In Padua, the building becomes an educational tool: the new hub of ITS RED Academy

A living lab capable of transforming the building itself into a teaching tool. This is the aim of the new ITS RED Academy hub, inaugurated in Padua, the new headquarters of the Higher Technological Institute, capable of accommodating up to 350 male and female students distributed over the five two-year post-diploma courses offered: Building Manager, Design Manager Furniture System, Energy Manager, Energy Specialist 5.0, Green Manager and Public Administration Manager. It is a building of 2,400 square metres and more than 12,000 cubic metres, for an investment of approximately EUR 11.5 million, available thanks to PNRR and Veneto Region funds.

"It is a kind of campus-laboratory, an intelligent learning ecosystem where the boundary between theory and practice is definitely crossed. Students can experience the state of the art and technologies for the construction system: thermal, plumbing, electrical systems," explains Cristiano Perale, president of ITS RED Academy. "It is a new way of doing education, in which young people can experience enterprise, developing projects, ideas, creating start-ups. But where they can also meet companies, ready to develop their project'.
One floor is dedicated to workshops, the other to meeting companies. there are 12 laboratories in all, which are modular and reconfigurable, plus open laboratories spread throughout the building, business simulation areas and a FabLab being set up with 3D printers, laser cutting, drones, instruments for thermo-technical, acoustic and electrical surveys, a robot dog for 3D surveys and an electric van equipped for environmental monitoring.

"We started by training construction system technicians who were able to work on construction sites: a surveyor on steroids," jokes Perale. "We then evolved, training technicians for plant design, furnishing, marketing for the construction system, advanced management of complex installations such as those of multiservices, and in September we will also start courses for technicians for public administration.
Professionals that companies need, in fact it is with them - just as the ITS model wants - that the training offer of the ITS RED Academy courses is designed.

"With the companies we refine the training modules from year to year. It is important to speak the same language. Construction companies are looking for highly qualified figures for industrial development, which means above all digitisation of the construction system'.

The new location allows for a quantum leap in the ITS RED Academy offer, thanks to PNRR funds, funds that will not be there forever. "We are not worried about the funds running out. We are concerned that it will not be easy to maintain the number of courses that the construction industry needs. We risk having so many companies and professionals out the door looking for new employees and not having the resources to start the courses to meet their needs. The problem is growth. We are still at one twentieth of the size that structures similar to ours have in other countries such as Germany, France or England'.