The digitalization of society offers an unlimited field for innovation, and, with the support of information and communication technologies (ICT), we are transitioning towards a rapidly evolving context of novel, unexpected technological, societal, and industrial challenges. Through the disruptive changes it induces, it also raises unprecedented challenges that address both ethics, business, industry, innovation, social relationships. One of the challenges focuses on IT graduates’ employability and the way to better match their competencies with the fast evolving market’s needs and to help the industry to better understand young graduates expectations. The European (France, Germany, Italy and Romania) task force comprises four leading Universities, four corporate partners, with the support of local authorities, and it aims at gathering companies’ needs and priorities, and developing and implementing relevant evolutionary process of 4 seminars, far beyond a classical student’s exchange framework or a new ICT module. For each seminar, we focus on an emerging technology that is disrupting the current technological paradigm (such as AI, Internet of Things, Blockchain, Assistive Robotics, Artificial Intelligence) along with its related socio-economic implications (such as Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Multiculturalism, Globalization, Ethics, Privacy).Target groups in the committed institutions are young, local and international IT master students and teacher-researchers whose expertise could be sharpen through workshops and seminars between the academia and the industry in shared curricula. The industry will also profit from this trialogue. An open resource library, a white paper and multiplier events in the four European countries will ensure an appropriate dissemination in order to increase awareness among diverse stakeholders. As a conclusion, FIT EUROPE aims to create a platform which enables the industrial and academic participants to develop methods and practices, analyse social and/or economic impacts of emerging technologies and to produce new knowledge on how IT can contribute to boundary-breaking innovations that will enable ambitious development and growth in intelligent socio-technical futures, all of which combines to realise the goal of educating ‘Future IT leaders for a Multicultural, Digital Europe’.
First, the FIT Europe project aimed at identifying the needs and priorities of companies, as well as IT students’ expectations on their future career and its impact on society. The consortium wished to evaluate the gaps between industry expectation and academic programme, and between the students’ skills and what they will actually do in companies, as well as reducing those gaps. Then, the project aimed at creating curricula to better prepare IT master students to the challenges raised by disruptive technologies. The partners wanted to develop and implement a relevant evolutionary process of 4 seminars, going beyond a classical student’s exchange framework or new ICT module. They aimed at creating replicable innovative curricula that could be implemented on the long-term. By developing this project at a European scale, the partners also wished to show that interculturality can be a game-changer to change ways of thinking. In other words, the partners wanted to offer another experience to students and trainers, by developing more effective programmes.
Before applying for this project, the consortium members acknowledged that although digitalisation of society offers an unlimited field for innovation, it also creates new technological, societal, and industrial challenges. Emerging technologies are disrupting IT infrastructures, opening a stupendous range of application opportunities. To anticipate the future of IT, all stakeholders of this transformation should gather their competences, skills and vision. The applications of such technologies also raise ethical and societal challenges: future IT leaders should be aware of the risks for the society and environment. Finally, digital transformation will impact the structural and economic organisation of companies. Because of these transnational challenges and impacts on society, IT now requests an interdisciplinary approach with synergies from diverse fields such as social sciences, management and law. This was one of the key elements in the development of this project. Finally, the project aspired to tackle issues regarding employment and the growing gap between industry and academy by developing the employability of students with competencies matching the needs of the market.