Can call centre workers become digital facilitators?
In a new article published in Agenda Digitale, Mirta Michilli, Director General of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, analyses the strategic role of digital facilitation as a lever for reducing social divides and promoting more inclusive citizenship.
Italy is advancing in digitalisation, but more than half of its citizens do not have basic digital skills. To bridge this gap, the PNRR has activated a network of over 3,000 facilitation centres, local spaces where trust, skills and participation are built.
In the Lazio Region, a proposed regional law could pave the way for the retraining of call centre workers as new digital facilitation professionals, combining innovation, job protection and social proximity, and transforming the centres into permanent hubs of active citizenship.
“The problem is not only technical. It is cultural, relational and political,” writes Mirta Michilli. “Digital services must be designed with attention to the user experience, accessible and understandable. But public administrations must also learn to 'see” citizens in their entirety: not as users who fail, but as people to be accompanied. We need a hybrid and inclusive approach that combines digital tools, physical assistance and civic education.
We need shared responsibility: between institutions, technology companies, third sector organisations and local authorities.‘ Therefore, ’it is not enough to open an online service for everyone to access. We need to create the conditions for real access. Digital skills are not a luxury, but the grammar of citizenship in the 21st century. Digital facilitation centres can be the turning point, but only if they are part of a system that recognises them for what they are: strongholds of everyday democracy'.
Citizenship
Digital facilitation, the key to combating social divides: the Lazio model
Italy is advancing in digitalisation, but 54% of citizens lack basic digital skills. The digital facilitation centres activated by the PNRR represent the solution to transform exclusion into active and participatory citizenship.
by Mirta Michilli
Digital Agenda, 6 October 2025
