Youth unemployment is one of the scourges of the contemporary crisis, yet in Bologna companies are still struggling to find the technicians they need. According to Salvatore Grillo, principal of the Aldini Valeriani, historic and glorious city institute, the businesses of the province need at least 600 professional figures, but the specialized schools can put just over half of them on the market. Why? Because young people, says the principal, prefer high schools, except to repent at the age of 18-19 when they should go to university "and don't know how to do anything". Yet enrollments in universities are also worryingly declining and it is then that, without professional preparation, the problem of "what to do when you grow up" risks becoming insoluble.
“Mechanics, electrical engineers, thermotechnicians, graphic designers – underlines Grillo – the request goes above all in this direction, but we are not able to satisfy it adequately, because we do not have enough members and of sufficient quality. There is a cultural problem. Is the boy good? Then his parents send him to high school. Does he not want to do anything? Perfect for vocational school. Then they arrive here and they don't even cross the first obstacle". In fact, the Technical Institute does not forgive, the percentage of those rejected, Grillo reveals, is very high: 30% the first year, 20% the second. In short, be careful not to underestimate the choice. “Companies need these professional figures – he adds – but it's not that they take just anyone. They want good students and study their curricula. This must get into the heads of children and parents. Unfortunately, however, the technical school is still seen as a choice of second division. If the boy is lazy, it is better to send him to learn a trade, with the result that, on paper, there are students, but those who finish are not enough. “Even today - says the Headmaster - parents see the high school as the right path for the social elevation of their children and thus send them towards unemployment. Often the university is just a way to postpone the problem. Worse still are those who don't go, who find themselves after five years with nothing in hand and without knowing how to do practically nothing”. Non-EU citizens are about 20% and the best student of the school is an Albanian: all 10.
The technical institutes offer training in the field and the best graduates are literally snapped up. “Our surveyors - continues Grillo - are in great demand, because they work on construction sites and when they leave they are ready to work as building surveyors. In addition to surveyors, we also train experts in seismic and energy upgrading and today there is a huge demand in these areas. Unfortunately however, this year we will only be able to graduate 15 heating technicians”.
Learning a trade does not mean, among other things, precluding the possibility of continuing your studies. “Those who graduate with us – continues the principal – can easily enroll in engineering. If the agreement with the University goes through, already from the fifth year our students will begin to face the problems contained in the analysis exam one. A technical diploma, with enhanced studies in mathematics is the antechamber of the engineering degree. 80% of the patents of companies like Siemens are from technicians”.
And the salaries, it seems, are adequate: "That of a technician is certainly not a degrading job and generally brings in around 2500-3000 euros a month, because we have business travelers abroad, in fact we bet a lot and seriously on foreign languages". Moral: there is unemployment, but there is also room to rethink the training path of young people.
