Okay, good afternoon, good evening everyone. We are about to hear a pre-recorded session from our group in Sorrento organized by Jens Klein, one of our Plone boards of director members and a very long time contributor to the Plone platform. So please go ahead and take

it away, Jens. Hi everyone, I'm Joerg Zell from Interactif in Germany. Welcome to our talk Catch them if you can and if I say our talk you will see that we will probably set a new record

for the most speakers in any talk at any Plone conference ever. I will be joined in the next few minutes by many of my colleagues from the IT Onboard project and IT Onboard stands for IT community onboarding program vocational orientation for young people. This project is

partially funded by the European Union and basically it means that we want to address early onboarding of teenagers into the field of IT and also we have a special focus on open source communities like the Plone community. In this project we are three Plone companies and we also have partners which are not IT companies and they are

specialized in the organization of internships and vocational orientation in general. Catch them if you can, that's the title of this talk but why should you as Plone companies out there catch teenagers? Well some of the reasons are pretty obvious and universal to all of us

no matter where we are or how big our companies are. Our first point is that in many countries we're actually experiencing a shortage of trained and skilled people. The demand for IT experts is ever increasing and companies are in a constant struggle to find people to hire.

Some even call it a war for talents and with the demographic change coming in many countries this problem will even get bigger in the next years. My second point is if you have a closer look at open source communities you will see a lack of young people of a new generation in free

and open source. Interestingly according to a github classroom report from 2020 most IT students and this number is increasing over the years have already contributed to an open source project during their studies at least once and 11% do it at least once a month

or even more often. But the question is how could this translate into engagement? And speaking of engagement, Plone is a community and a community lives from engagement and Plone definitely needs young engaged people. And finally our problem in tech is not only

a lack of young talents but a lack of diversity in general or let's say a lack of diversity friendly working environments. Diversity meaning a broad range of people's backgrounds, regional origins, sexual orientation, gender and so on. For example if you have a look

at the representation of women many studies show that the tech industry remains toxic for the vast majority of women. Statistically speaking for the US for example women make up half of the overall US workforce but only 20% of the tech industry and less than 3%

of open source communities. And looking at the beginning of job careers we can also see a very sad number. Only 14% of job applications for a specialized IT job are actually coming from women. So this is the reality we face and we have to deal with and we want to change together. We

will hear from Stefania from Abstract how she deals with gender diversity in her company. Thank you Jorg and hi everybody. Indeed women are still unrepresented and according to a study by the German Federal Employee Agency only 16% in the IT sector are women. We need to break

down stereotypes. The typical computer nerds in my opinion tends to be assigned to men and moreover the isolated and antisocial character traits are usually associated with

professional excellence. These cliches do not really encourage women to enter the IT sector and this is for me one of the main reasons why equality is at the moment not really present. At Upstrap indeed we have established a balance of three to one in the distribution of training

and internships means that after three females we take next is a male candidate. We do it to break down prejudice. Mises against women in the workplace have been documented in variety of

studies. For example to American University compare the acceptance rates of contributions from men versus women in the open source community and surprisingly the results show that the code is more likely be accepted by women if the user profile on the platform in this case

is gender neutral. It says quite a lot and women in Upstrap so what we do women are computer nerds so yes women do not have to extra prove their competence. We fully agree that the general

requirements for educational policy to transfer IT skills in schools especially for women is really important. So yes the IT on board project aims to improve this inequality. But why is it so hard to attract young people and not only women for a career in tech?

And to get to the bottom of this question we asked teenagers in schools is IT something you consider to work in and we got a lot of answers in writing and so we tried to summarize their main reasons in 11 statements. Here we go. I am not really interested in a career in the

fixed workstation. I'm not interested working in the IT field because we spent the whole day in front of the screen. I'm not interested working in the field of IT because I'm not really interested in computers and that's why I only have basic knowledge of computers.

