Dalla Finlandia all'Agenzia per l’Italia Digitale: la storia di Nanni tra timori ed esperienze memorabili
Come è arrivata una ragazza finlandese in Italia e a lavorare in AgID? Nanni ha saputo cogliere l’occasione grazie al programma Erasmus+, che le ha permesso di venire a studiare in Italia e di partecipare al progetto ErasmusIntern.org, con l’opportunità di candidarsi al tirocinio promosso dall'Agenzia.
A cura del Servizio Relazioni Internazionali di AgID
Thanks to the Erasmus+ Program I had the opportunity to spend the whole year 2018 in Italy: first studying at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome and after that doing an internship at the Agency for Digital Italy. There is no doubt that this year has been the best year of my life and I could not be happier that I chose to stay in Italy after my Erasmus exchange.
Last spring I started to seek internship positions in Italy, as I wanted to do my internship abroad. I had created an account on erasmusintern.org and AGID was offering a six-month internship position. Fortunately, I was brave enough to apply it, even though I had studied Italian for just half a year. I was invited to a brief interview and in the same day, in May 2018, I got an e-mail that I could start my six-month internship next August at AGID.
Before starting my actual internship, I had a three-day interim period in the beginning of July. That was because August is a typical holiday month in Italy meaning that I was supposed to work quite independently, partly via e-mail. That interim period also helped me to get better understanding how the agency works as well as get to know my colleagues. I felt excited but also nervous and my biggest concern was about my language skills: am I going to survive with my limited Italian skills and are my English skills sufficient?
At the beginning of my internship, I was sure that I would be sent back home after a month. I felt totally useless and I could not speak any language anymore, neither Finnish, my mother language. However, everyone was extremely helpful and friendly to me and soon I realized that I was not supposed to know everything beforehand, I was here to learn. When you are working in another country, in the middle of another culture, switching between three languages depending on the situation, it is normal that you might not be as efficient as usually and you often feel overwhelmed.
Having said that, I still did not experience very big cultural shock. Soon I found out that Italian working culture fits me well. I start my day around 9 o’clock, which is later than we normally start in Finland. On the other hand, I stay later in the afternoon.
The work environment of Agid is positive and people seem to know each other well, even personally. For instance, I know many people even though I do not really work with them, at least not on a daily basis. Of course, it took me a while to learn the ropes, such as when you are expected to wish “buon lavoro” or “buon pranzo”. Observing the differences between different working cultures has been fascinating.
During my internship I have gotten the possibility to work on exciting and diverse projects, most of them related to European Union or OECD. Nowadays I have quite a clear idea about digital services that Italian public sector offers to its citizens. It has been interesting to compare the state of art of public sector digitalization in Italy, in Finland and in other EU Member States.
I have been privileged to follow closely the law-making process of the becoming EU regulations: ePrivacy Regulation and Fairness in Platform-to-businesses relationship Regulation. I also took part in writing the OECD report State of Art on Emerging Technologies in the Public Sector, which was presented in October in Seoul, South Korea, at the meeting of the OECD E-leaders. When I saw my name in that report I felt professional.
All in all, I have learnt things that I have not learnt only by studying at university. I have seen what is it like to work in the public sector. In my interview, I was asked what my aims for the internship are. I remember replying that I would like to get an idea what to do in my future career. That idea is still not clear, but now I know that something similar to working here at AGID would be perfect.
Il progetto Erasmus Intern
ErasmusIntern è un progetto realizzato dall’Erasmus Student Network (ESN) per permettere agli studenti europei di realizzare i propri tirocini nei Paesi che aderiscono al progetto Erasmus+.
Fino al 3 gennaio 2019 neolaureati triennali e magistrali in una disciplina di Scienze Sociali (come Relazioni Internazionali, Giurisprudenza, Comunicazione e Scienze dell’Informazione) o in una disciplina di Scienze Applicate (come Matematica o Fisica o Informatica o Ingegneria), che hanno già ottenuto una Borsa Erasmus+ presso una qualsiasi università europea, possono candidarsi per un tirocinio nelle relazioni internazionali di AgID.
AgID ha aderito al progetto e continuerà a farlo, convinta delle potenzialità di arricchire il proprio gruppo di lavoro di giovani menti da tutta Europa. Grazie ad Erasmus +, AgID seleziona un tirocinante per l’ufficio Coordinamento delle Relazioni Internazionali. Candidature fino al 3 gennaio 2019.
Scopri di più nella notizia Al via la call Erasmus+ per un tirocinio all’ufficio relazioni internazionali.