A new school-to-work apprenticeship program is underway for the 2016/17 school year, developed by the Ministry of Education, University and Research, the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies and Enel, which have signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
The work-based learning program is aimed at fourth and fifth year students of technology-oriented industrial technical institutes in seven regions. The technical institutes interested in the program are: the "Buccari-Marconi" of Cagliari, the "E.Scalfaro" of Catanzaro, the "Galilei Sani" of Latina, the "G.Giorgi" of Milan, the "Vittorio Emanuele III" of Palermo, the "JFKennedy" of Pordenone, the "B.Focaccia" of Salerno.
140 students will be hired by the Enel Group with a first-level apprenticeship contract which will be activated at the start of the 2016/2017 school year. At the end of the fifth year, with the conclusion of the scholastic path and the achievement of the diploma, taking into account the evaluation of merit of the path carried out in the company, a second phase of professionalizing apprenticeship of one year is envisaged. The duration of the overall apprenticeship period will be 36 months.
During the school year, the apprentices will spend one day a week in the company, carrying out a training program mainly focused on the laboratory and on the specific skills required. During the summer, the apprentices will be present in the company full time to experience themselves directly on the job with on-the-job training by supporting the operational teams and concretely applying the notions learned during the school year, in compliance with the skills acquired in the field of safety.
In 2014 the first experimentation of the school-work apprenticeship started in Enel with seven other technical institutes ("A. Avogadro" - Turin, " G. Marconi" - Piacenza, " A Pacinotti" - Mestre, "A.Meucci" - Florence , "G. Marconi" - Civitavecchia, "Fermi-Gadda" - Naples, "Giorgi" - Brindisi); the youngsters involved have recently passed their final exams with good results and the 136 apprentices deemed suitable by the company will be able to continue their careers at Enel.
Based on the experience, positively evaluated by both the School and the Company, a new program is starting today.
The idea of starting the experimental project arose from the need to optimize the management of turnover in the company's technical-operational positions, anticipating the entry of apprentices into the company already during the course of their schooling and sharing more aligned theoretical contents with the school to industrial needs and an on-the-job training experience aimed at completing individual training.
“School must become the most effective structural policy against unemployment, increasing knowledge and skills, knowledge and know-how. – declares Minister Stefania Giannini – Experiences like this prove it. For our school system, alternating apprenticeship was an absolute novelty. Which worked: 136 young people hired after graduation are a success. With the Buona Scuola we have decided to make a structural investment in school-work alternation, with 100 million a year in funding. It is a cultural revolution to improve the employability of our young people by combining theoretical skills with practical experiences, in technical and professional fields, but also in high school ones. It is a cultural revolution. It's the only way to allow our kids to discover their talents, to bring out their inclinations and direct their subsequent course of study".
"The launch of this new initiative, the result of collaboration between Enel, the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Education - underlines Giuliano Poletti, Minister of Labor and Social Policies - represents an opportunity for young people and bears witness to the commitment to focus on improving their employability to facilitate entry into the world of work. In concrete terms, this means giving young people, through a positive integration between school education and experience in the company, a wealth of skills and experience essential for responding to the needs of a rapidly evolving production system. The use of first level apprenticeships for students of technical institutes represents an essential element of the educational collaboration between school and the world of work, exploiting the synergies made possible by the Jobs Act and the Good School law”.
"After the success of the first experimentation, we are proud to present the new school-work apprenticeship program created in synergy between ministries, training institutions and the company - says Francesco Starace, CEO of the Enel Group - This integration method allows us to anticipate the acquisition of technical knowledge and transversal skills essential for working in the company, to speed up the professionalisation process and to create a virtuous circle between the world of school and the world of work. We are certain that we can count on willing and enthusiastic young people to live this new experience which will pave the way for them to a professional career of great satisfaction".
The project was made possible by the regulatory framework which, with Legislative Decree 81/2015 and the subsequent Interministerial Decree of 12 October 2015, established the school-work apprenticeship as a further method of entry into the company. The involvement of the trade union organizations right from the initial stages of the project also made it possible to build a set of shared rules useful for consolidating the programme.