I'm interested in the professional future in the field of IT because the IT world covers many areas. I am interested in a professional future in the field of IT because you can be very creative in the job. I am interested working in the IT because I think it's very future-oriented

and it's constantly gaining in demand. I am interested working in the field of IT because I think it's pretty secure. I'm interested working in the field of IT in my future because I think you normally have a regular working day. I want to work for the IT industry in my future because I'm very fascinated in computers, consoles, videos and some other electronic stuff.

I'm not really interested working in the IT field because the programming language and computer skills scares me off. I'm not interested working in the IT field because I associate boring nine-to-five working days. Now let's listen to a point of view from Alexander Bell

from Spain. He's an internship expert and Cristina asked him some questions. For example, what advantages companies have from taking interns. Let's see what he had to say. Alexander is from

Spain. He is one of our partners for the IT on board program and he is the expert for internship. Tell me Alexander, what is EFC specialty? Good morning. Hello Cristina.

Yes, we are working in an international movement of workers and trainees in Spain. We are offering internships for trainees from all over the world and we have not only this offer, we are offering training programs for trainees and for workers to live

and to work in all different countries. How important is an internship for young professionals? Well, it's the first contact to reality for the trainee. Everything is getting real. The tasks are real and the colleagues are real. The feedback is real. I have to

be responsible with my work. It's not an exam, it's a reality and for me it's a proof. What I learned and now I see how I have to work, if it was the right choice for my future.

What are the advantages for companies? Oh, there are many advantages. On one hand for the development from young talents, it might be a future recruitment for my company. On the other hand, it's to attract young people if I have attractive internship programs. It's good for

the branding of the company. What should the company pay attention to an internship? Well, I think the first important thing is the trainee has to be treated with respect.

Then it's very important that we find the right tasks for the trainee. He can't be under challenge or over challenge. He or she needs a mentor and he or she has to be integrated in company life and in the team as soon as possible. We will make a guidance about

remove the internship. What should be a part of a remote internship? Well, the remote internship is not very different as a normal internship. We have to do the same, exactly the same organization. The social contacts are replaced

with online contacts, but it's exactly the same. There's no difference. Okay, what can be done removed and what should rather be done in real life? As I said before, removed we try to do exactly the same as in a potential

internship. Removed has the big advantage. We have no costs for traveling costs, not for to live in another place and we can send our internship everywhere we want to because

he doesn't need to travel. So that's one of the biggest advantages. I want to talk with you companies in the community on Friday on the open space about blended remote internship and I hope you will come and we can discuss and make a guidance

for you for a blended remote internship. Thank you and thank you, Alexander. Thank you, Christina. Bye bye. So in this talk we will show you some hands-on experiences from loan companies and from some non-IT companies about what they do to catch them and how they do it.

We are representing companies who want to take responsibility and to contribute to a new generation in IT and if you take away one message from this talk then it is no matter if we are a small company or a large company we all have to do something.

Why do you welcome interns in your company? An internship is a chance for the interns for the companies but also for the community. Well, we have a quite big company structure. We maintain free vocational training centers in the walls S&M and the training center of the

construction industry of North Rhine-Westphalia welcomes interns because we offer the possibility for them to get an orientation which kind of craft or which kind of training

they are able or their wills to make in future. It's only natural that we actively support the encouragement of young people in the IT. I think it's important to introduce and welcome young interested people into this world as best

as possible and we do it. It's also my personal concern. I'm a woman and a female manager director in this company so in a male-dominated industry to both I would like to share my experience and really help young people especially girls to onboard in the IT sector.

For us this is a kind of social responsibility and we got young people. Also it gives us outside insights into our company and for our products and we can adjust ourselves because of that. I have to say that most of our current full-time staff here started their

professional career actually with an internship with us. So for us an internship which in this case is mostly several weeks long is a very proven method to get to know each other. Our company and the intern have the opportunity to see if the job, the people, the company culture,

if that's all a good fit. And also I think it's our responsibility to offer opportunities even for very young talents to have a sneak preview into the job world and for those interns we offer shorter formats which normally last from one day to about two weeks.

