GIMO: an ad hoc Master’s Programme for the automotive managers of the future
Volkswagen Group Italia develops its own strategy for the mobility of the future establishing a partnership in the field of education with Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
A prestigious name like Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and a topic perfectly aligned with the commitment of Volkswagen Group Italia: on this basis, an agreement was reached featuring Volkswagen Group Italia as a partner in the Master’s Programme in Management and Innovation of Mobility (GIMO), offered by the University of Venice. The collaboration was officialised today in the presence of the Chancellor Michele Bugliesi and of the CEO of Volkswagen Group Italia Massimo Nordio.
Along with the concept of mobility, the skills necessary to deal with and manage the daily business are changing too. Speeding up change means pushing boundaries and creating new opportunities. Beginning with these premises, Volkswagen Group Italia intends to play a leading role in this transition, contributing concretely to the field of education as well.
The Master’s Programme in Management and Innovation of Mobility (GIMO) was conceived and developed by the Center for Automotive and Mobility Innovation (CAMI), a research facility of excellence that works under the direction of Professor Francesco Zirpoli within the Department of Management of the University of Venice. The Master’s Programme aims to train new professional figures who will be able to integrate different skills, such as in Economics and Management, as well as competences in urban planning and in development and planning of sustainable systems.
The Master’s Programme will be hosted by Ca’ Foscari Challenge School. Volkswagen Group Italia will support the educational program in the first three years with scholarships, with the possibility of carrying out project works in its own structures and with the contribution of its management in developing educational contents.
Six highly interdisciplinary modules are planned: Mobility, Management, Technology, Tools, Opportunities and Experiences – which in turn are divided in 23 courses and internships. Teaching will be constantly kept up-to-date in relation to the emerging trends and there will always be contact between the students and the most advanced business enterprises.
The experts trained in the Master’s Programme will be able to understand the needs of the stakeholders of the new mobility systems, working as mediators between different contexts with the ability to recognise new ways of coordination and new business models, paying particular attention to sustainability.
“Our mission is to invest in qualified education, in order to train professionals able to face the new global challenges”, stated Michele Bugliesi, Chancellor of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. “The Master’s Programme was created with this goal and deals with the current and future issues of the automotive industry. It focuses on an interdisciplinary education and approach and pays particular attention to sustainability, which has been a central element in the policy of the University for more than a decade. These two intertwine complementary disciplines that are enriched by the valuable partnership with Volkswagen Group Italia”.
“We can’t and we mustn’t confine ourselves to cars. We have a great responsibility, which comes from our position, from the current and the future scenarios, and above all from our values”, stated Massimo Nordio, CEO of Volkswagen Group Italia. “We intend to invest on education and to raise the managers of the future.”
At the moment, the ability of the different actors to integrate know-how and coordinate their own actions - that means to ‘manage’ the ‘development’ of the sustainable mobility in a harmonious way - is strongly penalised by the belonging of the experts of the automotive sector and of the mobility to communities that find it very difficult to interact. For example, the actors of the automotive industry on the one hand, and urban planners, planners of mobility systems, service providers and other similar figures, on the other hand”, explains Francesco Zirpoli, Scientific Director of CAMI and Coordinator of the Master’s Programme. “We are sure that this Master’s Programme will create value for its students and contribute to the development of a culture for an actually sustainable and accessible future mobility.”
Volkswagen Group Italia’s attention for specific management positions, aligned with a new concept of mobility, is not new. The role of Future Mobility Manager was created already in 2018: a strategic choice in order to deal with the challenges of the future, to support the spreading of new technologies and to facilitate the development of new mobility services.