Giorgi Fermi Professional Institute of Treviso and Confartigianato together to foster school-to-work transition

Source: press office Confartigianato Imprese Marca Trevigiana

Treviso’s Giorgi Fermi High School and Confartigianato Imprese Marca Trevigiana and Treviso defined a protocol on Oct. 27 that will make them operational partners to qualify and innovate the institute’s educational offerings through the implementation of professionalizing experiences to be carried out in work contexts, aimed at fostering the development of students’ skills and competencies as well as improving the conditions for students’/their families’ knowledge of and access to the labor market and stimulating self-entrepreneurship.
The Giorgi Fermi institute in the five-year pathway active at its Treviso location in Via Terraglio, presents three addresses in vocational education that have natural relevance to artisan activities and the small and medium enterprises that characterize the productive fabric of the Treviso area: car repairers/motorists, production mechanics/made in italy; plumbing/plumbing installers. Pathways that graduate about a hundred young people each year.

The collaboration between Confartigianato and Giorgi Fermi is a historic collaboration, which now, thanks to the signing of the protocol becomes structural by setting concrete projects to be implemented every school year to foster that increasingly necessary contamination between high schools and local businesses and to increase the number of students enrolled in these addresses on which the post-diploma employability rate is very high and therefore the interest of the productive world ( as of today only 18 percent of high school students are enrolled in vocational addresses).

The agreement with Confartigianato –  explains Giuliana Milana, headmaster of the Giorgi Fermi Institute – is part of the list of collaborations that provide students with training that allows for a fruitful insertion into society and the local work environment and an opportunity for personal growth. In particular, the dual system, which will now return to be tested in our institute as well, is one of the strengths and competitiveness of the new model of vocational education and is also spreading in Italy.
Starting on December 4 – continues Headmister Milana – an innovative training course will begin with the students of the fourth classes: first-level apprenticeship contracts will be signed, which are the privileged form of insertion of young people into the labor market. A tool that allows, on the one hand, the attainment of a qualification and, on the other hand, direct professional experience.

Through the signing of this agreement –  says Oscar Bernardi President of Confartigianato Imprese Marca Trevigiana –  we recognize the value of structural collaboration between schools and small and medium-sized businesses that will engage entrepreneurs in the transfer of knowledge and skills to young people. Offering students the opportunity to learn about the world of work is crucial for our system because it dispels many stereotypes and restores the perception of how much innovation, technology, creativity and passion for work there is in our world. We believe that vocational institutions that offer the dual apprenticeship formula in their curriculum can be attractive to the very young and their families. The spread of this contractual option for sure will help to expand the percentage of those who will choose them. To date in the Marca only 18% of those enrolled in the first year of high school (a total of 7,824 young people) choose them, while we know that manufacturing companies are looking for 90% professional profiles to implement the workforce with specialized technicians and workers starting with the skills that are transferred to students like those at Giorgi Fermi.

Companies in the Treviso area –  continues Ennio Piovesan President of Confartigianato Imprese Treviso –  will immediately measure themselves against the challenge of hiring some 80 fourth graders as dual apprentices. Our companies and our association structure have immediately made themselves available to make this opportunity a reality, which will allow each company to accompany the identified young person from next December until maturity in 2025. The owners having an adequate amount of time will be able to “teach” in the company those subjects and skills that otherwise would have been addressed only “theoretically” in the laboratories of the Institute and that instead can be enhanced with “hands-on-experiential” activities by taking advantage of the 4.0 technology and cutting-edge production processes that only the laboratories of the companies possess . We are confident that the direct involvement of students in the company alongside different age staff and master tutors of trades will also be an opportunity for “human” growth of the students.

As an association –  President Piovesan concludes –  we have also focused a great deal, in the co-design phase of this experience, on the value of safety at work by demanding adequate standards from member companies, and with Cobis (a joint body for safety in the craft sector) the course is offered directly in the classroom to students who still lack it in order to present themselves in the workplace with suitable preparation. With this formula, students are equated with employees, are insured by INAIL, can make transfers, receive a useful salary each month to begin to become self-sufficient and help the family’s income at this time of sharply rising prices of consumer goods, in addition, the duration of the training contract (about 20 months) is valid for their retirement and allows entrepreneurs to discover with adequate time the talents of the area in which to invest. At the end of the course, students will be able to decide whether to stay in the company or continue their studies towards ITS or university.

To acquaint local businesses with these innovations, the Giorgi Fermi Institute and Confartigianato Imprese have organized an informational seminar on Thursday, November 2, at 7:30 p.m. at the Institute’s headquarters on Via Terraglio in Treviso.

Treviso, Oct. 27, 2023