On March 5, the I Info-Day of the EDIBO Project (European Digital Bootcamps) took place at the School of Design Engineering of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). The event was aimed at presenting the project to the university, business community and the general public.
The ceremony was opened by the words of Mrs. Rosa Puchades Pla, Vice-Rector of Social Responsibility and Cooperation of the UPV; Mr. Juan A. Monsoriu Serra, Director of the ETS of Design Engineering at the UPV; Mrs. Silvia Terrasa Barrena, Director of the ETS of Computer Engineering of the UPV; and Mr. Manuel Civera Salvador, Mayor of Llíria.
All of them agreed on the importance of developing initiatives that provide solutions to youth unemployment and that, therefore, as highlighted by Ms. Rosa Puchades, are inserted in the commitments of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Afterwards, the researcher responsible for the EDIBO project, D. Lenin G. Lemus Zúñiga, a researcher at the UPV, gave an overview of the problem in which the project is based on a set of data on youth unemployment in Spain and the business demand of experts in Information and Communication Technologies (TICS).
Then the round table began on the theme “Knowledge and key competences to promote the labor insertion of young people in the ICT sector”. They participated in her D. Josep Enric García, manager of EMT Valencia; Mr. Ernesto del Valle Blanco, director of Human Resources and manager of the Alfatec ICT Training Center; Ms. Marga Aparicio Martínez from the Chamber of Commerce of Valencia; Mrs. Silvia Cuixeres Torres, Head of Purchasing Central Innovative and Sustainable Services of the Diputación de Valencia; Ms. Malak Kubessi Pérez, Head of the Orientation, Training and Employment Section of the UPV; and Ms. Begoña Sáiz Mauleón, researcher of the EDIBO Project and professor at the UPV. Mr. José Manuel Catalá Civera, director of the ITTAC institute of the UPV, moderated the interventions.
The different contributions served to create a moment of shared reflection on the situation of young people at risk of social exclusion. In addition, each speaker presented the initiatives that their institutions or companies were carrying out to improve the employability of the youth sector as well as to respond to the demands of companies in the field of ICT.
Then a small debate was generated in which the attendees of the event also participated. Among other aspects, the gap between university and business was addressed; and the need to strengthen ICT training to improve both the employability of young people and respond to the need for computerization of companies.
What is EDIBO
The EDIBO project is sponsored by the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Youth Employment and the UPV participates along with institutions from five other European countries: Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Greece and Italy. The UPV group, led by Lenin G. Lemus Zúñiga, is made up of 11 researchers from the UPV belonging to the ICT Group vs. Climate Change of the University Institute of Information and Communication Technologies (ITACA).
EDIBO is based on an innovative approach, inspired by the Rapid Technology Skills Training of the World Bank. At first, the set of collaborating companies defines their needs in ICT and training programs are developed from them. This training is offered to a group of young people between 25 and 29 years old at risk of social or labor exclusion, who are neither studying nor working. After the training period, the students carry out an internship in one of the collaborating companies, being able to obtain a labor contract at the end.
At the end of the 36-month duration of the project, in 2021, EDIBO will have involved 1050 young Europeans training them in the ICT sector and reactivating their job placement skills.