Investing in young people to promote employement

Youth unemployment is one of the most economically and socially relevant issues for the future of Italy. In 2018, there were 1.3 million unemployed young people in our country, of which approximately 25% were concentrated in fi ve provinces (Naples, Rome, Bari, Milan and Turin). At the same time, companies reported diffi culty fi lling some 730,000 jobs, including in the most advanced sectors such as tech but also in entry-level positions.

Youth and work

The Giovani e Lavoro (“Youth and Work”) programme launched in 2019 aims to offer free training courses to 5,000 unemployed young people aged between 18 and 29 over the next three years. This will help them acquire the skills that companies are seeking and assist them in meeting companies looking to employ young people. The project aims to have at least 75-80% of participants hired.

Paradoxically, the phenomenon of youth unemployment contrasts with the diffi culty companies face in finding trained workers. As part of this project, Intesa Sanpaolo is addressing one of the most pressing issues – namely, young people’s access to the world of work – from two perspectives: fi rstly, by offering young people the tools to compete in their search for work by introducing them to a profession; secondly, by responding to the needs expressed by companies to employ motivated staff who already have some core experience. The programme was launched in areas with the greatest potential for development, starting in 2019 in Naples, Rome and Milan, and extending in 2020 to Bari, Turin and other provinces. Training courses are focused on the professional sectors identifi ed as among the most diffi cult to fi ll in the Italian labour market: Hospitality, Food and Beverage, retail sales and Java development. Other courses will be developed in 2020.

Given its social nature, all costs of the programme, including the selection of candidates and the provision of training courses, are fully covered by Intesa Sanpaolo, making it free of charge for both candidates and the companies interested in hiring. 

Giovani e Lavoro numbers to date: out of more than 9,300 candidates, over 700 students have been placed in the classroom, with a recruitment rate of 80% for the fi rst students to graduate. Over 1,000 companies have participated in local meetings.

The project has been developed by Intesa Sanpaolo through Intesa Sanpaolo Formazione – the Group company that designs, organises and manages training and education programmes – and is carried out in collaboration with Generation Italy, the non-profi t initiative created by McKinsey & Company in 2015.

University and schools

Intesa Sanpaolo collaborates in various ways with roughly two-thirds of Italian universities by providing honour loans, supporting professorships and fi rst- and second-level master’s degrees, and granting scholarships to students and PhD students. Employees of the Group also provide teaching or customised projects to universities. Among the relationships and collaborations with foreign universities, the partnership with the University of Oxford is particularly noteworthy.

Intesa Sanpaolo also organised the Z Lab project for secondary schools in 18 cities. This is a training initiative that fulfi lls the government’s Programme for transversal skills and orientation (formerly the Alternanza scuola-lavoro programme), offering students in high schools and technical/professional institutes a three-year learning and practical experience carried out entirely on the Group’s premises.