These issues are one of the EU’s top priorities for the European Union. DESI 2021 shows that as many as 4 out of 10 Europeans lack basic digital skills. As the Industry Skills report [Coursera 2022] indicates, every job has an element of digitization. At the same time, the Global Green Skills 2022 report shows that the demand for green skills in the labour market significantly exceeds the supply. So having skills in these areas means a better chance of finding a good job. That is why it is so important to provide them to young people in a way that will allow them to move freely on the labour market. Educators and their work with young people play an extremely important role in the process of building the potential of young people.

The main goal of the project is to develop an educational program for educators which will enable them to implement a standardized educational program for young people in any EU country in three main areas of the Smart City ecosystem: cybersecurity, digital and ethical skills and. It will go in accordance with EU directives use of open data, green economy, and the implementation of EU climate goals in the ecosystem of a smart city.

These skills will enable a more precise management of the city systems and resources, increasing the efficiency of energy and raw material consumption, waste management, automation and reducing the costs of critical city processes.

The results of the project will be:

1. A standardized training program for educators, allowing them to implement an educational program for young people in the above-mentioned areas in each of the EU countries thanks to the support of partners from other EU countries with experience in the implementation of educational programs in the field of Smart City.

2. Validation of the training program for educators.

3. Recommendations for educators in the implementation of the educational program.

4. A training program for young people in the functioning of a Smart City ecosystem.

5. A pilot educational program which is also a validation of the assumptions of the program and the manner of its implementation, skills, and preparation of educators.

The project held its first face-to-face meeting in Katowice, Poland, on 20th February, where the contents of the guide were defined and next steps were discussed. It was led by the Polish cluster Smart Secure Networks, with the participation of the project partners GAIA, Green Industry Foundation (Poland), and EDU SMART TRAINING CENTRE LIMITED (Ireland).

The project Smart Cities for Younger Generations. Secure, green, digital is a 2-year project (01/12/2022 - 30/11/2024) coordinated by the Smart Secure Networks cluster and co-financed by the European Union (project: 2022-1-PL01-KA220-YOU-000086442).