Thanks to Powercoders’ project, Gruppo SCAI has been awarded the UNHCR Italia logo “Welcome – Working for refugee integration” for its commitment to promoting concrete actions, training and job opportunities for young people with a refugee background.
The award ceremony took place in Rome on 13 May.
The Powercoders project started in 2019, with Turin, Italy being a pilot city. It aims to provide training and work opportunities for people with refugee backgrounds. Gruppo SCAI has obtained the logo Welcome – Working for refugee integration for 2020-2021 in recognition of the significant commitment shown in promoting specific inclusive society initiatives. Claudia Pizzato (Corporate HR Director) and Barbara Grossi (Corporate Training Manager) will represent Gruppo SCAI in Rome on 13 June 2022 at the award ceremony, with live streaming on the official UNHCR Italia YouTube channel.
The project by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is backed by the Ministry of Labour, Confindustria and the Global Compact Network and has the support of the Tent Foundation and the European Commission. It rewards companies that pursue a society model committed to the prevention and elimination of xenophobia and racism towards those who have been forced to abandon their homeland and who have found protection in our country.
In this fourth edition, 107 large, small and medium-sized enterprises and 41 civil society organisations have been awarded Welcome and WeWelcome logos.
Welcome – Working for refugee integration is not just a prize but a genuine work-inclusion programme. Thanks to the project, recent years have seen the establishment of numerous corporate partnerships between Italian companies and civil society organisations. Furthermore, refugee support has increasingly become a leading principle of the diversity & inclusion policies of companies operating in Italy.
“We are very happy to contribute to this initiative, in which we immediately believed, because these opportunities enable us to express some aspects of Gruppo SCAI’s mission statement,” comments Claudia Pizzato, Corporate HR Director of Gruppo SCAI. “It is categorically our wish to continue to support this programme which, in addition to its high social value, has the dual merit of providing young people with excellent technical preparation and stimulating their passion and curiosity. These are fundamental characteristics for continuous professional growth in the ICT sector.
I would like to underline the increasingly decisive role of technology in facilitating social inclusion and promoting the spread of 360-degree integration models. My special thanks go to Powercoders, for their involved contribution in this regard, and we look forward to an extension of achievements and positive impact.
The first Powercoders Italia class comprised 20 students (18 men and 2 women) from Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Algeria, Gambia, Libya, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Ethiopia and Morocco. The course students took part in recruiting days at companies, such as Gruppo SCAI, interested in finding new talent for their software developer teams.
A chance to win for young “programmers of their own future”, who gain access to job opportunities thanks to a training course that enhances skills which are often not recognised in Europe. It is also an opportunity for companies; motivated talent can grow into Full Stack Developers alongside their tutors. During three months of intensive training on the course, project participants and the colleagues they work with not only acquire new technical skills but also refine their soft skills. They learn that sharing is the basic principle guiding the work of a good programmer.
This experience can be seen in The SCAI CODE 6 magazine and in the special SCAI PLUG[+]IN.
“Gruppo SCAI has enthusiastically joined international projects promoting Diversity, Equity & Inclusion,” says Barbara Grossi, Corporate Training Manager at Gruppo SCAI, “such as Powercoders, which enabled us to get in touch with young people with life experiences that are profoundly different from those we are used to, and thanks to which we have put the contamination of skills into practice. This is because we believe in diversity: of ideas, experiences and interests.” And she concludes by saying:
Diversity: it can frighten, but it is a treasure.
It stands for new experiences, knowledge and sharing, and all this spontaneously leads to mental awareness, stemming from the possibility of seeing things from various points of view. Together with inclusion, and alongside training, diversity holds very strong power for growth, both human and professional.
One day, we trust, diversity will be synonymous with normality, but with a more stimulating and less banal meaning.
See the official press release (in Italian)
Follow UNHCR – YouTube
Read more about the PowerCoders project in Gruppo SCAI
See the SCAI Comunity page (in Italian)