What is the motivation for interns to come to you? Well I just can't argue. We have a very good atmosphere at our training centers and we offer a lot of different crafts on our training sites.

So I think the chance for the young people to get an orientation, what is the best training and what's the best craft in future for them should be a motivation. And

I think the payment during our apprenticeship, during the training time is one of the best in Germany. I would say Apsar is an attractive company for young people because we are a team where empathy is important. We are open-minded. Our product and services we offer for the

educational service sector are appealing and modern. We work with Python, one of the most popular modern code language also for gamers, very attractive. We are a digital agency and open for new spirits and fresh ideas. And we do not have to speak only German in order to work

with us. English is our main language. Very different. We had a young woman from finished high school and did the vocational orientation because she liked to study computer science and liked to know what is programming and so on. And in her third week she wrote robot

tests for the Bloem project. Others are just trying with programming that is also different in the length of the intern. It's like three weeks or four weeks and up to half a year. And I thought it would be best to hear from the interns, from former interns.

So I asked three of our current team members at Interactif who started their career with us with an internship. And here's what Luca, Richard and Lewis answered to the question, what motivated them to take up this internship? Hi, I decided to do an internship in the IT industry to learn about my own strengths and weaknesses in a day-to-day work environment.

Hi to everyone. Before I started my internship at Interactif, I already had some experience through my studies in computer science. But the internship offered a good opportunity to apply to knowledge practically. Well, in my case, I was already sure what I would like to do after graduating from

high school. I also knew the job. However, internships were a great way to get to know the team, how they work, and if I can get along with them. For me, working in a team always seemed to be quite complex. And I have to admit, it still is. Getting to learn new working methods and teamwork really helped me develop myself during my internship though. It also was a great all-around insight

in the dairy business of a company and how complicated problems were solved. Which additional vocational orientation activities do you support as a company? We are visiting fairs, which are spread all over Germany. And we have a special

bus. It is called Baubus, the construction bus. We are driving to schools and to fairs. And this bus is an old but very nice public transportation bus, omnibus.

And this is equipped with high technology, virtual reality, and mechanical devices for kids. And so they can try out in an experimental way how an excavator is piloted

or can be used. And it is very very funny as well as for adults like us. It's a very interesting thing. And of course, we have a lot of counselors visiting schools and all other institutions to make our branch, the construction branch, more attractive.

The European-wide and worldwide clients we have, and partners and colleagues, are an immersive option for our internship to learn different approaches in the field.

Additionally, we of course offer job place change, either in Berlin or Milan, which is very attractive for young people. We support and apply remote working and smart working models. And additionally, we encourage participation to sprints, workshop, conference

events, which are really appealing as well. Apart from offering internships, just before hiring young talents, we do some other stuff. For example, every year we proudly participate

in the Girls Day event and welcome girls, mostly seventh or eighth grade, to explore software development with us. And then also there are so-called career exploration days, where we cooperate with schools in our area and welcome teenagers and give them an introduction to programming and web development. Do you remember the last Plone Conference 2019

in Ferrara? I have been there with two interns and they presented very proud and smart the first steps in Plone. But it was not only their first step in Plone, it was their first

contact with the open source world. And a decade ago, Hannes told us that his internship at the Kleine and Pärtner Kaggi was his ticket to the Plone community. All right, thank you very much for sharing all your experiences. Let's now turn to our solution. Jens will tell us more about IT on board.

