A “digital pool” where you can learn to swim by writing the codes of the future. It is called 42 Roma Luiss, the new coding school for digital talents that will open its doors next January to 150 students aged between 18 and 35 years. Required characteristics: to be passionate about computer programming and the desire to get involved in an innovative path. The University Guido Carli will be the forerunner, in Italy, of this new educational model: born in Paris under the name École42 and present today in over 20 cities around the world, it aims to train a new generation of young innovators, able to lead the transition to the digital industry.
According to the latest data from the Eurostat survey, the digital skills picture among Italians under 25 is critical: our country ranks third in Europe, only before Bulgaria and Romania. A scenario capable of slowing down the economic growth of our country, deepening the already relevant digital divide and not equipping young people with the digital and programming skills needed to make a difference. It is therefore essential to promote initiatives that have a strong impact on this context.
But how does the model of 42 Roma Luiss work? It is based on a peer to peer educational formula – literally peer to peer – and will allow young people to learn in the field, doing activities, learning from their mistakes. You do not pay tuition fees and do not need qualifications: the selection is based only on your own skills. There are three tests to pass, the so-called “Swimming Pools” which, from next October until December 2020, will select 150 of the most deserving students to “swim in the boundless ocean of digital”.
The students of the 42, in fact, will not take the classic exams of profit, but will be tested with problems to solve, training from the beginning to work as a team and think outside the box. The frontal lessons will be replaced by a series of interconnected projects that will simulate the configuration of work in the real world.
“With the opening of 42, Luiss brings to Italy a totally disruptive educational model, which will allow his students, agents of change, to learn, for free, the secrets of digital, to contribute to the technological transformation taking place in our country and win, with resources and talents trained for the future, the great challenge of innovation that awaits us,” said Giovanni Lo Storto, General Director of the University, specifying: “The revolutionary school that allows the development of digital expertise will initially start in Rome, with the aim of expanding in other Italian cities, even in the South” concluded Lo Storto.
