Over 600 workers from social and cultural cooperatives will strengthen their digital skills
The Pico Foundation, Legacoop's Digital Innovation Hub, has launched an innovative training project. A play on words like "digital" and "wise," they've named it Digiwise.
This involves over 1,000 hours of free online training for more than 600 people who work daily in the social and cultural sectors and who want to strengthen their skills in the use of digital technologies: from basic level up to the application of Artificial Intelligence .
Digiwise courses are open to employees and collaborators of cooperatives and social enterprises in coordination, administrative, educational, social, healthcare, cultural, and other third sector roles.
The training project, selected and supported by the Fund for the Digital Republic , is promoted by the Pico Foundation together with the 4Form Consortium, the national training body of Legacoop and Open Formazione, in collaboration with Legacoopsociali and Culturmedia.
According to Simone Gamberini , Legacoop president: "With the progressive and unstoppable spread of Artificial Intelligence in all work environments, it becomes essential to provide cooperative workers with all the skills necessary to use digital tools and languages effectively."
«Digiwise's training proposal», explains Piero Ingrosso , president of the Pico Foundation "was designed to respond specifically to the needs of those who work in different roles in social, cultural and educational contexts."
« The point of reference is the European DigiComp framework , which has allowed us to develop differentiated training paths depending on the levels of competence and the roles covered within the cooperative», he concludes.
The Digiwise training program is divided into three modular levels:
- Soft & Life Skills for Digital (4 hours): An introductory module that helps participants improve the soft skills needed to work effectively in professional contexts, such as communication and collaboration.
- Digital Literacy (8 or 12 hours): A program to strengthen fundamental digital skills, based on the EU Commission's DigComp 2.2 framework, which includes data management, digital communication, and online safety.
- Specialized Training (44 hours): an opportunity for specialization, with three distinct paths:
- Coode – Cooperative Digital Education : aimed at those who work in schools and extracurricular services, to educate young people and adults on the use and impacts of digital media.
- Citizenship and Digital Inclusion: to transform social workers into digital facilitators, capable of promoting the digital inclusion of the most vulnerable groups (people with disabilities, the elderly, and foreign citizens).
- E-democracy: to strengthen the digital and design skills of cooperatives collaborating with public administration.
"If in social work, relationships are everything," says Massimo Ascari , national president of Legacoopsociali, "today, to build effective and inclusive relationships, it's increasingly necessary to also know how to inhabit the digital space. Social workers cannot consider technology a distant sphere : they must understand it and use it consciously. We can improve the effectiveness of our work, but also become true digital enablers for the most vulnerable, who risk being excluded from rights, services, and opportunities."
"Cultural cooperatives create relationships between communities and their tangible and intangible cultural heritage, generating awareness, welfare, and development," says Giovanna Barni, president of Culturmedia. "Today, these challenges require both social and digital innovation, and we are confident that combining our collaborative and generative soft skills with our digital expertise will help achieve both goals, thanks to this project."
“Digiwise: Towards a Participatory and Inclusive Digital Democracy” is a public-private partnership that supports digital inclusion for vulnerable groups, such as young people, women, the unemployed, and social economy workers.
To register or get more information: digiwise.pico.coop
Top photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash
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