25
September
2019
|
10:00
Europe/Amsterdam

KPN partners in the National AI course for high school students

Summary

Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays an increasingly important role in daily life. Yet, there are still many misunderstandings about this technology and its applications. Artificial Intelligence evokes negative thoughts and fears in a lot of people. Will robots take over our jobs? Or even the whole world?

Jim Stolze, initiator of the National AI course, aims to reach 1% of the Dutch population with this free National AI course and, in this way, better inform Dutch people about the opportunities and challenges of AI. KPN, one of the Netherlands’ largest employers, has come on board as a partner to facilitate the course for high school students and thus help to increase knowledge about artificial intelligence among young people. The National AI course for high school students will be launched on Friday, October 11 in the presence of, among others, 180 pupils, Jim Stolze, YouTuber Enzo Knol, and Hilde Garssen, KPN’s Chief People Officer.

The cooperation agreement between KPN and the National AI course has been signed. In anticipation of the launch in October, Stolze has started a conversation with Hilde Garssen, responsible for HR at KPN. How does she see the future for young people who are currently at school? Are we still training them for the right jobs? When asked whether the digital skills of young people are overestimated, Hilde responds: ‘I think that this is partly true. I think that there is a group that naturally finds everything to do with innovation, development, and digital innovation incredibly interesting and they engage with it. But there is also a large group that does not have this and is not offered this subject as standard at school. What’s needed when it comes to AI is factual information. The National AI course makes this very accessible. This collaboration is a fantastic opportunity: to inspire young people for AI and to prepare them better for the future. We think it’s important to make people aware.’

The world of work is changing rapidly. Research predicts that a large majority of the jobs that will be available in 2030 don’t exist yet.* How can young people train for work that isn’t there yet? Hilde Garssen: ‘The role of HR is crucial in this. On the one hand because current work will be further automated or will disappear, and on the other hand because many new opportunities are being created in almost every profession that we want our employees to move towards.’

YOU&AI
KPN frequently holds "future-of-work sessions" and has a YOU&AI booth where people can sit and, based on their position, see what percentage of their work could be taken over by robots in the future. Garssen explains: ‘We think it’s important to raise awareness among our own people. What does this automation and digitalization have to do with me as an employee?’ In addition to informing its own staff about automation and digitalization, as a partner in the National AI course KPN also contributes to informing high school students. The National AI course and the National AI Junior course can already be downloaded via app stores. On Friday, October 11 the lessons will be made available specifically for high school students.

The Greatest AI lesson with Enzo Knol
Friday, October 11 will be the national launch of the AI course for secondary education with De Grootste AI-les (The Greatest AI lesson) in Hilversum. There is space for 180 students and anyone who can’t attend can follow the lesson digitally via ai-cursus.nl. The Grootste AI-les will be given by Jim Stolze and YouTuber Enzo Knol. Hilde Garssen (HR, KPN) will talk about "professions of the future".

*source: http://www.iftf.org/humanmachinepartnerships/

Video: Jim Stolze and Hilde Garssen in conversation