Smart Learning Platform for Students
Designed by the Italian branch of Mitsubishi Electric, the free Mentor ME platform provides technical high school students with innovative e-learning and smart working paths to orient themselves, acquire skills to carry out operating mandates and obtain an official school-work project certificate (PTCO). Teachers will be able to enroll their pupils in one of the two available modules: “Industrial Automation and Mechatronics” and “Air Conditioning”.
by Tommaso Albrile
In this moment of medical emergency, the Italian educational system is at the center of a profound transformation dictated by the delicate context we are experiencing. Within this context, school is called to meet the changing education needs, in order to continue offering young people an efficient educational path. In this circumstance, digital tools are a concrete solution to allow students to access multimedia content and teachers to guarantee progression and continuity in education. Mitsubishi Electric makes Mentor ME available to Italian schools: it is an online platform to support teaching in the technical field, totally free and created with the aim of providing young people with e-learning and smart working tools to train and orient themselves in the sectors of industrial automation and air conditioning, for a new experience of school-work programs.
Mentor ME started testing in September 2019 in the educational district of the province of Monza-Brianza, home of the company’s Italian branch, and today has already involved almost 133 technical high schools and over 2,300 students and 70 teachers who have introduced these programs in their institutes. The programs combine skills that can be used in e-learning mode with activities to be developed in smart working.
A virtual laboratory between school and business
Mentor ME is a true digital smart working experience led by an expert tutor who encourages young people to acquire fundamental professional skills. The students, just as in a physical business context, are seated at a virtual desk, in front of content to study and rework, but also of tests to be taken, strategies to be identified, and ideas to be designed and implemented. All by means of easy-to-use digital technologies and teaching aids.
Mentor ME consists of an introductory module, the same for all orientations, aimed at learning about the activities and processes of a company such as Mitsubishi Electric. It includes several video lessons followed by a test that each student will have to take in order to complete the teaching module and achieve the PCTO certification (valid for 40 hours of school-work program for the automation module).
The introductory training module, which is the same for the two technical paths, accompanies the user in the Mitsubishi Electric world through the history and corporate values where students can get in touch with the company reality. It will then be the task of the teacher to enroll the classes in the professional path that they deem most suitable: “Industrial Automation and Mechatronics” or “Air Conditioning”.
The students can take advantage of digital e-learning content, with the same level of technological updating as the courses offered by Mitsubishi Electric to their partners. The e-learning part includes an in-depth session and a final test. The most operational aspect of the course is accomplished with a smart working activity in which students will have to carry out a real project, applying their knowledge as if they were working in the company.