School and Business Meet in the Eternal City

This year’s General Assembly of AIdAM, the Italian Mechatronics Automation Association, held in Rome on April 11th, was an opportunity
to talk about education, skills and the importance of a synergy between educational institutions and the business world in order to manage at best the changes implied by new production models. It is no coincidence that AIdAM and the MIUR have signed a memorandum of understanding that marks the beginning of an important collaboration.

di Fabrizio Dalle Nogare

Here, Guglielmo Marconi, the “father” of modern telecommunications, presided over the first Board of Directors. Similarly, here so many Romans who have become more or less famous – Marcello Mastroianni certainly belongs to the second category – sat at the desks during the school years. This is the place where AIdAM celebrated this year’s General Assembly on April 11th.
In fact, in the beating heart of Rome, very close to Termini station, lies the ITIS Galileo Galilei, the oldest and most renowned technical school of the Italian Capital city. For one day, the students saw in the impressive Aula Magna several protagonists of mechatronic automation, in the course of an event with a strong symbolic value: the distance between the factories, especially the advanced or “smart” ones, and the schools is not that long.

The signature on the memorandum of understanding
To seal the desire to further reduce the above mentioned distance, the MIUR and AIdAM signed in the morning a memorandum of understanding aimed at strengthening the relationship between schools and factories, filling the gap between what the school offers and what companies really need. Work-related learning, training workshops, continuous updating of teachers and students, orientation with a focus on the opportunities offered by the territory are some of the guidelines mentioned in the agreement.
Companies and educational institutions have therefore drawn up a path that includes, first of all, the revival of technical schools, often not valued enough. To achieve such an important goal, there will be a concrete support to orientation initiatives for middle school students, work-related learning experiences that may favour the connection between member companies and educational institutions, the organization of workshops and the promotion of information about industrial automation that may reach teachers and students easily and directly. Finally, the launch of a contest sponsored by AIdAM to stimulate the creativity and design skills of all students who want to test themselves. The concrete fulfilment of these initiatives will be preceded by the creation of a shared table to be attended by AIdAM and the MIUR.

A dedicated training path
“In our sector, that of assembly lines and components manufacturing, Italy is one of the first nations in the world and the second European country after Germany”, said Michele Viscardi, president of AIdAM. “The guidelines that we have identified with the MIUR, which are included in the memorandum of understanding, indeed represent the needs of such an important and complex sector. Our will, which necessarily involves the planning of a dedicated training path, is to create the job position of the industrial automation expert. We truly believe this can make the difference in the current production scenario. AIdAM, in fact, provides know-how and experience to outline the profile of such a professional figure, in which different technical specializations and specific soft skills converge. In would then be possible to meet the demands of companies working in our sector”. The first practical steps of this path have already been moved. In fact, a pilot project was started up with four technical schools, with which AIdAM began a collaboration aimed at achieving the aforementioned objectives.

Not only work-related learning
Being sure that students acquire the skills suitable for the work environment, in short, as summarized by MIUR officer Rosa De Pasquale. A goal to be pursued through a series of concrete initiatives ranging from the enhancement of adult education and professional education up to apprenticeship or work-related learning programmes. A path, the latter, which involved 1,500,000 students in the 2017/2018 school year. The new Industry 4.0 National Plan has indeed provided some relevant incentives as for training as well funding aimed at increasing the number of students of Istituti Tecnici Superiori (ITS), in which provide at least 30% of the study path takes place outside the classroom.
As highlighted by the MISE economist Enrico Martini, Italy is suffering from a skill mismatch that has a very negative impact on productivity. Today’s employment challenges are summarized by a figure: the 10 most required jobs on the market did not exist until 10 years ago.
However, also teaching is expected to change – according to Claudio Gentili, Vice Director for Human Capital at Confindustria – moving to a qualitative idea of teaching that aims to promote interdisciplinarity. Work-related learning programmes, different from the apprenticeship but closer to active teaching, are crucial to have a closer relationship between what the companies ask and what the educational system offers.
Finally, Gianluigi Viscardi, president of the National Smart Factory Cluster, insisted on a precise concept: entrepreneurs must play their part, helping decision-makers from below and creating that ecosystem – involving companies, universities, research centers, associations as well as local, national and international institutions – which makes it possible to share information and better manage those changes that inevitably involve not only manufacturing but rather the whole society.