Technical colleges are reducing youth unemployment

In recent years, youth unemployment has reached record levels, an unequivocal sign of the inability of the system to provide adequate responses to the new generations. One of the causes is the misalignment in the labour market of supply and demand, which have been speaking different languages for too long. Companies demand professional profiles that the school system cannot provide. The result is an explosion in the number of inactive youth in Italy, close to 6 million, and a level of unemployment that has long exceeded the ceiling of 30%, a good 40% of which is accounted for by an army of 230,000 high school graduates who do not go to university. The continuous growth in technology, triggered by computerisation, makes the shortage of specialised technicians worse, and those entering the world of employment in the coming years will be asked for increasingly high skills.

One response to this situation is provided by the ITS (Istituti Tecnici Superiori – Technical Colleges). According to a study by INDIRE (the national institute for documentation, innovation and educational research), the Ministry of Education’s oldest research organisation, 82% of students who graduate from an ITS find work within one year, 87% of whom do so in a field that is in line with their studies. Thus, increasing tertiary vocational education in Italy is a necessity, considering that only 27% of young Italians (under 35) have this kind of qualification, compared to an EU average of 42%.

Technical colleges and professional tertiary education will be discussed on Tuesday, 5 March, from 2 p.m., in Ville Ponti, in Varese, during a conference entitled “Scegli ITS! Alta formazione post-diploma” (“Choose ITS! Advanced Post-diploma training”). The speakers will be Antonella Zuccaro, from INDIRE, with a presentation of the national monitoring of technical colleges, and Angelo Candiani, the President of the Foundation “ITS Lombardo Mobilità Sostenibile”, who will talk about technical colleges in Varese Province.

The event also features some testimonials from business partners of the foundations, as well as those from ex-students and young people attending technical colleges. The conclusions will be given by Giovanni Brugnoli, the Vice President of Confindustria, in charge of human capital. The Moderator is the deputy director of VareseNews, Michele Mancino.

Participation in the conference is free, but places must be booked online, at the website of the Chamber of Commerce, www.va.camcom.it, following “Convegni e Seminari > Orientamento”.