Facebook said it will open three new community skills hubs in Spain, Italy and Poland as part of a commitment to train 1 million people and business owners throughout the EU by 2020. The three new community hubs will run in partnership with local organisations, offering training in digital skills, media literacy and online safety to underrepresented groups, said Facebook, adding that the centres will be based on the successful model of its Digitales Lernzentrum in Berlin, which opened last year in partnership with the ReDI School of Digital Integration.
As part of its Community Boost EU programme, the company said it will also partner with Freeformers to offer training to 300,000 people across the EU in UK, France, Germany, Poland, Italy and Spain over the next two years. It will also provide in-person training for 100,000 small- and medium-sized businesses by 2020 and online training for 250,000 businesses.
Finally, the company also announced a EUR 10 million investment in innovation in France through its artificial intelligence research facility. The company said it will increase Facebook AI Research Paris’ PhD fellows from 10 to 40, granting scholarships to students, and funding 10 servers as well as open datasets for French public institutions. It will also double its team of researchers and engineers from 30 to 60.
