“Digital in the service of inclusion”. Metaverse Academy opens its doors in Nice.

Le Figaro Nice

The rocket of higher education in Nice never stops rising. After the IT school number 42, the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts (CNAM), the Centrale Méditerranée engineering school and very soon the ISART, in the field of video games, here is where the metaverse academy opens its doors in the heart of the EcoVallée. of Nice.

Its inauguration took place late Friday morning, within the walls of CEEI, the city’s newly created incubator, in the presence of Christian Estrozzi, Mayor of Nice and President of the Metropolis, Laurent Solly, Vice President of Meta Southern Europe. , and Véronique Saubot, General Manager of the Simplon School, which runs this new work-study program. Believed to bring physical reality through augmented or virtual reality and move the web from 2D to 3D, metaversion is seen by many as the first of the next great technological leaps in the evolution of the internet, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. . So the metaverse obliges, the symbolic red ribbon was cut by the dematerialized Christian Estroz, which didn’t surprise so much as smile at the mayor, this one very real.

From December 5, 20 students who passed the selection tests will join the academy of the University of Nice (three other academies have since opened in France: Paris, Montpellier and Marseille). Most of them were by now looking for work or had dropped out of school. “Simplon’s social mission is to put digital technologies at the service of inclusion, while serving the needs of businesses and developing the employability of the population we seek to integrate.”recalled Véronique Saubot.

For these future designers and developers of immersive applications, an intensive four-month training period will precede 15 months of work-study at various local companies, the school’s partners. At the end of the day, a certificate recognized by France Competences. And the school director continues. “We have a very geeky culture at Simplon, and the partnership with Méta challenges us and pushes us to constantly progress.” »

“What is decided immediately, is obtained.”

Laurent Solly is very proud of his collaboration with Simplon and starting training in the lands of his friend Christian Estrozi, whom he knows very well politically, having been Nicolas Sarkozy’s chief of staff in 2005, when Edile himself was a ministerial delegate. Regional planning under the same Nicolas Sarkozy – reminded that this initiative did not happen “Not for the Meta, but with the support of the Meta». “To help develop digital ecosystems everywhere in Europe, in France and especially here in Nice. The digital revolution that we are experiencing has the characteristic that it can develop in all areas“, he emphasized. A Meta representative also addressed all of them “Who have had no formal university or school training.” “This is your chance.”he began, remembering that “Technology is not only for men”.

The mayor of Nice, for his part, did not hide his enthusiasm to see the opening of a new high school in his territory, emphasizing the need for the embodiment of the community; “Youth and Modernity”. With a request for speed without haste, the city council remembered, as it regularly does, that “Long-term planning does not work in public life. But on the contrary, what is decided immediately, is obtained. Where Edec (business school, editor’s note) was the first big off-campus school to come and settle here a few years ago, today it’s tied.”

In fact, Nice and its metropolis have become more and more attractive over the years, gradually breaking away from the image of the aging area of ​​Epinal, an Eldorado for French retirees. The numbers speak for themselves. In 2008, Metropolis counted about 25,000 students, now their number exceeds 48,000.