"At such a complex historical moment, with a war on Europe's borders, another in the Middle East, the unknown of international relations after the US elections, there is only one way: each of us must work to take our destiny into our own hands. Europe must do this, as French President Macron has said. But it is also a task for individual nations and individuals. Everyone must build their own future' thus the President of Small Industry Giovanni Baroni launched in Sole 24 Ore the SME Day 2024 explaining the choice of 'build' as the slogan of the event.

The Confindustria initiative, now in its fifteenth edition, è in calendar 22 November. Every year, since 2010as part of Pmi Day, companies opened their doors to students, teachers, and institutions to bring young people closer to the world of enterprise. "The development of thought, and therefore training, are at the basis of choices for each of us, even more so for young people who have to build their future as adults, protagonists in the world of work," stressed Baroni. On 22 November in Turin the national event organised by Confindustriawith the Unione Industriali di Torino, Anitec-Assinform and the participation of the Rete nazionale dei Licei economici e sociali d'Italia (National Network of Economic and Social High Schools of Italy), in addition to all the territorial ones implemented by the associations of the Confindustria system.

For the President of Piccola Industria, 'young people must be able to know the major trends of the coming years. According to the latest Unioncamere Excelsior estimates for manufacturing alone, from mechatronics to IT, more than 500,000 employees will be needed between now and 2028, and we already know that almost 50% will be hard to find". And among the skills needed in companies are 'all stem subjects. We must bridging the digital divideWe need to increase the level of data scientist skills, data entry skills are no longer sufficient. It is necessary to enhancing technical training, the Itsand foster the relationship between schools, companies, universities. It is also necessary to push on 4+2i.e. the possibility for students from the four-year courses to directly enter the Its Academy courses'.

According to Baroni it goes strengthening the professional supply chainis the main solution to the difficulties of matching labour supply and demand, right up to the highest level, which are the Its schools, which guarantee a strong involvement of companies and thus a rapid entry into the world of work. It has started the 4+2 experiment, which we strongly support. However  experimentation has a 'second leg' represented by vocational training,  which, however, was defined in the budget lawwe are talking about 50-55 million, which should be restored. They are essential to give breathing space to a system that is an integral part of the '4+2' reform, which represents a real cultural paradigm shift in our system. However, we are optimistic, the dialogue with the institutions is tight.

Finally, speaking of theIArtificial Intelligence as an opportunity to catch up with the technology gap recalled how the Turin meeting is virtually also the final appointment of the road show that Piccola, with Anitec-Assinform, has been running since February last year on AI. An initiative with the grassroots that saw great participation by SMEs, more than 1,500 companies.

"If industrial production has been falling for months, it is also due to the crisis of the manufacturing model: we did not innovate enoughas a country and as a European continent,' Baroni reiterated. " We must speed up. The role of the younger generation is decisiveI am also thinking about the generational transition: with AI, skills are in the hands of digital natives. An opportunity for young people and for the future of our industry'.