Samsung joins forces with MakerBot.
Samsung Electronics Europe is teaming with MakerBot to bringing 3D printers to classrooms across Europe.
Samsung and MakerBot are equipping schools, colleges and museums with 3D printers as part of Samsung’s digital skills programme. The first phase will launch in Germany, Italy, Spain, UK and Sweden this year and builds on Samsung’s network of 1,300 Smart Classrooms and 65 Digital Academies.
The vision behind the partnership is to combine design and coding classes with 3D printing so students can experience the full design cycle as a way to develop ideas and innovate.
“In response to the alarming skills gap and high levels of youth unemployment in 2013, we backed the European Commission’s Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs with a pledge to engage 400,000 young people across Europe by 2019. We will achieve our goal 3 years early so we can now invest further in educating thousands of young people in the latest digital skills,” Evelyn Nicola, Sustainability & Citizenship Manager, Samsung Europe, explained. “Our partnership with MakerBot will support a network of ‘Lighthouse Schools’ – centres of excellence for digital learning across Europe – to teach technology skills and encourage design and manufacture. Just imagine a 9-year-old girl with her idea for a new design, being able to turn her idea at school into reality and take home. Experiencing the entire creation journey, from idea to digital concept to physical object represents the future of learning and R&D.”
“Samsung and MakerBot share the same vision of developing new technologies that help prepare students for the jobs of the future,” said Andreas Langfeld, General Manager of MakerBot EMEA. “3D printing can help teach many of the 21st century skills that employers are looking for and applying knowledge to the real world. We’re excited to partner with Samsung to help even more educators and students discover the power of 3D printing.”
Collaboration to bring 3D printing to classrooms across Europe.
Europe faces particularly high youth unemployment levels with many young people leaving education without appropriate skills required for future jobs. Samsung is addressing these challenges with its two European citizenship programmes on digital education and employability.
Firstly, Smart Classrooms create new learning opportunities for 6–16 year olds. Since 2013, over 1,300 Smart Classrooms have opened across 20 countries in Europe, providing technology and educational content to teach digital skills such as coding.
The second programme, Digital Academies is Samsung’s targeted contribution to tackling the digital skills gap. There are over 65 of these learning centres across Europe, which allow 16-24 year olds access to smart technology, ICT training and employability programmes to help their transition from education to employment.
Education is also one of the main focus areas for MakerBot, providing education materials to classrooms across the globe and establishing several MakerBot Innovation Centres at university campuses in the U.S. and Europe.
