Ericsson opens the Digital Lab 2026: AI, Robotics, and Coding to guide students towards STEM professions
Ericsson has opened applications for the seventh edition of the Digital Lab, the school-work training program aimed at high school students. Activities will take place at the company's locations in Rome, Milan, Genoa, Naples, and Pagani, in the province of Salerno. Interested institutions can apply until September 18, 2026.
The program offers four modules: robotics, artificial intelligence, Creative Coding, and 3D Printing & AI. Each course includes two in-person sessions, totaling ten hours recognized as school-work training activities.
The aim is to bring students closer to STEM disciplines and some of the technologies that are transforming the world of work. The activities include practical exercises, project work, and simulations, intending to develop both technical and transversal skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, and teamwork.
An orientation project, not a recruiting tool
Since its launch in Italy in 2018, the Digital Lab has involved over 1,100 students from 38 schools, with the participation of 420 Ericsson employees as volunteers. The program is not designed as a recruiting tool. The stated goal is to help students better understand STEM disciplines and make more informed choices for their future, both academic and professional.
The expected outcome is not direct entry into Ericsson or other companies in the sector, but the ability to stimulate curiosity and interest in fields such as computer science, robotics, programming, electronics, and artificial intelligence.
Ericsson Digital Lab: learn by doing
The Digital Lab adopts a practical approach, close to the tinkering methodology: students learn through experimentation, design, attempts, and errors. Participants do not only attend theoretical lessons, but they work on real problems, try different solutions, and collaborate on project execution. The ultimate goal is to develop familiarity with technologies such as programming, robotics, artificial intelligence, and electronics. The program also focuses on computational thinking, which is the ability to tackle a problem in a structured way, breaking it down into steps and evaluating possible solutions.
Activities are often carried out in groups and require students to divide tasks, discuss, communicate their ideas, and arrive at a result together. These skills are useful both in university paths and in subsequent entry into the labor market.
And after the course?
At the end of the program, there is no ongoing access to the laboratories or tools used during activities at Ericsson locations. However, in several cases, students continue working independently on projects started during the Digital Lab. Some delve into projects in class with teachers, while others continue in their free time, focusing on programming, robotics, electronics, or artificial intelligence.
The initiative is therefore conceived as a first contact with these technologies, aiming to stimulate an interest that can persist even after the conclusion of activities. The Digital Lab currently does not foresee the involvement of industrial or technological partners.
It is a corporate volunteering project carried out by Ericsson employees, who dedicate their time and skills to guide students through the activities. The workshops take place within the company's premises, where classes can interact directly with professionals working in the telecommunications and digital technology sector.
The absence of industrial partners does not, however, render the Digital Lab a closed project. In the past, Ericsson has also taken its activities to broader scientific dissemination contexts, including the European Researchers' Night, an initiative promoted by the European Commission that encourages meetings between researchers, students, and citizens. The Digital Lab is part of Connect to Learn, Ericsson's global program dedicated to developing young people's digital skills. Since its inception, the initiative has reached over 670,000 children and young people in 47 countries. In 2019, the Italian project also received the Quality Badge for school-work alternation from Confindustria.