A new school to learn coding and technology opens in Rome

Inspired by the French École 42, 42 Roma Luiss was born, intended for young people between 18 and 35 who want to work in the programming field.

(Photo: Diletta Parlangeli) Technological transformation is one of the most important aspects on which the Italian company will have to focus in different sectors, and if on one hand investment plans are born, also through the allocations of the national Innovation fund, on the other hand the key to the formation of the new digital skills necessary still seems to be sore. It is with the intent to start giving an answer on this front that the 42 Roma Luiss school was born, intended for young people between 18 and 35 who want to work in the field of coding and programming.

The first free school of its kind in Italy, this institute was born on the model of the French École 42, which has as its objective the specialized training of young innovators in various sectors, including the programming of software for artificial intelligence, the creation of codes for different application digital systems, as well as training in cyber security and big data.

With this type of offer, the new school, which will open in Rome in January in the spaces of the Luiss Guido Carli University at the LVenture Group in the Termini station, where the startup accelerator Luiss EnLabs is also present, aims to bridge the digital divide in the industrial sector that today sees Italy in the third-last place in Europe as regards digital skills among the under 25, according to Eurostat data.

The signups are already open, and by October 2020 will start the tests for the initial screening that will identify the first 150 students who by January will be admitted to the training course of three years . Exactly as expected the French model, also 42 Roma Luiss is based on a formula educational peer-to-peer , that is, between equals, in which students will from time to time to cope with practical problems which will have to solve through their digital capability , and the lectures are replaced by related projects in which we simulate conditions and real-world problems , through the pedagogical method of the Project-based learning (Pbs).

this model of the school founded in Paris in 2013 from an idea of the billionaire Xavier Niel , the founder of the giant telecommunications Iliad , is already present with more than 20 locations in the world, one of which is also in the Silicon Valley open in 2016 with an investment of over $ 100 million and, with the support of, among others, the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey.

With the launch of the courses in Rome in 2021, this model of training on digital skills, and in particular on the coding now comes in our country , with “the goal to expand into other Italian cities, also in southern italy” , as stated by the director general of the Luiss Guido Carli university of Rome, John The Wrong. Among the promoters of the initiative also Riccardo Zacconi, co-founder and president of King.com: in the world it is known for the phenomenal success of Candy Crush, the game that revolutionized gaming on the smartphones.