4 min.
MEET NO NEET, a project by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale and Microsoft Italia, provides youth with the innovative tools and competences necessary to enter the job market through social commitment. The project will involve over 1000 young people (aged 18-24) in Lazio and Campania. The project will be officially presented at the Liceo Democrito in Rome (November 14, 10 am).
A project for youth is nothing new; in fact, our country does not seem to be made for young people: 9.8% of youth aged 15-24 is looking for a job, while the unemployment rate hovers at 34.5% (Istat data). Moreover, the percentage of NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training) aged 15-29 is on the rise, too. These are young people who are not studying, not working and do not follow professional updating or lifelong learning courses. There are over 2 million NEETs that amount to 23% of the population category. These are terrible numbers and they must be countered via further education.
Project MEET NO NEET addresses this context by providing – as an initial pilot that could replicated throughout Italy – a training course bringing together technology, social innovation and professional competences to 1000 young Italians aged 18-24 in the Campania and Lazio Regions. Project key words are inclusion and interaction. Thanks to a partnership between the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, Microsoft and lcocal schools, the project aims to create alliances amongst the world of enterprise, education and services.
Social Innovation. Education has been conceived as a flexible tool that will allow it to be enjoyed at school, at home, individually or as part of a group, thanks to new technologies and social networking. Video lessons and tutorials will be held with Microsoft experts on software, classroom training and laboratories to provide youth with the tools necessary to devise social innovation projects. These projects will focus on providing solutions to social needs that have not been satisfied. In other words, participants – either individually or as part of a group – will identify problems related to their daily context (schools, neighborhood, city) and propose a solution, including synergies with local agencies, associations and enterprises to contribute towards solving these issues.
Take One, Learn! The video lessons are conceived as mini film series in which the students act out how to identify a local problem, address it and find solutions to resolve it. MEET NO NEET has chosen to move beyond the pages of a textbook and accompany youth on their experiences and show them “how to” do things, translating abstract concepts into planning, into concrete actions, into actions that will be interpreted by boys and girls to show their peers that contributing to improving their schools, neighborhoods or cities is all just kid’s play! The videos are available in the Resources section of the site.
The twenty best projects will be selected and presented during a final event. Winners will receive an official Microsoft-Fondazione Mondo Digitale 21st Century Competences Passport.
“Microsoft has always been at the forefront in helping youth develop new competences, ideas and work opportunities through technology. We do this through global programs that are custom-tailored to the Italian context and via a plan of local initiatives implemented in partnership with solid local partners. Project Meet No Neet, developed together with the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, confirms our desire to help young people by providing them with new job and entrepreneuship opportunities and the necessary market competences,” explains Roberta Cocco, Director of Social Responsibility, Microsoft Italy.
“The mission of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale is to develop an inclusive knowledge society. Since its creation, the foundation has worked to ensure that young people acquire the competences necessary to live and work in the 21st century. Moreover, it has had the invaluable opportunity to collaborate with Microsoft and other important organizations. Meet No Neet is an important example of this work,” points out Alfonso Molina, Professor of Technology Strategy at the University of Edinburgh and Scientific Director of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale.
A series of double video interviews on social and technological planning have been created for the presentation of Project “Meet No Neet.” These videos are available in the Resources of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale website.
Project Presentation Press Kit
