Il Sole 24 Ore & La Stampa: For 77% of students, STEM disciplines offer more employment opportunities
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Sources:
- Il Sole 24 Ore
- La Stampa, also in physical edition from June 14th, 2024, page 49.
Pubished on June 13th, 2024 by Teleborsa.
Italian university students are focusing on STEM degrees and online education for greater job opportunities
June 13th, 2024
5 min reading
63% of Italian university students believe that a degree in technical, digital or IT disciplines offers greater job opportunities than all others, demonstrating the importance of STEM skills in obtaining more employment opportunities at the end of the university cycle. This is a preference that is expressed not only by those who attend degree courses in this field, but also by students of humanities universities.
Furthermore, undergraduates also have clear ideas about the different ways to attend courses: 57% prefer a hybrid model of university education, with a balanced combination of in-person and live streaming lessons, as well as asynchronous digital content that can be accessed at any time. However, since this polarization between in-person universities or online universities still exists in Italy (11 online universities in the country), 73% of university students declare that they would be willing to attend exclusively online university courses if they were of recognized quality; ideally, if they were able to make the choice of taking a degree path again, 44% of students would no longer orient themselves towards a physical university but towards an online one, as long as it is a quality one.
The data emerge from a survey by OPIT – Open Institute of Technology, an academic institution accredited at European level, that carried out a sample of 1500 high school and university students belonging to the Docsity community, a platform for sharing documents and content of student interest, with more than 15 million members.
The research was presented during the event “University education in the era of Artificial Intelligence” (L’istruzione universitaria nell’era dell’Intelligenza Artificiale) which took place in Turin at Spazio35 at the Intesa Sanpaolo skyscraper. Moderated by the journalist Enrico Pagliarini, the discussions included Professor Francesco Profumo, Rector of OPIT (Open Institute of Technology) and former Minister of Education; Elena Bonfiglioli, Global Business Leader of Microsoft; Germano Buttazzo, senior manager for the Academic sector of LinkedIn; Alessandro Risaro, founder of DataPizza; and Riccardo Ocleppo, founder of OPIT and Docsity.
Read the full article (in Italian) here:
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Source:
- Il Sole 24 Ore, Published on July 29th, 2024 (original article in Italian).
By Filomena Greco
It is called OPIT and it was born from an idea by Riccardo Ocleppo, entrepreneur, director and founder of OPIT and second generation in the company; and Francesco Profumo, former president of Compagnia di Sanpaolo, former Minister of Education and Rector of the Polytechnic University of Turin. “We wanted to create an academic institution focused on Artificial Intelligence and the new formative paths linked to this new technological frontier”.
How did this initiative come about?
“The general idea was to propose to the market a new model of university education that was, on the one hand, very up-to-date on the topic of skills, curricula and professors, with six degree paths (two three-year Bachelor degrees and four Master degrees) in areas such as Computer Science, AI, Cybersecurity, Digital Business; on the other hand, a very practical approach linked to the needs of the industrial world. We want to bridge a gap between formal education, which is often too theoretical, and the world of work and entrepreneurship.”
What characterizes your didactic proposal?
“Ours is a proprietary teaching model, with 45 teachers recruited from all over the world who have a solid academic background but also experience in many companies. We want to offer a study path that has a strong business orientation, with the aim of immediately bringing added value to the companies. Our teaching is entirely in English, and this is a project created to be international, with the teachers coming from 20 different nationalities. Italian students last year were 35% but overall the reality is very varied.”
Can you tell us your numbers?
“We received tens of thousands of applications for the first year but we tried to be selective. We started the first two classes with a hundred students from 38 countries around the world, Italy, Europe, USA, Canada, Middle East and Africa. We aim to reach 300 students this year. We have accredited OPIT in Malta, which is the only European country other than Ireland to be native English speaking – for us, this is a very important trait. We want to offer high quality teaching but with affordable costs, around 4,500 euros per year, with completely online teaching.”
Read the full article below (in Italian):
![](https://www.opit.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/EFMD-300x186.png )
Source:
- EFMD Global, Published on July 12th, 2024.
By Stephanie Mullins
Many people love to read the stories of successful business school graduates to see what they’ve achieved using the lessons, insights and connections from the programmes they’ve studied. We speak to one alumnus, Riccardo Ocleppo, who studied at top business schools including London Business School (LBS) and INSEAD, about the education institution called OPIT which he created after business school.
Please introduce yourself and your career to date.
I am the founder of OPIT — Open Institute of Technology, a fully accredited Higher Education Institution (HEI) under the European Qualification Framework (EQF) by the MFHEA Authority. OPIT also partners with WES (World Education Services), a trusted non-profit providing verified education credential assessments (ECA) in the US and Canada for foreign degrees and certificates.
Prior to founding OPIT, I established Docsity, a global community boasting 15 million registered university students worldwide and partnerships with over 250 Universities and Business Schools. My academic background includes an MSc in Electronics from Politecnico di Torino and an MSc in Management from London Business School.
Why did you decide to create OPIT Open Institute of Technology?
Higher education has a profound impact on people’s futures. Through quality higher education, people can aspire to a better and more fulfilling future.
The mission behind OPIT is to democratise access to high-quality higher education in the fields that will be in high demand in the coming decades: Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Cybersecurity, and Digital Innovation.
Since launching my first company in the education field, I’ve engaged with countless students, partnered with hundreds of universities, and collaborated with professors and companies. Through these interactions, I’ve observed a gap between traditional university curricula and the skills demanded by today’s job market, particularly in Computer Science and Technology.
I founded OPIT to bridge this gap by modernising education, making it affordable, and enhancing the digital learning experience. By collaborating with international professors and forging solid relationships with global companies, we are creating a dynamic online community and developing high-quality digital learning content. This approach ensures our students benefit from a flexible, cutting-edge, and stress-free learning environment.
Why do you think an education in tech is relevant in today’s business landscape?
As depicted by the World Economic Forum’s “Future of Jobs 2023” report, the demand for skilled tech professionals remains (and will remain) robust across industries, driven by the critical role of advanced technologies in business success.
Today’s companies require individuals who can innovate and execute complex solutions. A degree in fields like computer science, cybersecurity, data science, digital business or AI equips graduates with essential skills to thrive in this dynamic industry.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the global tech talent shortage will exceed 85 million workers by 2030. The Korn Ferry Institute warns that this gap could result in hundreds of billions in lost revenue across the US, Europe, and Asia.
To address this challenge, OPIT aims to democratise access to technology education. Our competency-based and applied approach, coupled with a flexible online learning experience, empowers students to progress at their own pace, demonstrating their skills as they advance.
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