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Progetto SI – School Company Family Interaction

Educating our future human capital

December 2017

THEMES

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The initiative

Progetto SI – School Company Family Interaction – is an initiative promoted by Fondazione Cariplo to improve the quality of technical teaching across Lombardy and in the provinces of Novara and Verbano-Cusio-Ossola by providing schools with up-to-date laboratory equipment and facilities.

In addition, the project will also set up educational initiatives and tools so that technical schools can keep up effective dialogue with each other and with businesses and professionals in these provinces. Fondazione Cariplo and Fondazione Politecnico di Milano intend to work with schools and local communities, helping students and teachers build on their skills. They also wish to draw on all the actors in the education and production systems to strengthen the links between schools and the work market, which is a crucial relationship for Italian industrial development.

The role of the Foundation

Fondazione Politecnico di Milano has an operational role as a performing partner

Technical details

Progetto SI is putting the spotlight on technical education with educational pathways projected towards the future. Its focus is on subjects underpinning today’s path of innovation based upon technology and automation: mechanical engineering, mechatronics, energy, electronics and electrical engineering, computing and telecommunications.

The initiative plans to establish contact and dialogue with the world of companies and professions to give solid answers to their growing demand for specialised technical people. Schools receiving instruments and educational initiatives have been gifted with strategic assets which they can use to implement innovative teaching methods and deliver more engaging laboratory sessions, which are essential for discovering a professional vocation.

First results

The numbers making up 2018 are 1.5 million euros invested, 76 technical schools, 150 headteachers and teachers, thousands of students and families taking part in the project, 37 participating companies that supplied equipment to the school laboratories, 61 different technological solutions introduced in the schools, 5,000 training hours for teachers, 1 digital platform to set up a community, and 14 provinces, i.e. all 12 provinces in Lombardy plus the provinces of Novara and of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola.

The project meant that schools were able to update the technology in their teaching laboratories, establish contacts with companies and professional firms and train teachers in the use of the new technology, as well as giving their students an innovative laboratory experience. A series of professional orientation events are also underway, together with a digital platform hosting a community of teachers and students from the participating schools, who can share educational material and experiences and so help students make the transition from technical school to the world of work.

The end result was achieved by visiting schools and laboratories, and setting up meetings where teachers, school directors and students could discuss what their schools really needed and how to implement their schools’ educational plans. A series of school-work programmes are in the pipeline, with companies based in the local area working with the technological and educational partners of Progetto SI so that students can spend part of their time at school and part on a work placement.

In 2019, Fondazione Cariplo and Fondazione Politecnico di Milano launched a competition entitled “SI_Fabbrica” open to all schools taking part in Progetto SI. Students are expected to apply the equipment and training provided in 2018 to create an “Industry 4.0” working prototype.

Financial supporters

Partners

Fondazione Politecnico di Milano