The young people who attended the Solidarity FabLab Targu Ocna courses are now ready to enter into partnerships with local businesses. The lab at the local Technological High School was set up in 2021 by the Terre des hommes Foundation and has helped young people aged between 9 and 24 from Târgu Ocna and the surrounding area to gain skills that are useful later on in the job market. More than 160 of them have acquired basic knowledge about design, modelling, know how to work with scanner, cutter-plotter and 3D printer and even put their ideas or projects into practice with 3D printing. They can make decorative objects, build models, laboratory models, topographical maps, photo albums, toys, even clothing templates. With embroidery machines they can customise and create clothes or accessories. Their products have applications in textiles, automotive mechanics, medical/dental technology, advertising and education, art and even fashion.
Private companies, entrepreneurs and even individuals are invited to FabLab Targu Ocna with concepts for objects to be reproduced and customised in detail, for example photos that can be embossed on decorative globes or lamps. The lab can take orders from entrepreneurs or private individuals. To this end, the students and teachers of the high school have set up an NGO, ProfiPro, which will honour orders and use the money to ensure the continuity of the Solidarity FabLab project.
The lab will continue to welcome curious children and young people who are passionate about 3D technology to digital education courses. The first trainees were high school students, who after graduating from the FabLab took additional courses and became instructors for their younger peers. Today, the lab is run by a group of high school students and teachers.
The Technological High School has already made several partnerships with local entrepreneurs, such as Salina Târgu Ocna, for which it will produce original souvenirs, with a bank and even with guesthouses, for which it will make customised household items. By concluding these partnerships, we can say that FabLab has achieved its goal: to help young trainees acquire digital literacy skills, to awaken the interest of entrepreneurs and to get job offers in a market where this segment is growing.
All these achievements were made possible thanks to the financial support of the Orange Foundation. The Solidarity FabLab Târgu Ocna project was implemented by Terre des hommes Foundation from 2021 to 2023. The total amount of funding provided by the Orange Group Foundation and the Orange Foundation is 53 213 euros.
We hope that entrepreneurs in the area (and not only) will support young people and this lab, so that they have a professional opportunity, gain confidence that it is possible to work in this area in the technological field, and that Targu Ocna has a future.
About Orange Foundation
The Orange Foundation is a non-profit organisation that gets involved in the life of the community by carrying out philanthropic projects aimed at bringing positive changes in the lives of disadvantaged people. Since 2012, the Orange Foundation has invested over 6 million euros in its programs that support the development of vulnerable communities and the integration of disadvantaged people by promoting and implementing technology and digital methods in education, culture and social inclusion projects. For details, visit www.fundatiaorange.ro
