In the 15 years of activity of Interprofessional Funds, Puglia has proven to be the Italian region where attention to the continuous training of workers has been undertaken by local companies with greater tenacity and conviction. They are, in fact, over 230 thousand Apulian workers have joined since 2010 (the year of establishment of the interprofessional training funds), to FondItalia for a total of 54,898 companies. In percentages, 27% of workers and 37% of companies belonging to FondItalia are located in Puglia.
The data emerged from the 2024 edition of the FondItalia Report which is published by the Fund every two years to trace the progress of continuous training in our country and which was presented as a national preview in the Congress Center of the Nuova Fiera del Levante in Bari.
To do the honors of the house, Gaetano Frulli, president of the Nuova Fiera del Levante: «For us it is essential to incentivize those who promote the training of skills, because, beyond the economic capital of a company, there are people who can make a difference in global competition. As Fiera del Levante, a company that has an important impact on the territory, I say that it is necessary that we all work together as a system and team to help entrepreneurs identify the best strategies to stay on the market”.
At the beginning of the works, Alessandro Delli Noci, Councilor for Economic Development, Competitiveness, Economic Activities and Consumers of the Puglia Region, he recalled how much «the positive data of the Apulian economy are also thanks to the companies that have invested in the topic of skills. Our Region –has continued– it grows because it has generated an absolutely attractive ecosystem, also interesting compared to other parts of Italy. We must continue to work, especially on a delicate issue such as the misalignment between the skills required by companies and those present on the market, focusing in particular on specialist training. Puglia was attractive because it invested in the theme of digital innovation ahead of time. In the coming years, the challenge will be that of artificial intelligence – without forgetting sustainability, energy transition and circular economy – to be addressed with a reskilling of skills».
The geographical area in which the participating companies are most concentrated is that of the South and the Islands with 64% of the total.
«Our biennial appointment with the presentation of the Report –said Francesco Franco, president of FondItalia– is intended as an opportunity to animate and reinvigorate dialogue in the area with companies that believe in the training of their employees as a driving force for the growth of their organization in the current job market. The roadshow scheduled for the presentation of the 2024 Report starts from Bari, the capital of Puglia, where 37% of the companies participating in the Fund and over 27% of the workers are based. Puglia, since 2009 when the Interprofessional Funds were established, has always shown itself to be attentive and involved in the continuous training of workers, dispelling the entirely local myth that the northern regions of the country are the most meticulous promoters of a constant professionalization of the economy and work.”
In detail, 93% of the Apulian companies that have joined FondItalia are “micro-businesses”, i.e. with fewer than nine employees (for a total of over 150 thousand workers) while 6% are small businesses with a number of employees between 10 and 49 professional units (for a total of over 61 thousand employees). The most represented province is that of Bari with 46% of businesses and 49% of workersfollowed by that of Lecce (18% of businesses and 17% of workers) and that of Barletta/Andria/Trani (12% of businesses and again 12% of workers). Since 2010, the year the Interprofessional Funds began operating, Apulian companies have benefited from almost 27 million euros for the delivery of projects in training. Even in this situation, the province that benefited the most from the contributions was that of Bari (55%), followed by that of Lecce (20%) and Bat with 14%.
«50% of the micro and small businesses participating in FondItalia are involved in training activities – underlined the Director of the Fund Egidio Sangue -. A fact that makes us proud and makes us optimistic about the ability of businesses, especially small and micro, to enhance the human capital available. The demographic decline we are experiencing will worsen the already worrying shortage of workforce in our country in the near future. Because of this – Blood continues – a serious and structured commitment is needed to update workers’ skills, to retrain human capital and not waste capabilities. And this also applies not only to employees but also to employers. For some time now, one of FondItalia’s proposals has been to include entrepreneurs in funded training courses, because they are the ones who lead the companies and workers and as such must be able to be constantly updated. Present the 2024 Report on the territories – concludes the Director of FondItalia – it is an enormous opportunity for us to understand more closely the needs and particularities of local production fabrics in order to understand what the best tools can be to make available to companies”.
The conference – organized in collaboration with UGL (General Labor Union) and FederTerziario – was hosted by FederTerziario Puglia. The round table which developed on the themes of professional training and skills was attended by Vincenzo Abbrescia (UGL Confederal Secretary), Dario Montanaro (ANCL President), Egidio Sangue (FondItalia Director), Emanuela D’Aversa (Head of Industrial Relations of FederTerziario).
«This year FondItalia has chosen a traveling tour that will touch six cities, precisely to highlight the territories – Alessandro Franco, general secretary of FederTerziario, comments on the sidelines of the event -. The very choice to open the meetings starting from Puglia is a source of pride for us. As a Regional Association we believe in the importance of continuous training and direct companies not only towards training relating to health and safety in the workplace, training which is now more essential than ever, but also towards training relating to the growth of skills aimed at improving of the competitiveness of our Micro and Small Enterprises, often on the margins of economic policies, but which, if well directed, can represent the driving force of the Italian economy. In this regard, I would like to underline that the Federterziario Confederation has always been committed to improving proposals relating to continuous training, directing towards new training paths that allow the adaptation of professional skills to the evolution of the labor market, because for Federterziario training is one a necessary and essential tool to fill the gap between job supply and demand. Precisely for this reason, one of the most important challenges that the Confederation has set itself is related to the proposal sent to the Government on the valorisation and strengthening of the Interprofessional Funds, in order to broaden the scope of training, involving not only employees but also employers of companies with fewer than 15 employees”.
The meeting in Bari represents the first of six meetings structured into one roadshow which will also touch the cities of Milan (29 May), Turin (30 May), Palermo (20 June), Naples (4 July) and Rome (3 October).
«From the 2024 Report – declares Vincenzo Abbrescia, UGL confederal secretary – it emerges that there are more and more micro-businesses choosing to join FondItalia. In fact, for them the Fund confirms itself as an important asset for satisfying the training needs of employees. Good news that confirms FondItalia’s mission: to translate companies’ requests for continuous training into reality.”
Friday 10 May 2024
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