3 min.
The eighth edition of the “RomeCup 2014 – Excellence in Robotics in Rome” is now underway in Rome, a city that for 3 days will become a robotics citadel where the best Italian projects and technology will be presented to produce innovation, work and development.
One hundred teams from schools in 13 Italian regions will compete by fielding their knowledge, skills and values, aligning themselves with the job market.
A debate on work policies in the technological sector also animated the Local Coalition for Digital Jobs at the Temple of Hadrian with the signatories of the Network Agreement on Educational Robotics that was coordinated by Alfonso Molina, Scientific Director of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale and Professor of Technology Strategy at the University of Edinburgh, with Giovanni Miele, Rai Parliamentary Journalist.
“The school-work transition must be faced by integrating codified knowledge, soft skills and values. This is what is happening in the schools that have inserted educational robotics into their curricula. The benefits are immediate: reduction of school dropouts and NEETs and more post-diploma employment thanks to the acquisition of strategic competences that are highly desirable to ICT companies. By next year, nearly one million jobs will be vacant in this sector,” explained Alfonso Molina.
The objectives identified by the Local Coalition – the Fondazione Mondo Digitale is the Italian representative for the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs, an initiative of the European Commission – correspond to true emergencies. Italy is fourth in Europe in terms of youth unemployment, third for the NEET phenomenon and school dropout rates are at 17,6%, well over the European average (12,8%). Moreover, there is an alarming mismatch between job demand and supply, a real skill mismatch.
A concrete tool to address this “mismatch” was presented at the meeting: the www.reteroboticaeducativa.org portal with the First Multi-sectorial Orientation System (companies, research centres, schools and universities). The system is currently in beta.
Tomorrow is all about work: at 11 it’s Job Cloud (#robjobcloud on Twitter) for a debate between schools and companies (from start-ups to ICT multinationals) to reduce the mismatch between work demand and supply. This will be followed by the “School, Professions, Companies and Institutions: a dialogue to build the future” session divided into two roundtables: one on the needs of schools and companies and one on the answers provided by Authorities. At 7:30 pm, the Rome Città Educativa (via del Quadraro 102) will inaugurate the first Phyrtual Innovation Gym and Fab Lab, managed by makers, the new digital craftsmen.
The RomeCup is promoted by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale with the patronage of Inail, the support of Comau Robotics, Enea, Intel and Media Direct /Campus Store, in collaboration with Città Educativa, Anp and DirScuola: media partner are Rai Edu and Focus.
RomeCup participates in the Get Online Week 2014 and Grand Coalition for Digitale Jobs Campaigns.
