It is to be hoped that in the next few days it will finally be possible to understand if and how the announced and discussed "General states” will be able to concretely outline the character of renewal that we want to impress on the country's development path. The event, in a situation in which the emergency has become a constant dimension, even if it does not arise as a result of in-depth preparatory work (and here it must be said that the absence of the opposition will weigh!), can give rise to a collection of opinions, ideas and proposals of the social and productive parts, to be held responsibly in the utmost account for the elaboration of a definitive recovery plan Italian. A serious and real comparison will make it possible to arrive at the configuration of in a reasonable time a set of concrete and shared projects, with defined objectives, resources and times. Everything, of course, will depend on the character and completeness of the basic document that the prime minister will present, which will combine the reform program that the economy minister Gualtieri and the other ministers are preparing with part of the proposals of the "Colao Plan". Thus being able to access the funds that, with an extraordinary effort, the European Union is about to make available.
In the next few days and weeks, the comparison that will take place in the "States General" will certainly be the subject of widespread discussions and debates, it will be possible to enter into the merits of the vision of the future that emerges from it and evaluate its components for their impact on the economic and social reality of the Village. There is no doubt that we are entering a decisive phase for the future of Italy; a phase that goes far beyond overcoming the crisis triggered by the pandemic.
Here we want to make some considerations addressing, even if only in part, the problem from the young generation side. As the Governor said in his Final Report Viscor, in the last month it has been necessary to mobilize resources that have increased the public debt to 156 per cent of GDP a "heavy legacy" that will weigh everything on the shoulders of the new generations. In particular on today's fifteen-twenty-year-olds, women and men who will form a large part of the core of the country's ruling class for the next 20-40 years.
Whoever governs today has the essential duty to prepare for them the tools necessary to build - with the skills they must be able to acquire - a safer, more dynamic, innovative and sustainable economic and social system, less unequal and more inclusive.
At the heart of the development plan that will emerge from the States General, that is, there must be the awareness that, in order to give sure foundations to the process of economic and social reconstruction, it is necessary to consider human capital as a central resource, i.e. knowledge in its broad sense, and then look at young people like asset fundamental in which to invest with a vision of the future. So you have to take it among the priorities is investment in training, research and science, pushing this world full of potential and individual excellences, but strongly segmented, unequal and underfinanced, to overcome the current fragmentation and proceed towards the gradual construction of a sistem of scientific-cultural realities interacting with each other, connected through poles of innovation and technology transfer to the business world and to the basic needs of society. In this regard, Ignazio Visco recalls that today (as in 2008) “the State invests around 8 billion in universities, half of what the countries closest to us do in relation to GDP. Even just shifting a modest fraction of the public budget would produce a marked improvement in the training of young people and in the ability to produce innovation".
In conclusion, it must be said that the Piano Colao, among the six areas that make up The strategy for the relaunch of Italy identifies in the one entitled Education, Research and Skills the “key factors of development”. For this area, 13 actions are proposed, among which the following stand out in particular:
- the drive for individual universities to focus on a defined combination of functions (basic training, specialist and doctoral training, pure research, applied research, third mission, contribution to territorial development…);
- the commitment to increase the number of researchers, mobility, attraction from abroad, gender balance, with the overcoming of the gap between South and North.
- the dissemination of research doctorates for business innovation ("applied PhD") and for public policies (economics, management and social sciences), in addition to those aimed at an academic career.
- strengthening cooperation between universities and businesses by creating joint laboratories, and aiming in the long term at the creation of a private law foundation, controlled by a competent ministry, aimed at enhancing innovation, development and technology transfer to companies.
- Support to facilitate access to training in new skills also for young people from low-income families, to build a national youth orientation program, to reduce early school leaving, dropouts and allow for an understanding of social changes and economic in place.
It is probably not all that is needed, it will not be possible to do everything, not everything can be fully shared, just as it is not clear what resources would be needed. But the direction, with the necessary adjustments and priorities to be defined, seems to be similar to the one it has undertaken with the latest measures the current minister, prof. Gaetano Manfredi, who, as president of the Conference of Italian Rectors (CRUI), a few years ago had drafted a document entitled: Do we have a European university? A goal that is even more necessary today.
