Boosting ICT Business and Innovation: A Comprehensive Approach to Standardization Education in Europe

ETSI is pleased to announce its forthcoming conference “Boosting ICT Business and Innovation: A Comprehensive Approach to Standardization Education”, which takes place on 4-5 October 2018 at ETSI, Sophia Antipolis, France.

Attend this unique event to receive an overview of current practice in standardization education, and get first access to the groundbreaking work done by ETSI in this field.

In the ICT industry, standardization is now well recognized as an important instrument that provides measurable benefits to industry such as

• Economies of scale
• Increased market size
• Access to new markets
• Improved interoperability of equipment
• Access to shared innovation
• A means to derive value from innovation

Furthermore, indirect benefits such as reputational enhancement, networking opportunities, market and competitive intelligence can also result from the participation in standardization.
Despite these benefits, and repeated calls by the European Commission to improve education on standardization, little is taught in higher education about standardization, besides technical education on standardized technologies. The topic of standardization is actually well researched. So far, there have been many international communities exchanging on the subject and diverse attempts to develop educational material. Still, ICT standardization needs high quality, comprehensive and structured material to support and promote the teaching of standardization in formal higher education.

Over the past year ETSI, with the support of the European Commission, has run a project to develop just that: a comprehensive course on ICT standardization. The modular design of the course allows its use as-is, or modified to suit different higher education levels, such as undergraduate or postgraduate, and different study programs, such as in engineering, business or law. The learning materials include a student textbook, with case studies and self-assessment activities, a set of several hundred slides, as well as a course guide, with meta-content on the learning objectives and paths. All of this content will be available in an accessible electronic form, free of charge from ETSI.

This conference will present the results of this project, with detailed workshops on the material developed by ETSI and best practice in its use. The conference will also hear from invited speakers who will share their experience of standardization education in practice, its importance to industry, and its relevance for industrial policy.