In relation to the recent cases of COVID-19 contagion, one of the first precautionary measures in the areas concerned was the closure of schools.
Not only. many companiesas a precaution, they have decided to adopt severe prevention measures for their staff.
In addition to abolishing international and national travel wherever possible, companies have limited access to offices and have arranged smart working up to a date to be allocated at least for all employees who work or have residence in the areas at greatest risk.
In Italy the decree of 23 February 2020 was published in the Official Gazette precisely for facilitate the initiation of such practices immediately, without the constraints of company agreements generally envisaged in these cases.
Always for preventive purposes, almost all have suspended training courses and corporate events, as well as participation in conferences or other external events.
So the problem of ensuring the continuity of school education and vocational training is not a secondary issue in preparing containment measures.
SCHOOL EDUCATION
China has demonstrated farsightedness in addressing the problem immediately through the swift organization of a massive provision of e-learning courses. Last week millions of compulsory school students resumed their online studies, despite the still closed schools, using a state platform; one can only imagine the extent of the Chinese Ministry of Education's effort to deal with this wave of simultaneous access from an organizational and technological point of view.
But we too, in our own small way, must ask ourselves the problem. To deal with the current emergency and to prepare all future emergencies in advance.
It seems that the question has fortunately already arisen, at least theoretically, also in Italy:
PROFESSIONAL TRAINING PROGRAM
If all frontal training is interrupted for safety reasons, the only resource to ensure continuity of training courses in the meantime is precisely e-learning training.
This unwanted pandemic could be the first experimentation for a wider scale diffusion of the modality of education through e-learning.
Surely for the realities that are not accustomed to the use of this solution they will need time to adopt new technologies, but this particular contingency - which obliges to obtain quick solutions - could be an opportunity to start experimenting this powerful didactic tool, to then introduce it gradually but systematically into their training plans.
And not only to face the times and deadlines of compulsory training, which does not allow for deletions or delays, but also for managerial training, health training, technical training, to which the online mode today offers various and extremely effective teaching tools.