World Youth Skills Day 2022

In 2014, the United Nations General Assembly declared 15 July as World Youth Skills Day (WYSD), to celebrate the strategic importance of equipping our young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship opportunities.

Since then, WYSD events highlighted the ever-increasing significance of skills as the world is embarking on a transition towards a sustainable model of development.

World Youth Skills Day 2022 takes place amid concerted efforts towards socio-economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that are interconnected with challenges such as climate change, conflict, persisting poverty, rising inequality, rapid technological change, demographic transition and others.

Convinced that young people’ engagement in global processes is vital to generate positive change and innovation, La Fondation Dassault Systèmes is still committed to enhancing scientific, technical and engineering skills by supporting or co-creating worldwide projects throughout India, the United States, and Europe. More than ever, these are the skills required to build a more sustainable and equal world.

In that perspective, here are three of La Fondation’s actual projects supporting the WYSD 2022, still embracing United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including education, employability, inclusivity and transdisciplinary skills.

MassRobotics’ Jumpstart Fellowship program

MassRobotics’ mission is to inspire and educate the next generation to head towards the fields of robotics and technology. La Fondation Dassault Systèmes supports MassRobotic’s JumpStart Fellowship program, which was launched in 2021 in the aim to empower girls in the tech field, and help them build their confidence with tools and technology in the perspective of triggering an appetite for STEM and robotics.

This program encourages diverse Massachusetts high school girls to learn about careers in robotics and develop their professional networks through direct engagement with industries, from programming to design and simulation to hands-on building, prototyping and testing. Its curriculum exposes young women to many technical skills; it is designed to address the technology skills gap by getting female students eager about robotics, and provide them with the experience they need to consider robotics, mechanical and tech as a career path.

This initiative experienced great success in 2021 and was replicated from January to mid-May 2022, positively concluded with internships at local robotics companies.

The Aspira program in India

In the aim of stimulating girls to get adapted skills for their future and in partnership with the Lila Poonawalla Foundation, La Fondation Dassault Systemes launched a dedicated program in India called ASPIRA – Fulfilling Girl Students Aspirations through Education.
This program’s main objective is to offer education opportunities to underprivileged bright girl students who are financially challenged. While providing these young girls with structured skilling and development programs, the ASPIRA program allows them to be inspired to become “Society Change Makers”.
The Graduate ASPIRA program is meant to accompany the students for 4 years, from admission to graduation. Besides financial assistance for the education fees, La Fondation Dassault Systemes also involves them in various workshops to introduce to, and train them in the technological fields, in order to empower their skills.
The fundamental key of this program stands out through the involvement of 3DS women employees as volunteers. Furthermore, the female colleagues can be located all around the world and still be able to participate in this program as mentors.

UniLaSalle’s GeoLab: diving into the ocean of science

As it is crucial to raise public awareness about sustainable development issues, the Institut Polytechnique UniLaSalle has been focusing in the past years on using and developing the skills of students, to walk through their Oceanic Sciences program within the GeoLab.

La Fondation Dassault Systèmes enthusiastically supported both the set-up of the GeoLab, as well as the matching of innovative curricula and research themes. Young people will therefore have the opportunity to take a professional part in marine issues, thanks to innovative educational activities, pedagogical scientific research for a better understanding of ocean dynamics, and the development of accurate training.
Last year, the students’ new skills allowed them to develop the 3D modelling of a virtual environment, featuring an offshore wind farm and a visualization of its operation. They were also involved in the set-up of a 3D reef model equipped with environmental sensors, the design and production of a water acidity regulation device prototype, the bio-mimicry based design of wave breezes, and several simulations to assess the potential of the designed equipments.