logic. According to the “ESJsurvey Insights – Skills utilisation = skills formation” Cedefop research, in 2014, about 39% of EU employees believed that their skills were not being fully used by their jobs and 27% also did not have potential to further grow their skills in what are dead-end jobs. Transversal skills are the real powerful skills necessary for improvement in any professional sector, so much needed in time of rapidly changing working conditions: transversal skills will never be obsolete, as people holding them are always trying to learn new ones and adapt to changing market conditions.
Coding is all about to learn the 21st century language, which can be applied in almost all job sectors, revolutionizing the way they are conceived, simply because it means to actively learn the communication language of the digital tools which are all now necessary for our lives, rather than passively learning it. Therefore, in order to empower people of all groups in our society, and to ensure the global competitiveness of Europe, we need to raise interest in programming and enhance digital competence of Europe.