Damiani (Fi): Pathways in the Its Academy for the reintegration of unemployed people over 50

Use the Its Academy also as an active policy tool, with the aim of supporting the employment transitions of 'senior' workers. This is the heart of the bill, on the initiative of Dario Damiani (Fi), which is about to begin its parliamentary process in the Senate. The challenge is ambitious, as the 'Azzurro' senator himself recalls: 'The unemployed over 50 have serious difficulties in reintegrating into the labour market, especially due to the misalignment of skills. And they run the risk of remaining unemployed for a long time, as moreover highlighted by various studies, from Censis to the International Monetary Fund, especially because of the technological revolution, starting with artificial intelligence, which is heavily impacting on the world of work'.

The legislative proposal aims to develop, in the Its Academy, short training courses, lasting two semesters corresponding to approximately 900 hours, placed at level 4 of the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning (Eqf), less articulated than ordinary courses, but suitable for offering a skills update with an immediate impact on re-employment. At the end of the Its Academy pathways, and after passing the final assessment and evaluation, a nationally valid qualification certificate is issued.

We are looking at the over-50 age group, which, as Damiani explains, 'is a generation that today is struggling with the alignment of skills on digital and the most advanced technologies; and for this reason their previous training needs to be updated to keep up with the needs of businesses'.

Hence the decision to call in the Its Academies, which today represent in Italia, the only professionalising, non-academic tertiary training channel. "With the reform law of 2022, and with the robust financing of the NRP," continued Damiani, "today the Its Academies are the pivot of immediate professionalising training; training that is very important, especially for this category of workers who have been expelled from the world of work. These senior workers will therefore be able to attend courses other than the standard ones to quickly update their skills for a later re-entry into employment'.

Moreover, according to Indire monitoring, the Its Academies have a very high employment rate (one year after graduation), over 80%, with peaks of 90-100% in many territories; and in almost all cases, these jobs are consistent with the training course undertaken in the classroom and 'on the job'.