Definitions

A general definition of continuing training is: a further training done by people that already accomplished their studies to get new skills and capabilities (ILO Vocational training glossary of

selected terms).

In the specific Italian case, the expression continuing learning refers to “the technical, professional and transversal skills one gets working”( Ministry of Labour and Social Policies,

Ministry of Education, University and Research.)

We have to make a distinction in Italy when we speak about continuing training, we can make reference

• to continuing training for workers and enterprises

or • to specific actions turned to

entrepreneurship. Positive actions that have entrepreneurship as beneficiaries are not included, if only for a part, in continuing training national policies.

Resources for continuing training in Italy

Continuing training 18%

Educational and

vocational training 81%

Continuing training Educational and vocational training

ITALY’s DELAYs

• In the last ten years Italy’s yearly average growth rate was1.7% compared to 2.2% of the euro area and 3.4 % of U.S.A.

• The workforce quality is the most important factor which determines the long-term state of economy because it helps the introductions of innovation, increase participation rate, allows higher salary policies and support aggregate demand

• only one-fifth ( 20%) of italian workers take part to training activities compared to 40% of the European average

• only 25% of Italian firms organize training activities compare to 60% in of the European average.

The causes can be found in some of the following things:

• small size of the enterprises• enterprises devoted to the local market• workforce with little education

CONTINUING TRAINING POLICIES

Italian public general policies for continued training can be divided in three groups:

• ESF( European Social Fund) through D1 and D2 resources

• national laws ( L 236/93 and L 53/00 "Provisions in support of maternity and paternity, the right to care and the coordination of city hours“ L. 215/92 and L. 125/91)

• Multi-sectorial Funds

Workers involved in continuing training activities

Italian Workers EuropeanWorkers

20%

40%

Enterprises involved in continuing training activities

ItalianEnterprises

EuropeanEnterprises

Italian Enterprises European Enterprises

60%

25%

Three most important continuing trainig policy resources

National Laws 13%

Interprofessi onal funds

45%

ESF42%

National laws Interprofessional funds ESF

In addition to these policies there are also

• incentives related to the apprenticeship contract which represents a further investment channel for continuing training

• incentives distributed by the L 125 and L 215 expecially created for women and gender issue

• We also have a group of actors involved in ECT as a not institutional level but, most of the times, at local level: Chamber of commerce, Bilateral bodies, SMEs unions and associations, ATCs.

ESF

In 2004 the ESF transferred in Italy 282 millions Euros, recording a decrease of 13% compared to 2003. The strong decrease in co-financed training in Italy was due to:

• little retention tool for ESF customer and capacity to involve new enterprises

• the possibility of using Interprofessional Funds

NATIONAL LAWS

• In 2004 law 236/93 allocated 28 millions euros. For many years law 236 represented, with ESF, the only financial supporting channel to enterprises training policies.

• During 2004 the Ministry of Labour laid down two measures to allocate 46 millions euros according to law 53/00 (law 53 developed as a way of financing specialized individual training through vouchers. )

The role of Interprofessional funds

Interprofessional funds have started to be operative since 2004

Beside The Ministry of Labour the I.N.P.S. (National institute for the social security) was involved, as collector

of the compulsory contribution from firms and responsible of  the distribution of resources to the Funds.

Social and datorial partners, involved as main actors, through interconfederational agreements created

organizations for promoting, supporting and financing the Agreed training plans for firms and workers.

• Up today the Ministry of Labour has authorized by decree 11 Joint

Interprofessional Funds.

• Each fund reflects the operative area of the promoting datorial organization and so

the traditional issues of the interconfederational agreements.

• The yearly resource flux to the funds is estimated in about 300 millions euros.

Interprofessional Funds

Foncoop Cooperactive workers Fon. Ter Tertiary, segments of commerce-

tourism-services, lending financial, insurance and logistics, dispatch,

transportation. workers Fond.E.R Ecclesiastics workers and religious

firms adn enterprises with religious mission

Fondimpresa Industry workers Fondir Tertiary, segments of commerce-

tourism-services, lending financial, insurance and logistics, dispatch,

transportation. managers

Interprofessional Funds

Fondo Artigianato Formazione Handcrafts workers and SMEs

Fondo Dirigenti PMI Industry managers

Fondo Formazione PMI SMS industry workers

Fondo professioni professional offices and associated companies workers

For. Te Tertiary, segments of commerce- tourism-services, lending financial, insurance and logistics, dispatch, transportation. workers

• thank to their promotional policies Multi-sector Fund attracted a third of Italian enterprises

THE ACTORShave a decentrated model, where actors different from the State run

the workers training policies • Institutions: Central State, Regions and

Local Autonomies ( Provinces Authorities, Municipal Authorities);

• social partners (Chamber of commerce, ATCs, SMEs Unions, Bilateral bodies)

• the single firm and its workers are asked for an active role in working out the training plan.

