The Italian Makers Community Project, promoted by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale and INAIL Lazio in collaboration with CAN, will involve schools and craftsmen in the Lazio Region. Pilot actions will involve 400 youths and test an innovative “life education methodology” moulding knowledge, competences and values. The project will be presented on Thursday, October 24 at 10 am at the INAIL headquarters in Rome (via Nomentana 74).
Building the control board for a ship, developing books that don’t wear, installing a photovoltaic panel, working precious gems, curving wood to make a barrel, producing special digital effects, repairing a car that has been involved in an accident, sewing a custom-tailored dress … these are just a few complex abilities that require more than just manual dexterity.
Over twenty artisanal enterprises in Lazio have decided to join The Italian Makers community project to create a multi-sector network to help youth identify unused sites, start new activities, relaunch old trades with new technology, promote the culture of prevention and security and enrich local social capital. It’s not just about opening up shops and school laboratories, but working together – with the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, INAIL and CNA-ASQ (the CNA Environment, Security and Quality Department) – to create a new picture of craftsmen as “The Italian Makers” and promote an new mentality: you don’t look for work you create it. And that is the project slogan.
The project will be presented to the press and interested citizens on Thursday October 24 at 10 am at the INAIL Headquarters in Rome (Via Nomentana, 74). One hundred students from the participating schools and their teachers will meet craftsmen from Lazio together with Antonio Napolitano Director General INAIL Lazio, Mirta Michilli, Director General Fondazione Mondo Digitale, Lorenzo Tagliavanti, Director CNA Lazio, Marta Leonori, Rome Productivity Councillor, Alfonso Molina, Professor of Technology Strategy at the University of Edinburgh and Scientific Direcxtor of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale and Luca Iaia, National Coordinator CNA-Young Entrepreneurs.
The initiative entails the training of 400 youths in a series of phases based on the “life education model” developed by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale (knowledge, competences and values): training in schools for the competences necessary to start an artisanal enterprise, laboratories to develop the specific skills needed to kick off such an activity, problem solving, communication and networking and the development of a local multi-sector network to identify unused sites where to begin these new activities and start apprenticeship agreements to kick off the new activities.
The project will also launch an awareness raising campaign to revamp the image and appeal of manual activities as more than just “knowing how to do things.” These are modern trades that can employ technology to fully exploit technology to provide for all local needs
The event will also feature an exhibition of works – created with a vast array of materials ranging from waste to protection equipment - by 13 artists on the them of work safety.
Watch the video documentary produced by video-maker Francesco Faralli (short version).
Read the blog by Elisa Battista on Laureati Artigiani (Craftsmen with Degrees).
