Chemistry talents are being trained at the Its Nuove tecnologie della vita in Bergamo

This leg of Sole24Ore's journey to tell the story of the Its Academy stops in Bergamo. And in particular at the Its Academy Nuove tecnologie della Vita (New Life Technologies), a flagship in the training of talents in the chemical sector.

The Institute has around 350 partner companies and over 80 per cent of the teaching staff come from the world of work. More than 1,000 students have been trained since 2011, when it became fully operational. The placement rate is practically 100 per cent.

All Its courses are two-year courses, and in October, between the first and second year, 18 will start. An absolute novelty is the opening to foreign countries. In the wake of the Meloni government's Mattei plan, the Institute, together with Confindustria Bergamo and the local education system, has activated three international hubs on the African continent in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Cairo (Egypt) and Tunis (Tunisia). Thanks to this network, some 70 foreign students have already arrived in Italy.

"We look for authentic motivation, a sense of responsibility, and openness to change in the students,' says the president of the Its Academy Nuove tecnologie della vita, Giuseppe Nardiello. 'But what interests us most is the willingness of the students to get involved, to work in a team, basically. And to do this we use a professionalising system where the company is not an abstract concept, but a daily interlocutor with whom we work out programmes and implement them. In our training modules,' Nardiello continued, 'we build skills that are directly spendable in the labour market. And that is why the students, at the end of the training courses, find stable occupations, consistent with the courses they have completed. In the chemical, biotechnological, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and biomedical sectors'.

Thanks to the NRP, venues, laboratories, digital platforms, and immersive technologies have been built. "We were ready to take these resources and turn them into concrete activities with measurable impacts,'' Nardiello added. "Now it is important to ensure that interventions are no longer sporadic, dictated by an emergency or temporary nature. Training, innovation, to be lasting, needs structural, stable, multi-year interventions'.