Building bridges. That was the idea. Bring them together. Our young talents, the pupils, the students and our Plone community, our IT community, open source community, IT organizations and offer internships in this environment. Is this enough? Probably not,

because students, pupils need to find out if they want to work in IT. And yeah, some want and some don't. This needs professional vocational orientation. Since we are IT companies with no

expertise in vocational orientation and only small expertise with internships, we found partners in exact those areas. Together, we developed a comprehensive concept and then, yeah, let's just do an Erasmus Plus project. Well, no, I don't tell the pitfalls,

but let's go on. Our concept to catch them all. This is five in a row, five pillars we stand on. In our concept, all is connected. First, we want just to raise interest with an escape game. And second, we give teachers a tool for IT project week to deepen interest. And next,

an e-learning tool helps to get pupils and students more into the different fields of IT. On the other hand, the virtual internship guide for blended remote internships give companies and how to run internships. And last but not least, we have an internship exchange platform

to connect pupils or students with the companies offering internships. Now, let's get more into detail. Our escape game targets early teenagers. It shows them typical job situations in the web development and IT professions.

Also, it shows the concepts of open source. The escape game is concepted to be played by 10 to 30 pupils divided into groups. Our project week guide offers a detailed concept for project week at schools on the topic of IT career orientation. Schools have the mandate to prepare

pupils adequate for life in society. And this includes preparing pupils for the professional world, in our case for the IT world. The e-learning platform offers pupils methods to learn on their own. It is composed of four courses, an introductory course on

professional fields of the IT industry overall, then one about the field of the software developer, another one about the front end developer, and the last one about the IT project manager. Additional discussion forums and collaborative formats are offered.

Now we come more back to the roots of our project. First, the idea was to offer internships for students in companies of our open source project. In the past, there were

some doubts about offering internships from different companies in the community. In our opinion, internships are important for companies and interns. And to lower the barrier, we developed a guide for the companies, primarily for companies with a focus on

community-based open source culture. But working and learning remotely have been deeply rooted in the IT industry anyway, but especially in the open source area and this for decades. Meanwhile, the EU Commission also got this idea and defined goals for an open

source software strategy 2020 to 2023, specifically to develop skills and recruiting expertise from open source and to increase outreach to the communities.

We are perfectly in line with our project with these goals. So we developed guidelines for an virtual internship. This can be blended and or remote. So this means blended with short

presence phases in the office or completely remote. This is how we work in open source, and this can be transferred to internships as well. Our guideline about blended remote internships starts with an introductory part about why you should offer internships,

addresses the fears of IT companies, shows you what types of internships are there and why you should do and offer internships. It also defines what a blended remote internship means and finally offers you a model of a blended remote internship, including a directed

concept, tools of remote work and a model of a process how to run an internship. The idea is to enable companies to easily have interns with them and profit on both sides from the relation.

Now, after we convinced the students that the field of IT is their profession, maybe, and we convinced the companies that interns are a good idea, we need to build

the bridge between students and the companies. As a tool to help here, we build an internship exchange platform. As you see, all parts of our project, all the outcomes are tightly interconnected. It starts in the school system and the educational system,

and then at some point it needs you, the company owner, the human resource manager, to employ interns. And you will find your workforce of tomorrow, the skilled young talents of today. So I hope you got some ideas in this talk on how to catch them. If you enjoyed this

talk and asked yourself how you can join us or contribute to this project, then I have some ideas for you. First of all, come to our open space to this conference on Friday.

Cristina will host an open space with the title blended remote internship. Check out the schedule at what time and where we met. Second, check out our project website at www.ionwatch.eu where you'll find more on all the products Jens talked about. Third, of course,

follow us on your preferred social media channel. We are on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, you named it. There will be tons of results coming in the following month. So make sure that you get all the updates and follow us. Then last but not least, please help us and get active. For example, we are looking for

beta testers for our products and deliverables. And we need people who want to help us to review our internship guides. Or if you know schools in Europe who are interested in our project week for our gamification approach with the escape game, let us know. The fastest way to contact

us is right after this talk. Check with us on the Plone Conference Slack channel or join our Jitsi channel. We are here during the whole Plone Conference. So thanks again for listening to our talk. Have a great conference. Go catch them if you can. Bye.