Informatics education and requirements of current practice

Bill Gates in 1999 wrote: “Your ability to gain, process and use information decides whether you will belong to winners or losers.” Since then, the meaning of his words has been constantly increasing. We often recognize an attitude that the primary issues in the development, implementation and effective application of informatics and ICT in current practice are modern technical devices, computers, hardware and software. These are surely very important part of it, however the key part consists of competent people. Investments into informatization of society and new technology are often very high. The efficiency of these investments depends on users, their motivation, interest and proper education. What are the real information competencies and students knowledge gained during their school informatics education? How can they use these knowledge and competencies? The article summarizes the results of the research of information competencies of secondary school graduates who entered the first grade at the Faculty of Economics, Technical University in Košice. We also deal with the experience in teaching and discuss the base of knowledge and methods which have been implemented into the informatics subjects at our faculty.