TRAINING AND FLEXIBILITY IN ITALY

Continuing training is a very discussed issue in the framework of globalisation, flexibility an unemployment phenomena in Italy. After the last new reform named Biagi Law in Italy is appeared a crowd of flexible workers

The 'Biagi' Law introduced new types of employment contracts, such as:

• The Work-Entry contract (it) (also providing for a training activity, and replacing the training/employment contract in the private sector)

• The Supplementary and Occasional Employment contract (it )

• The 'Project-by-Project' Employment contract (replacing the Continuous and Co-ordinated Collaboration Employment contract)

• Job-Sharing (it) • Intermittent Jobs (Job On Call) (it) • Staff-Leasing contract (it) (replacing the Temporary

Employment contract) • Detachment (it) or Secondment, in the private sector

Continuing training for flexible workers

• The only two instruments that flexible workers has got in Italy for their continuing training are:

• ESF

• LAW 53/00

The flexible workers are the big apartheid of the training system

Gender IssueThe Central State adopts two different kind of instrument concerning the

development of women at work:

• Law 215/92 (on about the women self-entrepreneurship and business start up - This law promotes substantial equality and equal opportunities for men and women in economic and entrepreneurial activities, and favors the creation and development of women's entrepreneurship, also in cooperative forms. The government assists with expenses for systems and equipment as well as the purchase of services designed to increase productivity. )

• Law 125/91 Low (on about the development of women competences and women opportunity at work. Law 125/91 aims is to promote women's employment and to achieve substantive equality between men and women in the workplace )

• Law 53/00 provides specific measures and has got an important role about women-worker training

ECT In Italy• Continuing training for

ENTREPRENEURS and self employment in Italy is developed, as we

have seen, by some strategic instruments: ESF Measure D1, TACs, Bilateral Bodies,

Chamber of commerce.• for those instruments is very difficult to

have an unitary recongnition about the total amounts of the monetary resources that have been spent at national level.

TACs (Techical assitance centres)

• Art. 23 of Leg. Decree 114/98 (Trade Reform) provides for the establishment of centres, on the part of trade associations and other involved subjects, offering technical assistance to businesses.

Functions of TAcs

TACs can perform the following functions:• Technical assistance, training and continuing

education in the field of: • Organizational and technological innovation • efficiency & effectiveness of enterprises • Access to funding, including community funding • continuing training • Safety and protection of consumers • Environmental protection; labour safety and

health • Quality certification of stores

TACs operated especially at local level, in cooperation with Regional Authorities and social partners, in different economic sectors with funds that comes from the private and public bodies. On of the most important activities is concerning continuing training of enterprises and entrepreneurship.

Bilateral bodies

• Bilateral bodies are organisations that are set up jointly to run matters decided between the social partners as a result of the application of the bilateral principle.

Bilateral bodies are at national and local level specific instruments in the mayoralty relationships. The shared tasks of the social partners is to improve the competitiveness and the productivity of the SMEs in italy.

Activitites of Bilateral Bodies

• to provides a service of inter-change between demand and offer of work, with the main objective to improve the professional competences of the labour force;

• to carry on active policy about workers and entrepreneurs, safety and sanitary compulsory lows, vocational and continuing training.

• the bilateral bodies, are an important italian instrument of continuing training, that provide to the requalification and specializzation of entrepreneur in all

economic sectors.

• They work with their owns funds that borns by the compulsory contribute of the firms

associated.

Chamber of commerce, industry, hand-crafts and agriculture (CCIAA)

• The mission of Italian Chambers of Commerce consists in carrying out functions of general interest within the private business system.

Each Chamber carries-out important function in the administrative area (the most important is “the business register”) offers enterprises a full range of services to facilitate market intelligence and skilled training, to stimulate companies and businesses in innovative efforts and to support business trade relations home and abroad.

The most important Services provided by the chamber of the commerce at different territorial levels:

• How to set up a business

• How to provide business with informations

• How to train personell

Training By the CCIAA

• Training is one of the traditional tasks carried out by Chambers of Commerce; they provide training either directly (through specific services and dedicated management) or through suitably established Special agencies.

• The training initiatives of the Chambers of Commerce target different entrepreneurial categories, ranging from service sector operators (from traditional trade to advanced services) to small entrepreneurs operating in the manufacturing sector, managers of agricultural activities, operators in the environmental and energy sector, etc.

The users of the training services provided by the Chambers system can be grouped into two groups:

• namely entrepreneur and direct collaborators of entrepreneurs

• Aspiring entrepreneurs.

The funds of Chamber of commerce developed for training has got different

nature, private and pubblic.

Conclusion

There is a gap in Italy between politics - still ruling the vocational training policies - and economic processes.

• Economy has grown fast while school and education systems are mostly related to politics.

• Italian industrial system, based on SMEs, is asking for appropriate vocational training system. Actually in Italy do not exist a system of continuing enterprenuership training and for this reason is not possible to have a complete analysis on how much and in witch way training is offered to entrepreneurs.

• Most of the ECT initiatives stopped at local and regional level because there is not a national coordination or a national body that is called to provides to this kinds of issues.

• However we can have a recognition of lot of initiatives at local level, it is impossible to have national statistic datas, unitary datas and to make previsions and set up any risen of planning or strategical actions

It is now indispensable to set up this strategiy based on this main points:

NETWORK• To create a network between the actors

involved at national level (ATCs, Trade Unions, Social partners, Chamber of commerce, Bilateral bodies) priority turned on the issue of ECT. It's today important to have integrated plan of actions in continuing training programs devised ad hoc for entrepreneurship.

It is now indispensable to set up this strategiy based on this main points:

EXELLENCE MODELS

• To activate a data banks that at national level can help operators to share excellent and meaningful experiences and best practises.

It is now indispensable to set up this strategiy based on this main points:

ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING CULTURE

• There is a specific need to create a diffused training culture in entrepreneurship class at national level, and to do that is necessary to improve the dissemination system, the monitoring system the promoted system of ECT.

• In this case the most important protagonist players are the SMEs Unions, called in first persons to be active in multi-sector funds, they are catching up their authentic mission. Multi sector funds are important and strategical instruments for the SMEs unions and for the entrepreneurship, that because they are a quick and ad hoc source of resources to improve efficiency & effectiveness of enterprises, to increase competitiveness and competences of labour force and at the same moment to diffuse a new entrepreneurial culture.