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Whether it is schools, universities or companies, the growing need for training to keep up with a constantly changing working reality increasingly focuses on digital technologies, capable of providing flexible and suitable solutions for the ongoing transformation. Italian companies dedicate 40% of their training budget to forms of digital learning, for an average of 480 thousand euros per organisation. In universities, 5.6% of the university budget is currently allocated to digital transformation.
The data from the EdTech Observatory of the Polytechnic of Milan, now in its second edition, illustrates a rapidly expanding sector with a turnover of around 2.8 billion euros in 2022, with a growth of 26%, which exceeds that of the world market. The global revenue of companies offering hardware and software solutions to support education is expected to grow 15% to $142 billion this year, with an average annual expansion rate of 13.6% through 2030.
Italy also stands out when it comes to financing innovation. If at a global level venture capital investments substantially halved last year compared to the boom of the 2020-21 two-year period (from 20.8 to 10.6 billion dollars), Italy goes against the trend and, indeed, stands out as one of the few countries where VC investments in the EdTech sector have increased. Funds for startups more than doubled with a leap of 137.5%, although – it must be said – this performance can be traced back to a lower starting level.
Among the emerging trends in the field of innovation, the “gamification” of the educational experience is by far predominant, not only in the teaching sector in schools and universities, but also involving training processes in companies. On the other hand, among the advantages cited by the adoption of digital solutions for teaching in the head are the involvement of students, the inclusion of more introverted children and those with specific needs and the increase in the effectiveness of the learning process.
Teaching must in fact increasingly adapt to a model of learning and knowledge of younger generations that has become less linear and faster, made up of frequent transitions between different devices and connections between diversified subjects and themes.