MIUR and Fincantieri together for skilled vocational training

Today, during a visit at the Sestri Ponente shipyard and at the premises of Cetena, a Fincantieri company dedicated to research and consultancy in the maritime field, the Minister of Education, University and Research (MIUR), Marco Bussetti, and the CEO of Fincantieri, Giuseppe Bono, signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen the relationship between the education and higher technical training system and the labor market in the shipbuilding sector.
The agreement intends to offer students of technical high schools new training opportunities for high and qualified profiles to acquire marketable skills. It stems from the Ministry and Fincantieri recognition of the need of new technical job profiles, much-needed to support the growth of the sector in which the shipbuilding group operates. The agreement is particularly important bearing in mind that Fincantieri is present on the entire national territory, through its shipyards.
The parties have therefore committed to create greater and stronger synergies to contribute to the improvement of the technical high schools training with their own resources, experience and know-how. They will encourage the development of courses to train technical experts in line with the job profiles needed in the shipbuilding sector, enhancing the training excellences already present locally through specialization and innovation courses, and through the definition, in partnership with the technical high schools, of shared actions to guide young people in the selection of post-graduate training courses.
In particular, the MIUR will promote initiatives and projects to achieve the goals of the agreement with particular attention to teachers and school staff technical and professional training, to which Fincantieri will also contribute. The company will promote the technical high schools at local level with the production chain, to foster dialogue with the educational world and the integration of resources using already existing local authorities or institutions (districts, centers or clusters). Furthermore, Fincantieri will also support the teaching activity through company experiences and guided tours to its facilities.
In order to ensure the implementation of the memorandum of understanding and allow the strategic planning of the necessary actions, the Ministry of Education, University and Research and Fincantieri have agreed to set up a specific Technical Committee, consisting of representatives of both sides, which will draw up an annual report on the initiatives taken.
The Minister of Education, University and Research, Marco Bussetti, commented: "It is very positive that a large company like Fincantieri is sensitive and careful to the topic of the training of young people. In this sense, the technical high schools confirm to be excellent means to provide our students with the necessary knowledge to guarantee a quick access into the labor market. For this reason, the Government intends to strengthen and support the technical high schools by encouraging full cooperation with the territories and companies. From this point of view, I would like to congratulate President Toti, Councillor Cavo and Ceo Bono for how they are working in an integrated way in the interests of our children".
Following the visit, Giuseppe Bono, CEO of Fincantieri, stated: "We highly believed that today, and especially tomorrow, our youth will meet the company needs. The agreement falls within this strategy, attaching great importance to technical high schools, which in the past played a crucial role in the training of the middle management. It represents the core of the industry and without it there would be no development and progress in this field”. Bono concluded: "Fincantieri is one of the largest growing industrial groups and we require qualified staff. Therefore we appreciate that Minister Bussetti has understood and supported our requirement. In the future, we will also work on vocational schools and universities to avoid incompatibility between supply and demand. Thus, the training of qualified human resources will allow us to safeguard and develop the leading position of our manufacturing industry, Europe’s second-largest”.
“The protocol is an important signal for the strengthening of the technical high schools. It also recognizes the validity of this technical specialization approach for graduates, which must be encouraged and increasingly promoted, so that families can learn about it and the youth can choose for it”, said Ilaria Cavo, Ligurian Regional Councilor for education and training, who participated in the visit. She then concluded: “It is important, and no coincidence at all, that this national input starts in Liguria and the fact that the MIUR and a company like Fincantieri feel the need to strengthen these programs demonstrates how these highly-technical courses are linked to the companies and able to meet the labor market needs. The Liguria Region has always supported these pathways and stands ready to set up and support the necessary technical high school courses in order to meet the needs of Fincantieri and the shipbuilding industry, pursuant also to the agreement signed with the company that has already led to the organization of different level training courses”.