(by Francesco Pagano, Director of Aidr and Head of IT services at Ales spa and Scuderie del Quirinale) In the last 12 months we have been forced to resort to digital tools for everything: from distance teaching to the use of communication tools, from e -commerce to services to communicate with the Public Administration.
It is clear to everyone that, without these tools, dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions on movement would have been even more difficult than it has already been.
At the same time, all the limits that the country system suffers at a digital level have emerged, such as the (chronic) infrastructure deficit and still poor access to connectivity. All aspects on which one can and must intervene fairly quickly and, as has often been underlined by several parties, in these areas the determining factor is that of will.
The thorniest issue, however, concerns another aspect: that of digital literacy. Italy, in this field, is suffering a worrying delay on two distinct fronts.
The first concerns the ability to use digital tools effectively (and consciously). Our schools do not provide didactics dedicated to this theme and the praiseworthy exceptions are usually reduced to impromptu projects, often promoted by individual teachers.
The second front, much more problematic, concerns the training of those experts in the Internet sector and new technologies that are extremely necessary in order to reach that "qualitative leap" that is invoked by many. Let me be clear: this is not a problem that only concerns our country.
All the main analytical institutes, even in the private sector, have for some time been reporting a chronic shortage of resources adequately trained to meet market demands. Closing this gap is extremely urgent, especially in the public sector.
In this context, in fact, the institutions risk being left behind (once again), crushed by competition from the private sector.
However, the challenge for the education sector is not only quantitative, but also qualitative. Those involved in training in the IT sector must in fact deal with an extremely dynamic landscape, in which the needs (and consequently the skills required to satisfy them) change at an impressive speed. Not only that: the specificities of the sector also lead to focus attention on the issue of updating the skills themselves.
Will we be able to imagine and implement suitable forms to transform training so that it can guarantee these elements of dynamism and flexibility?
Form and methods are all to be invented. Having the awareness of having to face the issue, however, would already be a first (big) step forward.