There is no shortage of ideas among the under-30s, but targeted training is needed

The will to climb is there. But, often, this desire must clash with the awareness of not having enough muscle to reach the top. Putting this paradox concerning young Italians and the world of work down on paper is a study conducted by Swg and Junior Achievement Italia, a non-profit organisation founded in 2002 and dedicated to economic and financial education, orientation, entrepreneurship and active citizenship for young people aged 5 to 19.

The survey, conducted on a sample of 1,267 18-74 year-olds, shows that young workers between the ages of 18 and 29 are an active generation seeking greater autonomy, so much so that 69% of them want to change jobs within three years. Of these, one in five would like to start their own business (22%, against a national average of 11), while 31% say they want to build their own project over time. Lacking, however, are the muscles. That is, the tools to put these drives into practice. If we look at operational skills, an important gap emerges: the ability to present an idea stops at 6.1 tenths, while the ability to work on projects (5.9) and to make decisions (5.8) settle at even lower levels. These shortcomings are also reflected in the level of dissatisfaction of the sample analysed: 35% of the 18-24 year olds declare themselves to be dissatisfied with their ability to adopt innovative solutions, while 40% of the 25-29 year olds consider themselves dissatisfied with their ability to manage problems and unforeseen events.

If the symptoms of the problem are obvious, the causes are equally so. Indeed, the research shows that more than half of young workers (55% of 18-24 year-olds and 50% of 25-29 year-olds) have never received entrepreneurial education, either at school or elsewhere. A situation that speaks of the mismatch between the skills required by the labour market and training: only 45% of 18-24 year-olds claim to have received education in self-entrepreneurship, understood as the ability to transform an idea into a concrete project. The distance between training and work "is a sign that tells us how important it is to start earlier, already in secondary school, to flank school courses with concrete opportunities in which young people can develop skills such as working on projects, making decisions, presenting an idea or dealing with uncertainty", comments Miriam Cresta, CEO of Junior Achievement Italia, who also speaks of the need to encourage an "enabling school", given that operational skills "grow above all through direct experience and collaborative contexts".

In this context, JA has developed entrepreneurship education programmes to equip students with horizontal skills, from creativity to teamwork, from public speaking to problem solving, potentially useful in any kind of career path. This is how the organisation has focused on the 'skills volunteering' model: working with partner companies, it brings professionals and managers into schools to work alongside teachers, integrating their knowledge into the training courses. A strategy to make training more concrete, bringing students into contact with experiences and operational methods that would be difficult to find in traditional teaching.

"When schools, companies and the third sector work together, when young people are brought into contact with different experiences, professionalism and points of view, the results are concrete: more skills, more motivation, more awareness," Anna Gionfriddo, president of Junior Achievement Italia, emphasises: "Today, more than 100 companies, at national and territorial level, have chosen to build a community with us committed to supporting entrepreneurial education in schools. In the 2024-2025 school year, JA organised almost 503 thousand educational experiences in 587 Italian schools.