European Year of Skills 2023: the answer to change

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The epochal changes that are characterizing the world of training and work have long been under everyone’s eyes. The sad situation of the pandemic has strengthened some drivers of the change underway, highlighting new ones. Let’s think of the growth of remote working as well as the growth of training methods carried out online: the change calls into play new skills and knowledge on the business and public administration sides.

Reflecting on the new skills and knowledge required by the job market means having to deal with new training needs in order to act promptly and effectively. In many cases, the reading of the requirement is difficult to analyze and resolve. Increasingly frequent are the phenomena of mismatch between the skills required by companies and those possessed by the workforce. This situation of ‘crowding out’ varies from phenomena of skill shortage (difficult to find) to phenomena of skill gap (insufficient skills compared to company needs).

Where are the needs? Which economic sectors are most affected by the change and therefore most in need of training and refresher courses?

Inapp has found that the professional groups most affected are the technical professions, those skilled in commercial activities and services and skilled workers. Without forgetting the renewed interest in soft skills, which today are crucial and constitute a real passe-partout.

Inapp has been constantly monitoring these phenomena for several years: annually it takes a detailed picture of those who enroll in the numerous IeFP (qualification and diploma) or IFTS (specialization) courses and analyzes the employment outcomes to understand if those who have attended a vocational training center is working in a company after a few years. In 2021, for example, there were 251 IFTS specialization courses with more than 2/3 of the certificates out of the over 5 thousand enrolled, of which 73.2% are occupied after only one year. The total number of students enrolled in VET courses was 223,000, with 53,000 qualified (of which 67.5% employed within three years) and 15,000 graduates (with 71.5% employed); the inactive represent just over 1%.