NSI Week: 20,000 young people met and 270 events organized to encourage vocations in tech!

From December 8 to 13, the Semaine du Numérique et des Sciences Informatiques (NSI) (Digital and Computer Sciences Week) reminded us of our conviction that guidance is built on encounters.

Classrooms, amphitheaters, companies, campuses, laboratories, research centers… everywhere, middle and high school students were able to meet the people who make digital life happen. For this third edition, the ecosystem worked together, and the results can be measured in numbers, faces… and perspectives.

270 events, +10% in one year: the 3ᵉ edition confirms growing momentum

Nearly 270 events were organized throughout France, up 10% on last year. Behind this growth, a broad mobilization: over 250 digital organizations took part, from companies to educational establishments, universities, associations, labs and research centers.

This year’s event also owed a great deal to the French education system. The role played by schools, teachers and national education staff was important at every stage: preparing classes, organizing travel, transforming an event into a real-life guidance opportunity. A dynamic that illustrates a broader, more structured and, above all, more visible mobilization for young people at a time when career guidance is becoming an increasingly decisive choice.

20,000 middle and high school students reached (and, we hope, as many vocations inspired!)

These initiatives reached over 20,000 young people directly. A variety of formats were offered: conferences to help understand the diversity of careers,workshops to get hands-on and test, open houses to talk about career paths and studies, and escape games to learn in a different way. The events offered a behind-the-scenes look at programming,artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and, more broadly, computer science, going beyond preconceived ideas about “tech”. The aim of NSI week is also to demystify the digital professions: to identify, explain and promote them.

“Cap sur le numérique” at Bercy: several hundred young people gather around the issue of skills

Among the highlights was the “Cap sur le numérique” event, organized with the support of the DGE*, which brought together several hundred young people at Bercy.

At this event, middle and high school students were able to discover a concrete and accessible digital world, thanks to an exceptional mobilization of players from very different backgrounds. Throughout the day, fun activities, immersive experiences and discussion forums encouraged interaction between young people and professionals, highlighting the wealth of professions and career paths in the digital sector.

This year’s event brought together a panel of exhibitors representative of the ecosystem: companies, associations, higher education and research establishments, collectively committed to transmitting, guiding and inspiring.

Exhibitors present (in alphabetical order): Bouygues Telecom, Campus Cyber, Comet, Confédération des Directeurs des Écoles Françaises d’Ingénieurs, Confédération Nationale des Junior Entreprises, De Vinci Higher Education, Direction interministérielle du Numérique, École 42, EDF, EFREI Paris, Embedded France, ESIEE IT, Femmes@Numérique, INRIA, Institut Mines-Télécom, Largo, Le Sens et le Goût des maths, lycée professionnel Jules Ferry, lycée professionnel Louis Armand, Louis Vuitton, Ministère des Armées, Nokia, OPCO Atlas, OVHcloud, Pixmania, Qarnot Computing, Simplon, Software République, STMicroelectronics, Ubisoft, Talents du Numérique, TechPourToutes.

230,000 jobs expected by 2030: guidance becomes a competitive issue

NSI Week is a response to the challenge of competitiveness: 230,000 jobs will be created in the digital sector between now and 2030. This figure calls into question our ability to train, attract and retain talent on a large scale. The need concerns the entire chain, from profiles capable of designing and developing technologies to the professionals who deploy them in each sector, not forgetting the basic skills expected of future generations who will be called upon to evolve in a world shaped by AI. The gap between needs and supply is widening. Attracting talent is an issue of competitiveness, sovereignty and growth.

Less than a third of students in “maths-sciences”, less than 5% in NSI specialties

As a backdrop to NSI Week, our opinion piece “Digital education and training: let’s not leave young people helpless in the face of AI!” alerts :

• In 2024, less than 1 in 3 students will follow a “maths-sciences” pathway at lycée.
• And less than 5% choose the NSI speciality in Terminale. (And this is even more marked among girls).

For a sector that is recruiting and changing fast, these facts are a warning: access to digital skills begins in junior high and high school, at the very moment when an appetite for science, IT and technical careers is decided.

Two priorities in junior and senior high school: IT as a subject, guidance as a collective project

It calls for a mobilization that goes beyond the week itself. Two priorities are highlighted:

• Overhaul middle and high school career paths: make computer science a discipline in its own right from middle school onwards, introduce the NSI specialization in all high schools, increase the number of hours spent on mathematics, and retain the choice of three specializations in the final year of high school.

• Change perceptions of the digital professions: make the diversity of career paths visible, multiply encounters, provide role models, encourage vocations in all regions and for all profiles.

Parents, teachers, companies, associations, industries, public authorities… everyone has a part to play in the solution. NSI Week is a nationwide demonstration of this.

An edition that establishes itself as a national event

With 270 events (+10%), over 250 organizations involved and 20,000 young people met, this third edition confirms NSI Week as a benchmark event for opening up vocations, at a time when France needs digital talent at all levels. The movement launched this week now needs to be extended: in schools, in families, in companies, and in training decisions.
To extend the debate and understand the proposals put forward by some thirty committed organizations, the tribune “Digital education and training: let’s not leave young people in the lurch! helpless in the face of AI! ” can be read here :
https://www.ouest-france.fr/reflexion/point-de-vue/point-de-vue-education-et-formation-au-numerique-ne-laissons-pas-la-jeunesse-demunie-face-a-lia-82bf04c4-d8fc-11f0-9f4a-0c1392737a7e

* DGE: Direction générale des Entreprises