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Genoa – In the world of school, the time for ITS should have come. It had been awaited for three years after Mario Draghi dedicated a key passage of his inauguration speech at Palazzo Chigi to the higher technical institutes to say that they would become “a fundamental pillar of the education system” and that they would receive more resources.
It was the Draghi government that assigned the ITS Pnrr 1.5 billion, of which now, with much delay, a share is about to reach him (see the interview with Guido Torrielli below) and it was the current Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara, who made the ITS a pillar of his 4+2 reform. Four years, instead of five, of higher education, and two of specialization in an ITS. For now it is an experiment, which will debut from September in schools – technical or professional institutes – that want it. Valditara's goal is to transform ITS into a tertiary, non-academic university.
Its are post-diploma schools alternative to university. They offer less academic and more practical training, with two-year courses ranging from IT to shipbuilding. They are each managed by a foundation that includes local authorities, schools, universities and businesses and there are 146 throughout Italy, with 25,842 members. These numbers are still too low compared to the ambition, declared at the time of the Draghi government, of having more than 40 thousand by 2026.
They were born in 2007, on the model of Germany and its Fachhochschulen, schools for high skills, to train superior technicians in areas considered strategic. They are subjected to annual monitoring by Indire, the Institute that evaluates the quality of education and which has the right to close them if they do not obtain a passing grade. In Liguria there are 6, the ITS for energy efficiency in Savona, for the ICT in Genoa, the Merchant Marine Academy, again in Genoa, the ITS for pleasure boating in La Spezia, and the brand new ITS for agri-food, Imperia, and tourism, Genoa-Santa Margherita. According to the latest Indire monitoring, relating to 2022, over 70% of members are male and the vast majority are between 18 and 24 years of age. 94.7% of graduates in the Ligurian ITS found work one year after graduation. Even at a national level, the percentage of those who find work after one year remains high: 86.5%. Of these, 93.6% carry out a job consistent with their studies.
Valditara wants to complete the plan started by the Draghi government and by its head of Education, Patrizio Bianchi, and create a “series A technical and professional training chain”, as the minister declared, which gives young people “the adequate training to find qualified employment more quickly” and to companies «the professionalism necessary to be competitive».
The reform is very popular with industrialists. According to the vice-president of Confindustria, Giovanni Brugnoli, «the minister is doing well», because «thanks to the contamination of knowledge and needs with the world of industry we will probably give boys and girls the opportunity to choose in a knowledgeable and conscious manner knowing what our territory, Italian manufacturing and above all our country needs.” The unions are against it and fear it the constraints of the industry and the reduction of school staff.
The Flc CGIL considers it an «announced disaster for the boys and girls of this country», which «confuses education with professional training linked to the needs of businesses» and «crystallizes the disparities already present in schools», between high schools and technical-professional institutes; for Giuseppe d'Aprile, secretary of the Uil Scuola, the reform has feet of clay and it would be better “to start from the current paths and strengthen them in terms of inclusion, of solidity of structures, access and opportunities”, instead of “building a building without foundations that risks collapsing at the first bad weather”; the CISL is softer: «We have expressed a series of observations», said the general secretary of the CISL school, Ivana Barbacci, «but we have not rejected the model. The idea of opening an experiment is a good one…Paying attention to technical and professional education can be the tool to combat dispersion.” Memberships expired three days ago, with good results in Italy, less so in Liguria. At a national level, “about a hundred ITS-school networks were created, which was the objective of the experiment”, says the president of the national ITS association, Guido Torrielli, “with a peak of 32 networks in Lombardy alone, but a very good also in the South”; in Liguria, however, only one school chose to participate in the 4+2 experiment, the Meucci-Gaslini of Genoa.
«The low number of participants in Liguria, where only one school has decided to participate in the 4+2 experiment, should not scare us». Guido Torrielli is one of the major sponsors of the 4+2 reform. Former manager of Erg and Fiat, and former manager of Confindustria, he presides over the national association of ITS.
Does this seem like a good result to you?
«Excellent at a national level, where we achieved Minister Valditara's objective. Less at a local level, but let's not despair. It must be considered that the schools had very little time to decide whether to join, a month, and then perhaps a mistake was made.”
Which?
«The failure to immediately open up the reform to high schools as well has fueled fears about the downgrading of technical and professional schools, about an even more widespread high school system, when in fact the opposite is true: this reform is a decisive step towards a more solid technical and professional education”.
Is it a first step?
«We are talking about an experiment, not yet a real reform, which however brings us closer to the European school system of four years instead of five. And it is a good thing that the reform started from technical-professional training, which in Italy has always been considered a Cinderella. By 2027, according to Confindustria forecasts, we will have 500 thousand uncovered jobs in the country. We must encourage technical training. Too many young people, pushed by their families, choose high schools and then abandon them.”
What is the financial situation of Its?
«Thanks to the Draghi government, a loan of one and a half billion has been allocated to the ITS system from the Pnrr».
Money that the system has already received and invested?
«No, unfortunately there were unspeakable bureaucratic delays, despite the enormous effort of Minister Valditara and the entire ministry. A third of the financing, half a billion, will have to allow the creation of new laboratories. Of these 500 million, a first tranche is about to arrive. Then there are 700 million to double the courses, and another 300 million for further projects.”
Okay but time is running out. The Pnrr rules require the money to be spent by June 2026.
“We will have to bend over backwards to spend this money well, without wasting it.”
«The world of school is conservative, and does not look favorably on this experimentation. However, in this case I feel little in tune with the world of school.” Paolo Fasce is director of the Nautical Institute of Genoa and Camogli and sees in the 4+2 reform a «first important maneuver against the excessive liceization of our school system, which has relegated technical and professional institutes to second-class schools, when instead our manufacturing economy needs qualified workers.”
Are businesses asking for it?
«Yes, and it's there for all to see. Just go to Sestri Ponente and see the many workers who come in and out of Fincantieri every day. The vast majority are foreigners.”
Are these jobs that Italians no longer want to do?
“Not only. Many young people don't know these opportunities exist. They enroll in high school pushed by their parents, reluctantly, and move forward, in many cases, with difficulty and little satisfaction. All this because here technical-professional training is weak and frowned upon by many families. Fincantieri workers do not do unworthy work. They do laborer jobs. We are losing skilled labor.”
Are Its the right answer?
«Yes, even if they still have some fragility. What is missing, in my opinion this is the biggest flaw, is a real connection with the universities. Anyone who graduates from an ITS and chooses to continue studying should be able to obtain recognition of training credits and, in just one year, achieve a three-year degree. Unfortunately this is not yet possible, not in Italy.”
Will your school, Nautico, participate in the experimentation?
«I wish he would have done it. We would have done a 4+2 with the Merchant Marine Academy, but the teaching body voted against it.”
Why?
«There are many fears. The biggest one is that teachers fear, with the transition from 5 to 4 years, a cut in staff numbers.”
Is it a well-founded fear?
«It is, but we have to deal with reality. We are a very indebted country. Reducing schooling from 13 to 12 years is one way to keep costs down. And it could be a tool to give more value to teaching: have fewer teachers, but pay them more.”
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