What are the objectives and vision of the Pittini Group toward the younger generation?
Today, up to five generations share the same company, and the combination of people with different values and expectations represents, on the one hand, an asset for the organisation and, on the other, creates differentiated and personalised management of employees. Being both appealing to and engaging new generations are in every respect strategic elements to ensure the company’s future, just as the ability to retain those who are already an integral part of our industrial structure. To give you some numbers, this is the generational snapshot that we find in the Pittini Group: Baby boomers (1946-1964) are 10%, Generation X (1965-1979) represents 45%, Millennials (1980-1994) are now 32% of the total and, finally, Generation Z (1995-2010) is now 13% but growing steadily.
The goal is to secure the young technicians that are necessary for our continuous growth process, offering quality training and development paths, attention to people first and foremost as individuals and as workers, and providing a positive working environment in which to both grow and be challenged. In this respect, part of the credit goes to the willingness and expertise of our personnel. The opportunities for mentoring, where more experienced employees pass on their skills for the benefit of newcomers and reverse mentoring, where, on the other hand, it is the young people who help the more senior profiles to keep up to date, are very useful tools for growth and mutual comparison, enabling them to gain experience alongside people with knowledge acquired and built up over the years, or to enrich their own know-how thanks to new and innovative visions of objects and processes.
What types of schools and institutes does Officina Pittini actively collaborate with for Training?
Attention to Training has always been a key point in the Pittini Group’s way of doing business, both to enhance the skills of our employees and to contribute to the development of professionalism in the territories where we are active with our plants. The network of relationships between the company and the world of education, both formal and non-formal, constitutes a value for all the stakeholders which are involved: students, educational institutions, and the company. This, in particular, with the objective of supporting the transition between school and work. Over the years, this vision has been consolidated with the “creation” of a special area within our corporate school, Officina Pittini per la Formazione, which is specifically dedicated to the relationship with the world of Education.
The Group has forged close ties with school institutions, notably in Udine, Verona, and Potenza, and with several ITS Foundations, in the role of founding partner – as in the case of MITS in Udine – or as a participating partner for ITS Cuccovillo, ITS Mechatronic Veneto, ITS Umbria and ITS Brescia. For us, the model of Istituti Tecnici Superiori (Higher Technical Institutes) represents a valuable training ground for talent, offering two-year vocational courses as an alternative to university, which combine didactic quality with the actual requirements of companies for new skills and professional profiles.
Being both appealing to and engaging new generations are in every respect strategic elements to ensure the company’s future.
What are the activities promoted by OPF to reduce the gap between school and the world of work?
As mentioned earlier, new technologies and the growing demand for highly qualified professionals have highlighted the current gaps between labour demand and supply and between educational and business needs. In the past, the trend was to delegate the task of preparing new generations for their future to formal education, forgetting that production and market logics evolve much more rapidly.
This is the context which requires a greater commitment on the part of the companies themselves in terms of training, and the great work of Officina Pittini per la Formazione, which in 2023 celebrates twenty years of activity since its inception, is aimed at guiding students towards our activities, offering valuable training projects leading to tangible employment opportunities, and providing them with opportunities for up-to-date training and education which are specific to our sector. Technical and soft skills, personal development, and continuous learning are in fact the fundamental elements of our corporate school, which since 2004 has also been accredited by the Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.