“There is only one thing that can stop Italy: not having big dreams and we are lucky enough to have a generation with big dreams. Businesses and universities will be fundamental ». Like this Carlo Bonomi, President of Confindustria, speaking this morning at the Conference of Rectors of Italian Universities. “For us companies, universities are indispensable, they are a guiding light, today there would be no Google without Stanford”, continued Bonomi who addressed young students. “We need you, the future of business is in your hands”.
The concept of growth was taken up, during the conference, by the European Commissioner for the Economy Paolo Gentiloni. “We have growth levels in Europe of 5%, it’s an unprecedented number. For Italy the data are even more positive: 6.2% this year and 4.3% the next », explained Gentiloni. «The economic growth of Italy shows extraordinary dynamism and demonstrates that we can go even beyond the negative growth of 2020. Are we just looking for a rebound to get back to how we were before? But we weren’t in the golden age before. This opportunity must be taken to build a sustainable economy, and with longer lasting growth, ”added the European Commissioner. The commissioner said on the growth of Europe that “negative events may affect, such as the inflationary push which may be more lasting than the general consensus currently foresees, and which we foresee should reach 2.5% next year and next year. 1.4% in 2023. But no one has mathematical certainty that the effect cannot be longer ».
For a job market that in ten years will require new skills “we must introduce more digital and technological culture in the curriculum: the magistrate, the journalist, the psychologist, the lawyer must have scientific skills, we need to remove the barriers between disciplines”. This is the recipe indicated by the minister for technological innovation and digital transition at the conference Vittorio Colao, for which it would be useful “to bring the departments together more, to experiment in a transversal way, to move from the concept of exam to the concept of test, to push on the different skills going beyond the boundaries of the chosen discipline”. A third line of action for Colao is to “push on the quality of the university but also involve the whole surrounding environment”. It is necessary “to involve the territory in development and work” so yes to maintaining the “great poles of excellence, of course we must have them, but without creating territorial gaps” concluded Colao.
Also present at the conference was the minister for the South and territorial cohesion Mara Carfagna, «There is a gap between North and South from a university point of view», he explained, «we see it with the number of graduates, a low percentage in the South. This gap is the result of the more general social, economic and productive gap in the South. If we are able to rebuild a Southern Italy rich in employment opportunities, we will make it more attractive. The most useful thing I can do as a minister is to create the conditions for a student to choose southern universities and thus make southern society richer in human capital ”.