This year, the summer camp is digital: the new frontiers of educational training

27 July 2017

One of the great paradoxes of our century is the high percentage of youth unemployment (which in Italy exceeds 35%), in relation to the increasing difficulty of companies to find qualified personnel,  in particular as to the scope of the digital revolution. In fact, the junior high school moving at a significantly lower rate compared to global dynamics: although the National Plan for Digital School reflects the mechanisms of contemporary, there are still too many resistance. The reasons for the delay are formative, administrative and financial. A solution to the gap could be the multiplication of alliances between universities, foundations, schools and innovative companies, aimed at adapting the world of education to the needs of today’s market. This model is already active for short-term experiences: in recent years, a new training programme is being developed, able to offer to young people the opportunity to enrich their curriculum, just giving up only a few days on the beach, the Digital Summer Camp. This modern summer camp’s version covers areas ranging from robotics to video editing, from 3D printing to smart objects, and is addressed to a broad class of users from 5 to 17 years. There are many examples: the well-known H-Farm company opens the doors to 1,200 young people of junior high school and secondary school; Ragazze Digitali that takes place in Modena, is addressed exclusively to a female audience; the High Tech Law Summer Camp takes place in Palermo and  it has a focus on legality; the Digital Camp takes place in Salento and teaches robotic and coding to small children. In Bologna the collaboration between the Mast Foundation, the industrial group Coesia, the Dallara Automobili’s company, the University of Bologna, the University of Pisa and the Board of Education for the Emilia-Romagna region has created a summer school dedicated to 3D -printing and Smart Objects. The classroom is made up of high school kids, devoting themselves for a week, to the design and realization of smart objects. Bologna Business School also offers several Master’s degree programs seek to deepen the crucial aspects of the digital world: Digital Technology Management  with specialized track: Cyber Security, Digital Project Management, Artificial Intelligence; Marketing Communication and New Media; Data Science; Digital Business. For more full-immersion experiences there are also Open Programs in Digital Marketing & Communication (duration of 14 days addressed to anyone who wants to embrace the world of e-commerce and social media) and in Big Data Analytics that touches issues of  Business Intelligence, Semantic Intelligence e Machine Learning and this is a programme for 10 days. Although  in the academic sphere already exist technical degree courses to fill the vacancy of qualified staff in the digital field, these specialized courses seems to has less appeal than more traditional paths. The Summer Camp experience can be, in this sense, an escamotage to bring young people interested in the world of digital making, and make these faculties an appealing alternative to the most. For a more in-depth reading, we recommend the article by Max Bergami published in Il Sole 24 Ore on July 9, 2017.