Coorpacademy, partner of digitalswitzerland

digitalswitzerland – a Swiss association that brings together players in the private and public sectors as well as universities – has the ambition to make Switzerland an attractive hub for the digital economy and to support Swiss companies in their digital transformation. Among other things, it aims to give businesses and individuals solutions to receive training in the field of digital technologies. Coorpacademy is a natural partner for the association, and several courses from our Digital Collection have already been integrated to digitalswitzerland’s “Digital Education” platform. The association was founded in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, but it’s also developing in the rest of the country; for French-speaking Switzerland, it has established its headquarters at the EPFL engineering school in Lausanne.

On the occasion of the signature of our partnership, we sat down with Sébastien Kulling, the director of digitalswitzerland for French-speaking Switzerland since August 2017.

Can you explain digitalswitzerland’s mission?

Sébastien Kulling: digitalswitzerland’s objective is to make Switzerland a global leader in the field of digital innovation. We are set to bring together all of the country’s innovative forces and create the necessary conditions to achieve that ambition, whether those conditions are technological, regulatory or most importantly human. Switzerland has considerable assets – in particular its businesses and research sector – that must be put to work so it can become a nation at the cutting edge of technology.

Who are the members of Digitalswitzerland?

SK: digitalswitzerland is a non-profit association that gathers companies, universities, cantons, municipalities and organizations such as the World Economic Forum. It currently has over 90 members.

What are the main projects for 2018?

SK: We are working on several big projects. Our priority is support for education and training – one of the keys to the country’s digital transformation – increasing Switzerland’s attractiveness in terms of innovation, and helping Swiss businesses achieve their digital transformation. For example, we gather around the table players from very different sectors, sometimes competitors, and make them collaborate on subjects such as blockchain or digital healthcare, which are transversal challenges for the country. We’re also very active towards the general public: one of our main challenges is to raise awareness about the challenges raised by digital technologies and encourage people to receive training.

You have created a platform for digital training: whom are these courses destined to?

SK: The courses offered on the “Digital Education” platform are aimed at professionals as much as private individuals. Our role is to reference existing quality training programs in the field of digital technologies that provide added value for the jobs of tomorrow. We offer classroom training as well as online courses such as those created by Coorpacademy, on subjects like new digital jobs, online commerce and big data.