In 2023, ESSA launched innovative learning programmes across eight EU countries, including Italy, to address the software skills gap. Partnering with The Adecco Group’s EU Digital Academy, Mylia, and Akkodis, the ESSA Junior Developer programme has already shown impressive results.
Arianna Guadagno from Adecco shared with us some details about the first programme: Junior Developer (EQF 4/5). Let’s see how it went!
Could you tell us more about the Digital Academy and the Junior Developer programme?
Since 2021, the Digital & Technologies division’s Recruiting Center has focused on recruiting and selecting young talents for full-time ICT training programmes called Digital Academies. Each year, the Digital & Technologies division launches over 20 Digital Academies. In 2023 alone, more than 90 individuals were hired through this initiative.
The ESSA Junior Developer learning programme pilot ran from November to December 2023. The course included 200 hours of theoretical and practical training, held Monday to Friday, with 8-hour sessions each day. Each week, trainers provided individual evaluations of each student’s progress, which were shared with the companies supporting the project from the start.
How many learners benefitted from the programme?
The application was open to everyone, and we widely promoted the opportunity on our social networks. The Recruiting Center screened over 500 CVs, interviewed more than 90 candidates, and selected 23 participants (coming from all over Italy), based on both soft and hard skills, ensuring the choice of participants who would benefit most from the programme. The selected group was diverse in terms of gender and educational background. At the end, 15 participants received the certificate of attendance (some had to drop out or could not reach the attendance threshold due to work reasons).
How did you connect the students with employers?
In October, we launched a webinar involving companies from our business network. In total the audience consisted of 34 participants (HR managers and recruitment managers), from 29 companies across Italy. Four companies decided to interview some candidates before the start of the course, while three other companies interviewed candidates at the end.
The first success factor of the webinar was its foundation in the project’s goal of building knowledge within the European context, where many Italian companies operate. No academy had previously offered such a guarantee! The second success factor was the flexibility given to companies to choose the hiring method that best suited their needs, without being constrained by a predefined number of hires.
And how many of these students are already employed?
So far, referring to the 15 participants who received the attendance certification, 9 of them have found employment (that means 60%)! Three of them have secured positions with the Digital Academy partner companies:
- Marco, aged 29: Employed as a Front-End Developer in an apprenticeship at our partner company specializing in Systems Integration Services.
- Giuseppe, aged 29: Employed as a Software Developer in an apprenticeship at our partner company specializing in IT Applications.
- Matteo, aged 24: Employed as a Technical Analyst in an apprenticeship at our partner company specializing in Business Consulting.
Over the past few months, we have shared the CVs of individual students with our business network partners. We are currently assisting the remaining six students in securing employment that aligns with their aspirations, and all of them have had job interviews.