Work and education: a winning connection between University and Business
In our opinion, debating on corporate training and the connection between Universities and the world of work is always of great relevance and it needs an in-depth study.
We’ve already talked about the importance of combining business and training and about how, from the very beginning, BionIT Labs® worked hard on building strong relationships with training institutions. Concerning this, the Partnerships with the University of Salento, the Polytechnic of Bari and the Polytechnic of Turin were very useful.
The company itself takes shape from these values when, in 2015, our CEO, Giovanni Zappatore, involved many young students – which are now part of our Team – in his thesis project with the aim of creating ” Adam’s Hand”, The World’s First Fully Adaptive Bionic Hand.
Human Capital: investing in education is important for the team and the whole society
Countless data, statistics and economic theories agree on the essential value of investing in ‘human capital’. This is important for the improvement of knowledge, skills, even the health of an individual and obviously for the development of businesses. Consequently, this could positively affect the entire economic framework and society.
It is well known that the positive outputs of company productivity contribute to the improvement of the ‘quality of life’ of people, not only in their working environment.
Our constant relationship with the world of education
Research thesis and curricular internships
Since the beginning we’ve tried to have at least two trainees per semester in the company to develop research projects or training placements, both curricular and extracurricular.
We started this experience in 2020 with Erasmo, from the University of Bari and Alessia, from Polytechnic of Turin, involved with their research thesis with us.
After that, we collaborated with Laura Di Benedetto, biomedical engineering student, and Mirea Stanton, intern in the Marketing department.
Then, during 2021, Francesco Lorusso and Debora Calderoni were our trainees, both Biomedical Engineers, and they have been involved in important activities for the Product Design Department.
Research fellowship
Still speaking about education and training, one of our latest news is Chiara Danese, who did her internship and work on her thesis with us, and now she continues her experience in the company, thanks to the partnership with the Riparti project – an Apulia Region initiative that finances professional research grants which aims to include new business opportunities in the regional production system.
PhD Program
Also Damiano Potenza, who already worked in the Department of Electronics continues today his activity in the company as a PhD student. His research thesis, “Design of a highly integrated control and power supply system powered by AI for a myoelectric robotic hand prosthesis“, is an important development project of Adam’s Hand®. This research has been made possible thanks to the grant funded by BionIT Labs® in collaboration with the Polytechnic of Bari and the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL).
Internship with BionIT Labs®
In the coming weeks we will also start a new research project in Biomedical R&D with Giulia Cannoletta, who is writing her thesis with us for the University of Pisa. Moreover, we are going to start a project with Luca Rizzo, a student from the University of Salento, for a curricular internship in the Department of Computer Science as a software developer.
Also the Marketing department has a new resource, Camilla Zecca, Digital Media Specialist Intern and former student of the Master in Business Management, Digital Marketing & Social Media at AFORISMA School of Management.
With Camilla, we attended the ASFOR Master Day on October 6 at the School. On this occasion, we stressed the need to create an efficient, direct and continuous link between study and work, which means between training institutes and corporates, to enable young students to develop the necessary skills to be competitive in the world of work and to develop their sense of entrepreneurship.
We’re directly involved in this phenomenon as an innovative enterprise of the med-tech, a not very widespread sector in the south of Italy, but nevertheless, in the last few years, it has attracted more and more investments.
Actually, many courses of study are being proposed in the medical and biomedical field in the last period, as well there is an increase of business and research opportunities in the South: an example is the biomedical district of Medtronic which has been recently landed in Puglia.
What is the BionIT Labs® Academy?
All these elements and the experiences we gained with the young students of our land, led us to prospect a structured training path, to be carried out inside the company. So we shaped a new project: the BionIT Labs® Academy!
Our goal is to involve students of master’s studies, building with them a long-term training path: in this way, the student will gain more work experience, participating in different activities over time, and the company will be able to better evaluate his skills and a possible professional growth.
The Academy will involve the trainee by planning the activities to be carried out with efficiency: these ones will be developed with the support of the various business departments, using a practical-operational approach, that will allow the student to live the company’s working environment to the fullest.
The continuous monitoring of the training activities by the company tutor will facilitate the evaluation of the trainee as a potential future stable resource to be integrated into the BionIT Labs® Team.
Moreover, the student will have access to company training activities courses, usually reserved for employees – in addition to a constant interaction with a multidisciplinary skilled team that, for sure, will stimulate the interest of the resource.
Synthetically, we will collaborate with the training institutions with the following types of activities:
- Curricular internship
- Extracurricular internship
- Thesis and Research
In addition, the participants who will stand out will be evaluated to continue the activity with: scholarships for PhD, research projects grant and/ or recruitment in the company.
Our main goal: truly enhance people and their work
Current trends in the world of work prefigure companies capable and committed to invest in training and growth for employees, professionally and as human beings.
We aim to become a performing reality also for what concerns corporate welfare and employer retention, working on strategies that give more and more attention to the overall well-being and able to improve the quality of life of the Team.
More than ever, we are called to develop the potential of our resources, focusing on their skills and improving their productivity. Only in this way we will be able to reduce the long-standing problem of the ‘’brain drain’’, bringing real value to the world of education and work.
Do you want to become a protagonist of our Academy? Apply now!
