Universities and the jobs of the future: a discussion in Rome with 1,400 sixth-form students

Looking ahead to the challenges of the future at the very moment when you are about to make one of the most important decisions of your life: choosing which university course to follow. This is the aim of “Human, +Ideas, People and Innovations in the Professions of the Future’, an initiative by the Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome (UCBM), organised in collaboration with Skuola.net, which brought over 1,400 secondary school pupils from Rome and the Lazio region to Rome.

“We live in a constantly evolving world, in which artificial intelligence, robotics, advances in medicine and engineering, as well as innovations in food and sustainability, are transforming professions and the way we live,” explains the Vice-Chancellor of UCBM, Rocco Papalia. “These changes open up extraordinary possibilities, but they also raise questions that call for sound judgement and a sense of responsibility.” Throughout the day, the pupils were encouraged to reflect on their own aspirations and explore new career horizons so that they could make more informed choices about their university studies.

“Guidance does not mean pointing out a pre-determined path, but helping each student to recognise their own,” emphasised Anna Paola Sabatini, Director-General of the Regional Education Office for Lazio. “With this event, we want to encourage secondary school pupils to tell us about their aspirations, their passions, their dreams and their fears for the future. We want to listen to them and encourage them so that we can understand how university can support them in a way that is increasingly beneficial to their future careers,” concluded Andrea Rossi, Chief Executive and Director-General of UCBM.