The XXI century world of digitalisation is evolving increasingly fast and the European Union is successfully keeping up with the time. The Upskill project, with its objective of developing learning vocational training programmes by integrating digital, programming, circular economy and lean manufacturing skills within the plastics industry, represents a successful bulwark in this context.
As digital minds in the era of the artificial intelligence, it is legitimate to ask: are we walking alone along the path of the digital revolution?
Surely not.
Upskill has a valid ally in the achievement of the digital transition: its sibling is the
product of an initiative put in place by the former Finnish Presidency of the Council of
the European Union and consists in an online course providing the students with
Elements of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The challenge that the project aims at facing is
to fill the knowledge-gap caused by the growing transition of work towards digitalisation and the consequential need to boost the leadership of the European Union towards this change.
The University of Helsinki and the Finnish tech company Reaktor are the minds behind the development of the tool which aims at achieving high levels of engagement: the online course will in fact be free and will be offered in all 24 EU official languages. Elements of AI is already receiving a positive response by the innovators of today, being already available in English, Finnish, Swedish and Estonian. A similarly successful response is expected by the innovators of tomorrow; in fact, the course is designed to encourage people to learn the basics of artificial intelligence, whatever their age or education.
The success that the project has reached so far is demonstrated by the earlier achievement of its initial objectives in comparison with the expected timeline. The goal originally set was to have one percent of Finns (ca. 55,000 people) as registered and active students of the AI online course. This number was surprisingly reached just in a few months and Elements of AI is currently the most studied course offered by the University of Helsinki.
The cost of the initiative, a total of €1 679 000, will be funded from the budget of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland.
Visit this page for more details regarding the Finnish Elements of AI.
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