Esta página no se ha traducido todavía. Por favor, consulte esta página para informarse de cómo puede ayudar con las traducciones y hacer otras contribuciones.

Noticias

YH4F: Italian pupils are now earning school credits for Free Software projects!

Publicado:

For all Italian students, we are coming with an exciting project for you! Italian pupils can gain credit points for their extra curriculum while developing Free Software projects and competing in Youth Hacking 4 Freedom. As the FSFE’s programming competition is, from now on, integrated in the Italian extra school credit points system.

three teenagers in a hacker space

Starting in 2026, the Free Software Foundation Europe’s programming competition, Youth Hacking 4 Freedom (YH4F) is part of the Educational Pathways for Transversal Skills and Students Orientation (PCTO) in Italy. The PCTO is an Italian educational programme designed to help secondary school students gain practical experience through real-world projects and professional activities. The initiative combines technical learning with transversal skills such as project management, teamwork, communication, and problem solving.

Achieving their PCTO points is now possible thanks to the Italian FSFE volunteer and school teacher, Giacomo Alessandroni. At the beginning of YH4F 2026, Giacomo proposed to join the PCTO and helped throughout the entire process.

As a teacher, I have the privilege of meeting parents who approach me with a smile: «You have turned my daughter into a 'monster': her room has become a real open-air laboratory». Free Software and free hardware are the new, authentic form of resistance, and the 'Youth Hacking 4 Freedom' competition is the perfect embodiment of this".

– Giacomo, FSFE volunteer and Italian school teacher

Who can participate?

Any Italian school can add YH4F in their PCTO activities curricula. The school just needs to contact the FSFE and will receive all the information about the competition and the proposed extra credit points for this activity. On the students side, once the Italian pupil submits the project to YH4F, they receive a confirmation letter of participation. Along side this document and their own documentation of their process the students can then claim their extra credit points.

“YH4F demonstrates how Free Software projects can meet formal educational requirements while encouraging creativity and teamwork,” says Bonnie Mehring, FSFE Senior Project Manager, Coordinator YH4F.

The integration of YH4F as an extra activity for Italian school students does not interfere with the core principles of this European-wide programming competition. Students can develop applications, tools, games, or other Free Software projects, the ideas for those are not limited and the only condition for the contest is that it must be Free Software in the end. After sixth month of developing their ideas those projects are submitted to an expert jury, who evaluate the projects and select the six winners.

The fifth edition of YH4F is currently ending its programming period, which means that 2026 participants will have until 30 June 2027 to submit their projects. During the summer months, the YH4F expert jury will evaluate them and the winners will be invited to the awards ceremony weekend in Brussels in October.

Interested in joining YH4F 2027? Register now!

If your school or education system offers a similar extracurricular activity designed to enhance a deeper understanding of Free Software and software development, please get in touch so that we can integrate YH4F into your country’s education system.

About YH4F

Do you want to give more students the oportunitty to develop their own Free Software projects and network with their peers? Youth Hacking 4 Freedom is possible thanks to its sponsors such as Proxmox, Nextcloud, Collabora and SUSE Open Source Network. If you want to contribute to make this European competition possible, reach out to contact@fsfe.org. Sponsorship is available at a very reasonable price.