It has reached altitude 2 millions the number of people reached by professional training and retraining initiatives part of the plan Ambition Italy #DigitalRestart, the Microsoft initiative aimed at supporting the relaunch and growth of Italy through digital. Out of these 2 million, half have carried out training activities in the last 7 months, thus leading the company to anticipate its goal of training 3 million citizens by September 2022. These are the results announced today in the context of Microsoft Skilling: the new skills that make Italy grow, a day dedicated to the initiatives of Microsoft Italy and its partners to support the dissemination of digital skills.
Microsoft Skilling: the restart of Italy starts from digital
The appointment closes at Microsoft Skilling Weeks, a two-week marathon with training and workshops dedicated to Artificial Intelligence, Data Analysis, App Development, Cloud, but also Cybersecurity and Business Applications where new graduates, recent graduates, professionals and students have had access to content and information on training courses to update and retrain their skills and concretely deepen the use of Microsoft solutions for companies.
The data once again confirm the paradoxical situation that our country is experiencing: on the one hand, an unemployment rate remains among the highest in Europe, especially if we look at young people and women, which are respectively 28% and 51%. %, on the other hand, the demand for qualified and specialized jobs is growing significantly, profiles that companies cannot find on the market.
Technological innovation, for example, is transforming the way of working in entire production chains: there are 150,000 digital-related jobs that cannot be filled by people with the right tech skills.
Wanted digital skills
Furthermore, from the recent DESI index, despite the fact that our country has made progress in terms of digitization, it remains the third last in the ranking for the dissemination of digital skills, crucial for accelerating growth and development: only 42% of people between 14 and 74 years possess basic digital skills (EU average 56%) and only 22% have advanced digital skills (EU average 31%).
The percentage of ICT specialists in Italy is also lower than in the rest of Europe: 3.6% of total employment vs a European average of 4.3%. Furthermore, only 15% of Italian companies provide their employees with training in the tech field, five percentage points below the European average. Finally, according to Censis, the phenomenon of mismatch, transversal in all sectors, causes, in Italy, a lack of GDP growth equal to 1.2% in our country.
The Microsoft Ambition Italy initiative #DigitalRestart
“The crux are digital skills, in which too little is still being invested: experts in AI, Cloud, Cybersecurity, expert green tech professionals, are needed to leverage digital to ensure a business that is more sustainable, a truly global challenge. urgent. Thanks to the funds foreseen by the PNRR for the formation of human capital, we have an unprecedented opportunity before us. With Ambition Italy #DigitalRestart together with our partners we provide a complete and scalable platform with training and technological innovation programs to help companies in all sectors and all professionals to accelerate digitally and grow “he commented Silvia Candiani, CEO of Microsoft Italy.
Today Ambizione Italia #DigitalRestart which, in addition to the creation of the first Microsoft Region data center in Italy and initiatives aimed at companies to promote new digital business models, provides an important program dedicated to training with numerous initiatives throughout the country to increase the dissemination of digital skills, it is enriched with new important collaborations and projects.
Furthermore, Ambizione Italia #DigitalRestart, Microsoft Italia makes use of the collaboration of the ecosystem of partners for the development of the Academies, i.e. training and refresher courses for young people who are entering the world of work for the first time and for already established professionals. through which to acquire advanced digital skills, required by companies and not yet available on the market. Cloud, Business Application, Artificial Intelligence, Security and Business Application the most followed topics.
The results of 2021
In 2021 alone, they were 165 the Academies launched with partners distributed throughout the Italian territory who saw the involvement of 3000 people, including students, new graduates, new graduates and professionals. Over 4000 people have instead followed online training to acquire advanced digital skills on Cloud Champion, a free program offered by Microsoft Italy to help companies grow their business through the cloud. In total they are over 5000 people who have been certified on Microsoft programs and applications.
From today the Microsoft ESG Academy, the first training course that integrates modules for the acquisition of digital skills and concepts related to sustainability, an increasingly crucial issue also in the world of work. According to various reports, in fact, the development of the circular economy today represents a challenge for the Italian training system which impacts on the dynamics of the world of work and sees a growing reconversion of professional figures in a green key.
The Censis-Confcooperative study confirms that to fuel the ecological transition also envisaged by the PNRR, the need for workers with high green skills will rise to 2.4 million over the next five years for the Italian production system and the PA.
The course, Microsoft ESG Academy, starting next year in self-learning and webcast mode by the partner ESGacademy, will allow companies, students and job seekers to approach the world of sustainability and technologies to support organizations in this global challenge.
New courses are starting
Also on the front of the new applications created with Microsoft development tools, the courses to become a Developer in collaboration with Generation Italy, the non-profit foundation founded in 2014 by McKinsey & Company and which today operates in 16 countries.
The course, which lasts 14 weeks and is aimed at young people aged 18 to 29, is completely free and will allow you to train professionals capable of creating websites and web applications in all its components. At the end of the course, all students are guaranteed at least one job interview with partner companies in the project looking for these skills.
Microsoft Italia also announced the launch of new training courses in collaboration with Agic, as part of theAiCademy, a project of experts in the field of human resources and Information Technology to promote technical and transversal skills with the aim of training a new generation of professionals.
Not just the acquisition of Technical Skills – in particular to investigate technologies Microsoft such as Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform – but also modules dedicated to Role Skill, with specific and transversal content on certain company roles such as consultant, project manager or account manager and specific training to enhance one’s own Soft Skill, in the field of communication, collaboration and team work dynamics. In particular, in the coming months, paths will be launched to train junior professional figures, with the aim of facilitating their entry into the world of work.
Ambition Italy also arrives in Milan, Rovigo and Basilicata
After a first phase of the training program that involved the Network of Job Orientation Centers (COL) of Roma Capital, the city of Bari with the involvement of Porta Futuro, the job center of the Municipality of Bari and the city of Palermo, Ambizione Italia per i Giovani will be launched in specific ways also a Milano in collaboration with the Metropolitan City of Milan, Rovigo in collaboration with Urban Digital Center and in Basilicata in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce.
The project, born from the well-established collaboration of Microsoft Italia and Digital World Foundation it translates into a training course that involves local actors who deal with training and provision of courses on new skills within metropolitan and non-metropolitan contexts.
This is a strategic initiative to intercept young people and citizens who most need to integrate skills, deepen or explore still unknown professional fields in order to be able to enter the labor market effectively.
The program is aimed both at the operators of the Centers, who receive training on the conscious use of digital tools for orientation, job search and self-promotion of users, even at a distance, and at end users, i.e. those who are in job seekers who can access training modulated on different levels and profiles, in order to intercept different needs, such as filling gaps or strengthening skills, and responding with specific paths. The courses are divided into different levels of previous skills, with free activities and delivered in mixed mode (synchronous and asynchronous, in person and at a distance).
A bridge between universities and companies
Microsoft Italia continues its collaboration with CRUI, Conference of Rectors of Italian Universities and confirms also for this academic year, expanding its scope, an initiative aimed at helping the meeting of supply and demand between companies looking for digital professionals and students and recent graduates looking for a job.
While in the first phase insights were offered on emerging technologies in parallel with the curricular paths to develop up-to-date digital skills, in the second phase the students are supported by companies, hands-on with the needs of profiles and skills required by the labor market, so as to identify in a more targeted way and to make students more ready and more connected with the business realities for future opportunities.
Objective of the initiative, to contribute to the reduction of skills mismatch, helping …