Listen to the audio version of the article
From the webApp to connect students and companies to employment incentives, from 4 to 9 thousand euros, without forgetting the maxi continuous training plan to update workers’ skills for new jobs. The Lombardy Region’s plan to combat the mismatch which at a national level affects one in two hires and in 2023 has led to a loss of added value for companies estimated at around 44 billion, a figure corresponding to 2, is at the starting line. 5% of GDP. «Despite employment being at the top, vacancies are not decreasing – says Simona Tironi, Councilor for Education, Training and Work of the Lombardy Region -. All production sectors, from mechanics to chemical-pharmaceuticals, are desperately looking for trained human capital. The country’s competitiveness is at stake, which is why we need to intervene by looking at active schools and policies.”
Councilor, what is the webApp?
It is an active orientation project that will start in September, and aims to involve fourth and fifth year high school students from Lombardy and our companies. Thanks to technology, we speak kids’ language. Each student, by uploading their preferences, will be able to get in touch, via the webApp, with the companies most in line with their profile. In turn, the companies will offer an immersive experience of the work environment, welcoming the young person, accompanied by their parents. There will be testimonies from other young people who, after training, now work in that company. In short, let’s innovate orientation, we no longer have entire classes of 20/25 students interact with companies, of which perhaps only 2-3 are interested in that experience, but we start with young people, making them choose. We are already working to involve middle schools too in the future.
Moving on to active policies, what does the Training to Hire project consist of?
Here too we want to change the paradigm and be more concrete. Employability is fine, but today we must create jobs, and quality ones. For this reason, we have thought of a tool that allows companies that hire new talent to have their training costs reimbursed. The mechanism works like this: the company, once the resource has been selected, chooses the accredited training body to skill it according to its needs. Once the training course is finished, if it hires the person with a contract of at least 12 months, the Lombardy Region reimburses the course up to 3 thousand euros. And furthermore, as an incentive for employment, it assigns a loan from 4 to 9 thousand euros, which takes into account for each person the specificities linked to entering the job market. If the job placement concerns a person under 55, the voucher is 4 thousand euros if it is a man, and rises to 6 thousand euros if it is a woman. If you are over 55, it goes from 6 thousand euros for a man, to 8 thousand for a woman, plus an additional thousand euros if the company has under 50 employees. Furthermore, these incentives can be combined with other reliefs, including national ones. The measure, financed with resources from the European Social Fund, ESF+ for a total of 25 million, has produced significant results from the end of 2022 to today: 32% of the activated contracts are permanent.