Pilot for Disabled Students Yields Results in Rome

Making a big difference to people's prospects and lives.

A year-long pilot delivering CCNA Discovery to disabled students in Italy has been successfully concluded with at least one person in employment as a result.  A total of 13 participants at the ICT Academy in Rome have successfully completed the course, which is offered to students in partnership with the Associazione Paraplegici, a non-profit specializing in services for spinal injuries and individuals with paraplegic disabilities.

Of the first batch to go through the Cisco training, one has successfully found a networking position within the Centro per l’Autonomia, a municipal agency in Rome. Other students remain in education and continue to pursue their studies.

Luca Lepore, NetAcad lead for Italy, sets the results within the wider context of outreach work in his region: “Part of our remit is to extend training opportunities and all the benefits that they represent to those parts of society which are for whatever reason excluded.

“The EU has found that people with disabilities represent just under 20 percent of the overall European working age population. However their employment rate is comparatively low. Disabled people are almost twice as likely to be economically inactive as the non-disabled.  However, with a little more help, millions of disabled Europeans could enter or re-enter the job market.”