Today in Italy unemployment is a dramatic problem, but every year more than 300.000 young people find a job after their studies. How is it possible to be part of this lucky group? And how can you find the "right" job? First of all by freeing ourselves from the many clichés and prejudices that condition our choices. By trying to get to know the corporate world which today offers 70 percent of jobs in Italy and which is passing with impressive rapidity from an industrial model, made up of factories and a workforce specialized in carrying out tasks and procedures, to a post-industrial one, where the procedures are performed by computers and those who work must know how to interact with others and make decisions independently.
This new world requires new skills, which too often the Italian school still fails to train. We therefore believe it is necessary to help students, parents and teachers to think differently, not to stop at stereotypes, to know before choosing and to be adequately trained. Because today there is work, even if our young people are often unprepared to intercept it. This happens above all because, unlike what is believed, the skills required of those who work today are not of a technical, specialist or technological nature, but consist in the ability to interact effectively with the company organization and its rules.
This means possessing the so-called "work ethic", which means knowing what to do and doing it even without a boss supervising us, be able to solve problems and interact with others. They are the soft skills, to use a very widespread English language among professionals. Only with these skills can companies make the most of human capital, which is the real source of competitive advantage in a post-industrial society, where people's skills matter more than machines and factories. The real reason why, beyond the crisis, youth unemployment in Italy is so dramatically high is that companies do not find enough young people with these skills.
The school curriculum, in our country even more than in others, is not oriented towards training them, it does not stimulate the initiative, interaction, responsibility and critical spirit of the students. We need a real twenty-first century curriculum and it's up to the kids and their parents to take care of it. This means focusing on choosing the most suitable educational path and the best locations to implement it: in Italy there are enormous differences between the various schools and universities, and there are still too few who choose in an informed way. But it is also necessary to have formative experiences outside the scholastic institutions, in the world of work or in the voluntary sector. Our perspective could risk the accusation of "corporateism", of glorifying the world of companies by debasing that of the school. This accusation arises from a vision which judges the school and the company on an alleged moral level: the school is "good" because it is public, free and essential in educating students, while the company is "bad" because it aims to profit by exploiting employees, the environment and consumers.
This perspective is not helpful, especially to job seekers. It is true, some Italian companies are backward, do not respect the rules and do not contribute to the growth of the economy, and we ourselves have denounced this several times. However, those who want to start working cannot ignore it and must ask themselves how they can be useful to the company that hires them. Whoever offers something must understand in depth what the other needs: it is the essential principle not only of the market economy, but of human relations. Similarly, the world of education must ask itself what its students really need. Not to reject the values of culture and adopt a grimly utilitarian attitude, but because education, including cultural education, must respond to the needs of society.
Our thesis is that to a young man with the right determination, a positive attitude (what the Anglo-Saxons call can do attitude) and solid skills, even a country with little merit like ours offers today an unprecedented opportunity. Provided, however, that the right meaning is given to the term "meritocracy", which means competition, the pursuit of excellence. And above all, be individually responsible for what you do. Creating alibis is a formidable mistake that can affect your life. This essay is organized into four sections. In the first we show what are the prejudices and clichés that lead to wrong choices, those that "manufacture" unemployed. In the second we describe the changes in the world of work, the impact they have on the skills needed by companies today and on the difficulty of young people in finding a job. In the third we analyze the ability of Italian schools to train these skills, and we find a seriously worrying picture. Finally, in the fourth part we will try to give some suggestions for creating an effective twenty-first century curriculum, through the choice of school, university, extracurricular experiences, up to the job search.
