Codemotion and Bending Spoons launch Next-Gen Project: 400 hours of tech training for 200 high school students

• Next-Gen Project, the educational project created by Codemotion and Bending Spoons, will involve 200 female students from 5 high schools throughout Italy: two in Milan, two in Turin, one in Rome and one in Catania.
• The project aims to help reduce the #gendergap in STEM subjects and bring young people closer to the potential of Artificial Intelligence programming, which is fundamental for today’s and tomorrow’s job market.
• Female students will also have the opportunity to apply new tech knowledge to propose solutions to the issue of climate change by participating in a one-year program divided into two phases: March and October 2023. The plan has a total of 400 hours of training and 104 laboratories.

At the starting blocks, the Next-Gen Project, the educational project created by Codemotion, the reference platform for the professional growth of developers and companies looking for the best IT talents, and Bending Spoons, an international company based in Milan that develops technologies and state-of-the-art digital products. Created to bridge the gender gap in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), 200 female secondary school students are the target of the Next-Gen Project: with 400 hours of educational content and 104 laboratories to complete the training, the project aims to provide female students with the necessary skills in coding and Artificial Intelligence, to create original projects and software solutions on the theme of climate change.

Starting in March 2023, the Next-Gen Project already involves several schools in Milan, Turin, Rome and Catania: in the Lombard capital, the James Clerk Maxwell Institute of Higher Education and the Caravaggio State Art School; in Turin, the Renato Cottini State Artistic High School and the “Charles Darwin” Scientific, Linguistic, Human Sciences High School; in Rome, the Liceo Scientifico Plinio Seniore; finally in Catania the I.S.I.S. “Duke of the Abruzzi.”

During the project, the students of these institutes will have the opportunity to learn more about the Javascript programming language. They will interface to create interactive prototypes of innovative services, data visualization projects, software and generative art. Another objective will be exploring the most recent coding and machine learning potential, such as virtual assistants, image generators or AI art. Finally, the students will apply the notions learned, through the creative and conscious use of technology, to the theme of climate change and develop possible solutions based on the teachings of the course. Three of the Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations for 2030 will lead the project: quality education, gender equality, and the fight against climate change.

The training has two phases, including online workshops and mentoring sessions conducted by Codemotion and Bending Spoon’s experts: the first between March and May and the second from October 2023 (in the new school year). At the end of the two moments, there will be a face-to-face meeting with the Bending Spoons team and a closing event in December. Furthermore, the Next-Gen Project offer includes accessing continuous support delivered online via the Discord platform.

“Analytical thinking, familiarity with coding and the ability to implement creative problem-solving processes will guide the future labour market, especially for women: studies said that by 2030 between 40 and 160 million women worldwide will have to renegotiate their job position by acquiring new digital skills. In Codemotion, we believe it is important to start training processes dedicated to young digital and programming enthusiasts right from school, to show them what and how many opportunities the future offers them thanks to technology”, declares Chiara Russo, CEO and Co-Founder of Codemotion. “Working on the Next-Gen Project with Bending Spoons allows us to collaborate with an Italian and international technological excellence, putting our various skills at the service of a project that wants to have a real impact on the participants’ future”.

“The solutions to the great problems of the future will have to be increasingly innovative. Climate change, for example, is an unprecedented challenge, so we proposed it as the theme of the Next-Gen Project: solving problems with creativity, flexibility, and transversal knowledge will be the main challenge that professionals in tech of tomorrow will face. And it is also a skill that we would like the project participants to acquire, together with digital and technological knowledge”, says Massimo Avvisati, Head of EdTech R&D at Codemotion. “Like Codemotion, Bending Spoons also strongly believes in this project: in addition to enthusiastically sponsoring it, it makes video contributions of educational and inspirational value available to female students, including technical content and an interview with an AI Engineer”.

“At Bending Spoons, we recognize the incredible value that women, and more broadly, greater diversity, can bring to the global tech industry. We hope that this small contribution will help the new generation of female students to discover and make their passion for technology and its application to real problems flourish”, declares Silvia Trebini, Senior Recruiter of Bending Spoons.

For more info, visit the website www.nextgenproject.tech.