After years of precarious work as a farm laborer on a citrus farm, Federico Olivieri, 29, couldn't believe it when near his home in Sicily, Webuild opened a huge site offering training for the many specialized jobs required.

The program sponsored by Webuild is one of a growing number of "schools" run and funded by companies with the goal of filling large employment gaps due to the mismatch between workers' skills and those in demand.

"We have proactively addressed the problem by investing in putting in place a dedicated system. There is a need for people and skills that are not available in the labor market. If they don't exist we create them ourselves, " Gianluca Grondona, Chief HR, Organization & Systems Officer at Webuild, told Reuters about the group's program, launched in November.

Skill mismatch is an international problem, but for Italy, with the lowest employment rate in the EU and productivity that has stagnated for more than two decades, it is a serious problem.

Despite the large number of unemployed and inactive, the vacancy rate stood at 2.5 percent in the first quarter of 2024, in line with the EU average, the latest Eurostat data show. In the same period, the vacancy rate was 2.8 percent and in France and 0.9 percent in Spain.

Vocational schools and institutes are less numerous and coveted in Italy than in most European countries, the think tank Prometeia pointed out in a study published in June, and even those that do exist fail to train students adequately.

At the same time, according to Prometeia, too many young people continue to study subjects that are less in demand on the market, such as the humanities.

The problem has worsened with the rapid development of new technologies, at a time when the country is investing heavily in NRP-supported infrastructure projects with a total value of about 200 billion euros.

Large companies such as Webuild, Fincantieri and Ferrovie dello Stato (Fs) are taking matters into their own hands.

In addition to internship offers, for example, Fs is working with universities and schools to offer students more targeted courses.

"When a company changes, skills also change and we need specific skills, especially when it comes to digital and artificial intelligence-based jobs," said Adriano Mureddu, Chief Human Resources Officer of the Fs group.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

In past years, Olivieri, an agro-technician graduate, has had to accept a series of unstable and not always well-paid contracts in the context of an agricultural sector in crisis due to cheap citrus imports.

This year he enrolled in Webuild's program and now works at the Trappitello construction site near Taormina on the Tbm assembly team, the so-called mechanical mole.

"The courses are very good. They are a great opportunity for those who have the will ... you can't miss such an opportunity," he said.

Of the 10,000 new hires expected over the next three years, Webuild expects to select about 3,000 people from its training courses. The schools are strategically close to the group's construction sites, many in southern regions where unemployment rates are highest.

Lorenzo Esposito Corcione, 19, originally from Liguria and a 2023 graduate of the nautical institute, is now a shipyard equipment operator at the Monfalcone shipyard. He is one of 80 people hired by Fincantieri after being trained under the "Masters of the Sea" program launched eight months ago. A total of 17,000 applications were received for the program.

"It has always been my dream, without the help of this course I would not be here," Esposito Corcione told Reuters at the end of his shift.

"There is a world between what I studied and what is done here," he concluded.

NUMBERS PROBLEM

Italy faces a problem not only of skills but also of numbers. It has one of the oldest populations in the world and one of the lowest birth rates among OECD countries at 1.2 children per woman, as baby boomers of the 1960s retire.

That means Italy will need 3.1 to 3.6 million new workers in the next five years, according to estimates by business group Unioncamere.

By 2050, Italy will have nearly five million fewer people, and more than a third of those will be over 65, according to Istat forecasts. There is a great need for young people in a range of sectors, from construction to tourism to agriculture.

Despite anti-immigration rhetoric, last year the government increased work visa quotas for non-EU nationals to 452,000 for the period 2023-2025, an increase of nearly 150 percent over the previous three years.

Italy has attracted workers from other parts of the EU over the years, despite its relatively low wages, but this has not helped solve its skills gap.

For now, schools and training courses offered by large companies are mitigating the problem, providing valuable opportunities for people like Pasquale Infante, 28, a native of Campania who graduated as a mechanical engineer. He is now a naval plant operator in Marghera.

"Definitely (these courses) are a good thing for both companies and workers. It's better than finding them already trained. By training them themselves (companies) know what they are teaching them," he said.

(Translated by Laura Contemori, editing Gianluca Semeraro)