Paidea

Paidea was established in June 2016. The company’s headquarters is in Naples and, from the very beginning, its main aim has been to enhance its social and productive fabric. One of the ways to achieve this objective is by innovating educational curricula taking into account the society and job market requirements in order to create a bridge between the world of education and the world of work.

Paidea’s main objectives can be summarised in 3 key words: innovation, education and planning. Social and technological changes have affected students’ approaches to learning, which highlights the need to find innovative methodologies/tools to increase pupils’ engagement and motivation. It focuses on finding alternative solutions to the main challenges schools have to face:

-what can be done to reduce early school leaving and improve students’ academic performances?

-how can school become an inclusive environment in which everyone has the opportunity to develop their potential despite their socio-cultural and economic background?

-what are the skills educational programmes should focus on to reflect society/labour market’s needs?

Technological innovation plays an increasingly prominent role in the development of our society. Due to its exponential growth, we can predict that in the future new professional and environmental challenges will be presented, therefore it’s crucial to enhance educational programmes that will foster digital and entrepreneurial skills, also considering that in 2020 Italy ranked 25th over the 28 EU Members in the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), and in 2021 it gained five positions but there’s still much work to do in terms of digitalisation.  

For this reason Paidea’s activities are targeted to three specific groups, which are deeply interconnected: schools, young people and companies. 

-Schools: Paidea researches, designs and implements training activities and projects that integrate technology and innovative methodologies. Its main field of action concerns coding and educational robotics, programming and STEM disciplines. In the last case, special attention is given to the urgency of increasing the number of young people choosing scientific, technological careers, due to a considerable decline in recent decades where, in particular, environmental challenges impose the necessity of these experts and competences. 

-Young people: Seeking employment and becoming integrated into the labour market is a difficult and long process that requires a high quality job orientation which takes into account youngsters' inclinations and abilities as well as companies’ needs.  Paidea offers support to young people and provides them with professional opportunities such as stage and apprenticeship offers, in addition it implements initiatives linked to active employment policies and promotes and develops projects, also at a European level, concerning the education and employment of young people, adolescents and NEETs.

-Companies: Paidea collaborates with associations, companies and institutions which mainly deal with technology, innovation as well as research and development in different fields. In addition Paidea carries out vocational training and continuing professional education, supports companies in the digitalisation process, resource optimization, development of customisable and modular management software and platforms;  

Activities Description

Paidea for schools:

• planning and implementing interactive training activities; 
• developing tools and workshops aimed at acquiring new skills;non-formal training programmes aimed at school and educational success as well as at preventing early school leaving;
• promoting, providing and managing training activities as well as professional courses, supplementary activities for educational and professional purposes, company internships and other education and training services;
• teacher training programmes focused on new technological tools and new teaching methods;

Paidea for companies:

• vocational training and continuing professional education, promotion of personal resources, refresher courses and vocational retraining;
• support in the selection and evaluation of human resources and company assessment using LEGO® Serious  Play® methodology;
• advices to companies for the digitisation process, resource optimization, development of a customisable and modular management software; 

Paidea for young people:

• orientation and implementation of initiatives linked to active employment policies;
• promotion and development of projects, also at a European level, concerning  the education and employment of young people, adolescents and NEETs.

• Since 2020 Paidea is an official member of the Digital Skills and Job Coalition and has participated in all the conferences and initiatives carried out until now;
• In 2020, due to the Covid-19 outbreak and schools’ need for an e-learning platform, it developed a video conferencing platform, Banchi Digitali, for remote teaching and class management through which sharing materials, providing new interaction opportunities and promoting collaborative learning. Paidea also provided support for registration, management and technical issues. About 20 educational projects have been carried out on Banchi Digitali.
• In 2021 it developed Egi plus, an interactive e-learning book on economics and business management, commissioned by the Economics, Management and Institutions Department of the University Federico II of Naples, used in business administration and management courses by around 500 students. Topics: from digital marketing to new online fundraising tools and blockchain digitalisation.
• Roobopoli: Roobopoli® is a project that aims to create an educational experience in the field of smart-cities, smart-industries and smart grids, and has been developed by Perlatecnica, a not-for-profit association promoting technological literacy, with the technical support of Bluenet, a member of the STMicroelectronics Partner Program and in collaboration with Paidea. The mission of the project is to promote the understanding, development and experimentation in scale of new communication technologies, environmental protection and energy efficiency. Roobopoli ensures an educational experience for learning about robotics and the programming of new-generation microcontrollers. 
• Paidea has also designed, in association with two not-for-profit associations: Perlatecnica and Fondazione Ferraro, the project “EduCare”, funded by the Ministry for the Family,  which resulted in the creation of a fablab to implement different activities related to the smart cities. The fablab is open to the territory and engages students, children, citizens, and adults in three workshops: Roobopoli, to learn about programming and microcontrollers, Rooboprint to experiment with 3D printing and Roobomaker to learn how to use a laser cutter. Paidea has co-written the project and is responsible for the management of Rooboprint.
• From 2021 Paidea is an accredited Pekit center. The PEKIT Project® is a Training and Certification program, which certifies knowledge of information technology in the ICT field, issued by the Onlus Foundation Europe Development. The PEKIT Certifications and the PEKIT training courses have been recognized by the M.I.U.R with the provision A00DGPERS 6235 of 25/06/2010.