One hundred percent employed 12 months after graduation: the school for railway technicians that guarantees a job

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One hundred percent employment 12 months after graduation. The numbers of the course for «Higher technician for the management and operation of railway vehicles» within the ITS Marco Polo Academy – born in 2015 within the Port of Venice with the aim of responding to the requests of port companies to have a training institute capable of satisfying the need for highly professional logistics figures – they do not only tell of an expanding sector hungry for specialized personnel.

The request of 3 thousand technicians

On closer inspection, in previous editions it was never all the members who reached the finish line (25 each year); in the two-year period 2020/2022 16 reached the end, in 2019/2021 14, in 2017/2019 even 9, in 2016/2018 16. «There is no early school leaving: what we see is a certain amount of young people who receive job offers already after having attended the first steps and having obtained the relevant certifications, which can be used immediately», explains Giulia Saccardo, director and coordinator of the course. The “iron cure”, which has moved a quantity of goods on rails that previously traveled by road, has reduced traffic and pollution and has given a boost to logistics companies: according to an estimate by Confetra, the Confederation of Transport and Logistics , in the next three years there will be a need for 3,000 specialized workers, especially in the rail transport of goods.

The required certifications

The two-year period allows you to obtain the “Train Preparer” (formerly “Shunter”, Verifier”, “Trainer) and “Engineer” Certifications, as well as technical and managerial skills in the railway transport sector. In fact, the senior technicians who train in Venice pass different levels of preparation and obtain specific certifications: «These are qualifications which, for many companies, are required regardless of the final diploma. This happens with many companies in the private sector, but naturally not with those that adhere to the ITS Foundation, created precisely to respond to the request for personnel».

The first step is the Pdt license (train preparer), followed by the community license and finally the harmonized train certificate: the first and third titles then require a training phase in the company depending on the type (which goods are handled) and the certification then remains the property of the company itself, not of the operator.

The sector is that of freight transport, not passengers: «The working environment ranges from maneuvering inside ports and freight terminals, where goods are handled, up to the actual driving of the convoy to its destination. First there is the whole part of verifying the regularity of the train, the couplings, inspections, maneuvers and movements». A job of responsibility, so much so that – the only case in the paths of Its logistics – it also requires a medical certificate of fitness.