In the 15 years of FondItalia’s activity, Sicily has positioned itself among the Italian regions where attention to the continuous training of workers has been undertaken by local companies with perseverance and participation. In fact, over 65 thousand Sicilian workers have joined FondItalia since July 2009 – the first month in which it was possible to join the Fund – for a total of 13,229 companies. In percentages, 7% of workers and 9% of companies adhering to the Fund promoted by UGL and FederTerziario are located in Sicily, confirming the region as one of the most virtuous, being in fourth place behind Puglia, Campania and Lombardy.
The data emerged from the 2024 edition of the FondItalia Report which, every two years, is published by the Fund to track the progress of continuous training in our country and which was presented this morning in the Mattarella Room of the Ars in Piazza del Parliament in Palermo during the fourth stage of the roadshow organized by the Fund to meet the territories and shed light on the progress of training for companies and workers in Italy. A conference full of guests and representatives of the institutions, to whom FondItalia wanted to express particular thanks for the welcome received on Sicilian soil.
«The transitions we are experiencing force companies to adapt the skills of human capital – underlined the Director of the Egidio Sangue Fund -. If this does not happen there will be a decline in competitiveness with consequent loss of jobs and marginalization of the territories. In an aging society, the human capital we have available today is precious and invaluable and must be enhanced with investment in skills. 50% of the micro and small businesses belonging to FondItalia are involved in training activities – continued Sangue – and this makes us proud and makes us optimistic. For some time now, one of FondItalia’s proposals has been to include entrepreneurs in the financed training courses, because they are the ones who lead the companies and the workers and as such must be able to be constantly updated”.
In detail, 93% of the Sicilian companies that have joined FondItalia are “micro-businesses”, i.e. with fewer than nine employees (for a total of over 36 thousand workers) while 6% are small businesses with a number of employees between 10 and the 49 professional units (for a total of over 16 thousand employees). The most represented province is that of Palermo with 35% of businesses and 33% of workers, followed by that of Catania (17% of businesses and 19% of workers) and that of Ragusa (11% of businesses and 11% of workers). Trade (27%), construction (14%), accommodation and restaurant services (12%) and agriculture and fishing (9%) are the sectors most represented by participating companies. Since 2010, the year in which the first FondItalia help desk for the financing of continuous training was activated, just over 12% of the companies and 36% of the Sicilian workers participating in the Fund have benefited from the training resources made available by FondItalia , for a total of almost 12 million euros. The province that benefited most from the contributions was that of Ragusa (28%), followed by that of Palermo (23%) and that of Catania (16%).
Doing the honors was Margherita La Rocca Ruvolo, vice-president of the Budget Commission: «Training does not only concern private individuals, but also, and perhaps above all, the public administration. Our island, as the data presented today says, is second to none and the problems we have in Sicily are not so different from those that grip the rest of the country. We must all be aware, each in our own role, that the problems can be resolved together by each doing our own part, putting the human being, the environment and sustainable development at the center of our interests.” For Vincenzo Figuccia, deputy commissioner of the ARS, «moments like this, organized in institutional settings, are important for politics because it thus has the opportunity to relate directly with the many and varied realities that make up our society and transform these meetings into political debate and legislative. Placing the emphasis, as we are doing today, on training is essential to make us reflect on the importance of constant, punctual, quality training that helps politics and the economy to come closer and to dialogue effectively for the good of our region and the entire country” . Gaspare Vitrano, president of the Productive Activities commission: «Training is fundamental in all aspects that concern not only the professional and working lives of citizens, but it is inevitable for our region because it helps us in everyday life, from respect for the environment, personal relationships, community growth. I strongly believe that professional training funds are important guides for bringing the public and private sector ever closer together because the culture of work is not the prerogative of a single protagonist, but of an intricate relationship that professional training has the ability to untangle” .
Nicola Patrizi, president of FederTerziario, in conclusion, spoke about the training experience that involved Sicilian schools: «As FederTerziario in Sicily we have already experimented with a virtuous model that combines training and work, directing Sicilian students to South Tyrolean hotel facilities with the contribution of FederTerziario Sicilia which also took care of the mobility costs. A bridge between school and work that we consider fundamental to bridge the misalignment between supply and demand for work, and which we support in our associated companies also with the continuous training system thanks to the presence of FondItalia”.
In his speech Claudio Marchesini (Ugl Palermo) focused attention on the importance «in workplace safety which certainly begins with training, but must translate into concrete actions in the workplace. Investing more and more in security is one of the key points of our regional policy which is trying to establish a dialogue with the institutions because it is the institutions that must be sensitive to the trade union disputes that we are pursuing.”
«Our biennial appointment with the presentation of the Report – said Francesco Franco, president of FondItalia on the sidelines of the conference – aims to be an opportunity to animate and reinvigorate the dialogue in the area with companies that believe in the training of their employees as a driving force for the growth of your organization in the current job market. The roadshow that we have planned for the presentation of the 2024 Report started from Bari, at the beginning of May, then went on to Milan and Turin, and will also touch Naples and Rome. Sicily, since 2009, the year in which the Interprofessional Funds were established, has always demonstrated its tenacious character and economic initiative also in terms of continuous training of workers, demonstrating its belief in the professionalisation of its workers and investing in continuous innovation” .
