From cooks to forklift drivers, through welders, bricklayers, photovoltaic panel assemblers, electrical technicians – tailoring workers and garage mechanics. These are the jobs that the first 250 young Ghanaians who graduated in their country will begin to do it at the end of 2024. Yes, because by that date the first contingent of specialized workers from theOperation Ghana. A project strongly supported by the president of Confindustria Alto Adriatico, Michelangelo Agrustiwhich will officially start on April 6th, with the signing of the protocol.
THE PROJECT
It must immediately be said that the choice fell on the Ghanaian community because since the beginning of the great exodus of foreigners towards Italy, the Ghanaians were among the first to arrive. And it was precisely in the province of Pordenone that they had founded one of the largest communities, even becoming the largest by far with a percentage of attendance of around 14 percent. But that is not all. President Agrusti explained it well. «They are people who work, have no worries and have a desire to integrate with the inspiration to raise their standard of living». But religion is also important. “Their children – continued the president of Confindustria – go to the oratory to play and the parents attend Mass alongside the locals on Sundays.” It’s still not enough. Yes, because Confindustria will also take charge of ensuring that the project, in addition to obviously having a work purpose, can be directed along the lines of ethics and sociality. As? «Those who come to work here – he explained with a fitting example – will not have to sleep in the silos of Trieste – because the entrepreneur who will welcome them into his company will also have to deal with the housing issue. This, obviously, until there is a definitive contract and therefore professional, but at that point also social, integration will be definitive.”
TRAINING
It is another of the fundamental points of the project. In practice, the young people who will graduate from the professional schools chosen by Confindustria which are part of the Salesian institutes and who will be chosen by a local agency, in collaboration with Umana Spa, will do 200 hours of Italian course and specific training on site to satisfy the requests of Italian companies. Furthermore, once they arrive in Italy, they will immediately be introduced to another 100 hours of training for workplace safety, plus their knowledge of the language will be implemented. The first employment contract will be fixed-term, with a length of 12 months. But the objective is to achieve stabilization immediately afterwards with the possibility, therefore, of remaining for many more years working in Italian companies. Once the needs of the factories that are part of Confindustria Alto Adriatico are satisfied, the young specialized workers will be trained to go to other companies in Friuli and Veneto.
SCHOLARSHIPS
It will not be “just” training to work in Italy: in this sense, in fact, the President of CAA explained that «scholarships will be made available for the deserving and needy who study in that Academy and who will remain in Ghana; a sort of partnership that will not end in the short term, but will be long-lasting. This could give rise to specific requests from the Salesians themselves, I am thinking of the machinery that they might need and which will therefore benefit the young people who will remain to work in their country. The Project – President Agrusti was keen to reiterate – takes into account all aspects: economic, political, social, operational and logistical”. And after Ghana it will be the turn of engineers from India. But that’s another story.
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