"It is crucial to invest in innovation and training, two aspects that go hand in hand. It is that Industry 5.0 that puts people at the centre and on which we are insisting. Otherwise there is a real risk that our companies, especially SMEs, will lose competitiveness and end up outside the supply chains'. Thus Giovanni Baroni, president of the Small Industry of Confindustria, in an interview in Sole24Ore.

And taking a step back to February 2023, he pointed out: 'we had organised as Piccola the first meeting of the Artificial Intelligence road show. Today, debate and technologies have moved forward at an unimaginable speed. Many companies have already integrated AI technologies into their production cycles'. This is a revolution: 'we have to intercept these changes and anticipate them. It is a radical reversal driven by transitions, green and digital, which are two sides of the same coin. Transitions have a disruptive impact: it means changing the way we produce, taking into account environmental and energy sustainability. It is not just the end product that counts, but the production cycle. Training is essential, it just struggles to keep up'.

Human factors and skills are crucial and it is precisely on these issues that the Small Industry Forum to be held in Pavia on Saturday 11 November entitled 'Skills for transitions'.. One of the pillars, Baroni explained, identified in the Assizes held in 2022.

Addressing the investment issue, Baroni said: 'We need immediate action, we cannot wait. The entrepreneurial system is 90% made up of SMEs, we do not have raw materials, we are a transforming country and our companies are part of global supply chains, with the supply chain leader very often being a large foreign company. Our trump cards are innovation and flexibility. If we lose the innovation aspect we risk being replaced, if that happens then it is difficult to get back in. We compete in a global world, with companies from every country. Other continents, such as the US and China, are supporting investment with very substantial resources. We cannot stand still. We do not want subsidies, but incentives for growth because investments are the basis for generating development. It is true that resources are scarce, but between Pnrr and Repower Eu they must be found, as soon as possible. We have seen the effects on GDP of Industry 4.0. We have to repeat this formula, giving space to innovation and, I insist, to training, both of young people who have to choose which study path to take, and of people already working in companies. There can be no effective technological evolution without skills. Man is at the centre'.

For the president of the Piccola Industria (Small Industry), 'it is necessary to strengthen training credits, facilitate company welfare mechanisms that allow companies to build continuous training courses, invest in making family and work compatible and thus favour the entry of women'. In manufacturing alone, at least 508,000 employees will be needed between now and 2027. "Training is the key. The most serious aspect of this phenomenon is that it is mainly young people who remain outside the labour market, unemployment is close to 22 per cent. The Its reform goes in the right direction, but more needs to be done. There is an important role for companies, including SMEs, in the Its foundations to bring young people closer to the workplace, particularly factories'.

Finally, Baroni also launched the Pmi Day, the National Day of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, on 17 Novemberthe event that for over ten years has seen companies open their doors to young people and institutions. "This event has branched out more and more in the area and we are strengthening it: next year we will also make it a big national event. We open the doors of companies to middle and high school students, teachers, families, and institutions. The intent is to make people understand what business is today, a community, a social subject, a protagonist of the territory'. This year's theme is freedom because "freedom, democracy, are values that are taken for granted. But this is not the case and we see it from what is happening in the world. They are goods that must be cherished and maintained. Work is freedom, because it allows the person to express himself. As Pope Francis said in his audience at the 2022 Confindustria assembly, work is the greatest form of redistribution of wealth. A social responsibility that we feel'.