Pilot project on continuing training presented in the chemicals and pharmaceuticals sector

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On 13 January 2000, sectoral employers' associations and trade unions jointly presented a pilot project for continuing training in the Italian chemicals and pharmaceuticals industry. This initiative, which is innovative in the Italian context, will involve 25 companies and around 1,000 workers. The main objective of the project is to enable companies and workers to adapt rapidly to change and to globalisation. The pilot project, which has been welcomed by the undersecretary at the Ministry of Labour, may receive funding from the Ministry, and firms and workers will also contribute to its financing.

On 13 January 2000, the employers' associations and trade union organisations in the chemicals and pharmaceuticals sector presented a pilot project for the continuing training of workers. The aim of the project is to implement the provisions on continuing training introduced by the current sectoral agreement, signed in June 1998 (IT9806325F). The contents and structure of the project have been jointly defined by a resolution adopted by the two sectoral employers' associations (Federchimica and Farmindustria) and the industry's trade unions (Filcea-Cgil, Flerica-Cisl and Uilcem-Uil) on 14 October 1999, which also took account of the results of a survey on training needs carried out by the Joint National Committee on Training (Organismo Bilaterale Nazionale per la Formazione), set up in 1996 by an agreement between the Confindustria employers' confederation and the Cgil, Cisl and Uil union confederations. The Joint National Committee on Training is involved in the project as a provider of technical and administrative assistance.

The proposal drawn up by employers and unions for the chemicals-pharmaceuticals sector is an innovation in Italy, where the educational and training system seems unable to match the supply of vocational skills to demand by firms. The most recent report by the Joint National Committee on Training, published at the beginning of January 2000, substantially reiterates the findings of previous surveys (IT9812334F), highlighting the fact that around 60% of the skills requested by employers are not available, in particular in the areas of design, marketing, quality systems, innovation and development. In a speech made during presentation of the report, Sergio Cofferati, the general secretary of Cgil, emphasised that a system of continuing training is essential to guarantee the mobility and professional upgrading of workers throughout their working lives.

The pilot project for continuing training

The main aims of the pilot project are the following:

• to provide the instruments needed to develop a "business culture";

• to enable more effective responses to the requirements imposed by technological and organisational innovation, by quality targets, and by the market; and

• to reinforce firms and undertake investment which will enable workers to respond to the evolution of the labour market.

A further and important objective of the scheme is to develop a model which can subsequently be applied throughout the sector, identifying changes or adjustments that may be required in the light of the results of this preliminary pilot project.

One of the guiding principles of the training scheme is that "the quality and adequacy of human resources is a crucial factor in the endeavour to achieve the increasingly higher levels of competitiveness necessitated by the globalisation of markets".

From an operational point of view, the project involves 25 companies in the sector, which differ in terms of size and type of product and are located in nine regions of the country, from north to south. A total of 68 courses will be organised in these companies, for an overall training time of more than 28,000 hours, and they will involve some 1,000 workers (more than half of them concentrated in Lombardy).

As regards course contents, the unions and employers have defined six types of course intended to teach the principles that regulate the workings of markets and businesses, and to impart those basic skills which are more and more important for working within organisations, like the ability to work in teams, to communicate effectively, and to use information technology. The courses will address the following topics in particular:

1. economic issues;

2. the characteristics of markets and the strategic needs of firms;

3. communication;

4. teamwork;

5. management of internal relationships and of human resources; and

6. computer skills and software.

Within individual companies, participants on the courses are to be selected jointly by management and the Rsu (the company-level unitary union representative body), in accordance with the company's training needs, identified by the method stipulated in the industry-wide agreement and defined through a company-level agreement. The courses will cater for all workers irrespective of qualification, category or area of activity. Analysis of existing company agreements confirms widespread participation in all areas of company operations and among all job grades, from shopfloor workers to middle management.

The project provides specific instruments for certification of the skills acquired, and for the constant monitoring of results - amongst other considerations in order to identify problems and make the necessary adjustments during the operational phase of the pilot project. On conclusion of the scheme (one year after the beginning of the first courses), a special technical joint committee well evaluate the overall results achieved and make recommendations as regards future initiatives of the same type.

An interesting feature is that the workers, too, will help to finance the courses (up to one-third of total training hours) by drawing on the time off saved in the "hours bank" set up under the provisions of the collective agreement for the chemicals sector (IT9806325F). The purpose of this provision is first to ensure the motivation of those attending courses, and second to increase the number of participants in the future.

The largest proportion of funding is expected to consist of funds earmarked by the Ministry of Labour for continuing training. The decision on the actual allocation of the total of ITL 50 billion available will be taken at the end of January 2000. For the time being, when speaking at the presentation of the project, the undersecretary at the Ministry of Labour, Raffaele Morese, expressed his appreciation of the initiative by Federchimica, Farmindustria, Filcea, Flerica and Uilcem.

Commentary

The pilot project for continuing training in the chemicals sector has a number of important aspects. First, the fact that the scheme concerns "continuing" training is a feature of great interest. The project does not seek solely to increase labour productivity; its essential purpose is to enhance "adaptability" to the changing situations that workers may have to deal within the workplace and in the labour market. In fact, the skills covered by the courses are "general" rather than "specific" to individual company situations. The ability to work in a team, to communicate effectively, to understand the economic mechanisms at the basis of business activity, and to use new technologies are "basic" skills which can be useful and welcome in any workplace. This is an important aspect in an economic and labour market context increasingly characterised by the flexibility of work and of individual careers.

Second, the joint union-employer character of the project, involving both design and implementation, may make it possible to extend the benefits of continuing training to all workers, thereby preventing its concentration on only a few positions which are of crucial importance for the firm. Third, making workers jointly responsible, through their co-financing of courses, provides an important incentive for unions and workers to monitor the quality and effectiveness of training delivery, and it is also a significant source of legitimacy for the direct and substantial involvement of workers and their representatives.

If the results of the experiment are positive, the model proposed for the chemicals-pharmaceuticals sector could point out interesting directions for the improvement of the Italian educational and training system, which still fails to match the needs of workers and businesses satisfactorily (Roberto Pedersini, Fondazione Regionale Pietro Seveso)