The challenge for the Education sector is to upskill the future workforce, but more importantly to empower young people with the competences to master and create their own digital technologies, and thrive in the society of today. We believe that teaching and learning how to code, in formal and non-formal education settings, will play a significant role in this process. In May 2014, DG CONNECT invited European Schoolnet to take the lead of an industry driven coalition and set up a neutral platform for the promotion of teaching and learning programming and coding. The result of this call to action was the founding of a European Coding Initiative.

In October 2014, the former Vice President of the European Commission Neelie Kroes officially launched the Initiative and the all you need is {C<3DE} website for students, teachers and adults who want to try out coding for the first time, and to discover what opportunities it can open up for them.

The Coding Initiative contributed to supporting the political momentum for a stronger integration of coding in K12 education. In 2014 European Schoolnet launched a survey with its member Ministries of Education to get a more consistent picture of how and where coding was already in national, regional or school curricula. The 2014 report has now been reviewed and updated on the basis of data gathered during summer 2015. It contains information from 21 European countries, 16 of which have already integrated coding in the curriculum as well as links to initiatives, pilots and best practices per country.