On 5th May 2022, the first dissemination event of the Erasmus+ strategic project CyberClever took place in the Paide Campus of Järva County Vocational Education Centre with the participation of IT teachers and students from different vocational schools in Estonia.
The participants of the CyberClever project dissemination event in JKHK had come from various vocational education institutions all over Estonia - Järva County Vocational Training Centre, Viljandi Vocational Training Centre, Kehtna Vocational Education Center, Pärnumaa Vocational Education Centre, Rakvere Vocational School and Tartu Vocational College.
The event started with a more detailed presentation of the nature, goals and results of the Erasmus+ strategic project CyberClever. An overview of the CyberClever modules and the learning outcomes were presented as well as all the main activities of the project. The participants got a better understanding of why a project like CyberClever was created in the first place and what it can offer to vocational education institutions across Europe.
After the introduction of the project, JKHK IT teacher Kuldar Okas spoke about why knowledge of cyber security is especially important for the every-day user of smart devices, not only for people in the IT field. The most common problems and threats were highlighted, both globally and within Estonia, and finally it was highlighted how the CyberClever project could help significantly reduce the current cyber threat and the number of everyday cyber threat victims - by integrating it into vocational education as well as areas outside of IT.
The participants agreed on the importance of the current topic of cyber security, which led to discussions on how and where the knowledge of cyber security could be integrated and why it is important to teach cyber security from a young age and not only to IT students.
The topics of the discussion by the participants:
● "Cyber security should be taught already in elementary school, since students from a young age do not know anything about cyber threats, but "consume" everything that the internet offers. When students finally reach vocational school and are able to "consume" what is found on the Internet, they still know nothing about cyber threats or the need for cyber security."
● "CyberClever project materials should be adapted to elementary schools and high schools and distributed to them as well, not only to vocational education."
● "A new curriculum should be created for vocational schools (junior specialist in IT systems), where the main focus would be on cyber security."
● "The first step should be to try to explain and emphasize to young people early on that even if they know how to consume what is found on the Internet, dangers and other risk factors still exist."
M.A. Pukk
