»Italia Camp consists of an association, a foundation and a society. Italia camp was founded in 2009 and now it has formed a large network; Italia camp cooperates among others with more than 60 universities in Italy and different institutions and is in contact with all previous governments in Italy since its beginning.
Our goal is to promote social innovation, i.e. everything that has a meaning for the community.
One source of the funding is our foundation, which is composed of various private and public companies (Poste italiane, Ferrovie italiane etc.). We try to connect young people with good ideas with companies and we arrange contacts so that their ideas can be realized. A successful startup was recently the company Pandora Group of Alessia Guarnaccia from Naples, which deals with recycled materials.
Basically, I think it's good when young Italians go abroad to understand other cultures and mentalities, for example I spent a year in Kenya and learned a lot there. One should focus the stay abroad not only on the developed, rich countries, but also include the developing countries.
The problem is how we can get the young people back to Italy again. Italy lacks skilled and attractive jobs and there is too much mediocrity in the labor market. Also our education and training system is too old-fashioned - especially the final year - and should be modernized.
Italy should also try to develop its original qualities, for example in regard to food or high quality production and not only copy goods or services from abroad. Therefore we need a mentality that is open-minded to startups.«