The first part of the project with Fondazione Cariverona has come to an end. Let's hear how it went from Filippo Manfredi, director of the Foundation.
Filippo Manfredi has been director of the Cariverona Foundation since 2021. From the very beginning, he wanted to give new impetus to the foundation by implementing a strategic plan ambitious that pays special attention to the issue of human capital and the revitalization of territories' competitiveness. And then from words he moved on to deeds by launching numerous concrete initiatives. In one of these we collaborated together within a project involving over 100 ITS students from all over Italy and 34 companies distributed among the provinces of Ancona, Belluno, Mantua, Verona and Vicenza. A first part of this project has recently ended and we thought it was the right to interview Filippo Manfredi and to draw a first balance of the initiative.
Human capital is one of the three pillars that make up the Cariverona Foundation's strategic plan. Can you tell us the reasons behind this choice and the initiatives you are putting in place?
Fondazione Cariverona's 2020-2022 strategic planning was developed by identifying 3 strategic objectives: Protection, Care of the Environment and Enhancement of Territories; Human Capital and promotion of opportunities for the younger generations; and Social Innovation, Well-being, Quality of Life for the promotion of cohesive and inclusive Communities. Three objectives that dialogue with each other in a synergistic and related manner. At the center is investment in human capital in the awareness that in the face of major contemporary challenges, people always make the difference. We therefore invest in training, in the strengthening of skills and abilities, developed in formal and informal contexts, that can enable the younger generations, and not only them, to face their professional and life paths adequately equipped. We work so that our reference territories - the provinces of Verona, Vicenza, Belluno, Ancona and Mantua - are ecosystems capable of attracting and enhancing human capital, building extended territorial alliances with the involvement of institutions, third sector entities, educational and training agencies, and the entrepreneurial fabric, open to innovation and capable of grasping and transforming current complexities into opportunities for growth and sustainable development.
What are the reasons that led you to invest in the Upskill project? What drove you toward this choice?
The Upskill project fits perfectly within the scope of the intervention priorities dedicated to Human Capital: it creates a favorable contamination between the SMEs that represent the productive nerve of our territories and the young ITS students called to respond to the challenges proposed by companies with the development of possible solutions.
It is a project that acts on two distinct trajectories: an opportunity for on-the-job training, structured and accompanied by tutors and facilitators, for students who have the opportunity to acquire a working method, the one proper to design thinking, to respond to the challenges proposed by their enterprises, and at the same time an opportunity also for entrepreneurs with the possibility of being able to count on the original and creative gaze of young people and their innovative drive.
A first part of the project concluded with presentations of the work that ITS students did for 16 companies in the provinces of Verona, Vicenza and Mantua. Is it possible to draw an initial balance? What considerations do you feel like making in light of the prototypes presented?
A first balance sheet that is certainly positive: it was really interesting to discover from the direct voice of the young students involved how the 16 challenges launched by the companies were grasped, deepened, investigated and developed with concrete and feasible solutions, delivering to the principals excellent insights and possible further development. It will be interesting to see which and how many of these prototypes presented will translate into new processes, products services for the companies involved.