The Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport and the Regional Office of Sicily commit to training

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The Regional Education Office of Sicily (Italy) or (Ufficio Scolastico Regionale per la Sicilia) and the Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of training in Pathways for Transversal Skills and Orientation (Percorsi per le Competenze Trasversali e per l’Orientamento – PCTO) for secondary school students in Sicily. Both entities intend to promote collaboration between the education sector and the labour market.

This agreement aims to:

  • Decrease the gap between the demands of the labour market and the academic curricula of vocational and occupational centres for logistics technical professionals, taking into account the forecasted scenarios in the employment field taken from regional and national data.
  • Promote an increasingly solid and widespread dissemination of technical, scientific, professional and entrepreneurial culture in schools;
  • Implement technical courses aimed at promoting the port-logistics community and its main actors through the ‘Sicily Port Academy’, facilitating the connection between schools and companies in the sector.
  • Promote actions for the guidance of young people and for the development of learning environments that draw on the operational reality for cultural, technical, scientific and ethics training, also through the contribution of sector experts.
  • To implement training projects in the port logistics community of Palermo thanks to the educational paths of the ‘Sicily Port Academy’.
  • To foster a process of cultural development in which transversal skills and vocational training are the essential components to face the complexity of reality and activate in young people a greater sensitivity in looking at the work context in which they live and in which they will work in the future, representing a constant educational challenge that involves all the training agencies in the area, all in view of the continuous evolution of the work realities of the Third Millennium society.

According to Eduard Rodés, the director of the Escola Europea: “The port logistics sector in Sicily needs to attract young talent at a time of great digital, energy and social transformation. The Escola Europea – as a point of reference for its partners who are ports and shipping companies – wants Sicily to become a model in this process. This strategic alliance between the USR Sicily and Escola Europea will facilitate and accelerate this indispensable pathway.”

“The protocol proposes to activate pathways for transversal skills and orientation (PCTO) that will allow students to come into direct contact with the logistics and port community and to learn about their professional paths, thus providing an important orientation/vocational cue for their future careers,” stated Giuseppe Pierro, Director General of the Regional Education Office of Sicily (Italy). “In this sense, PCTOs contribute to on-going in itinere through the development of an active protagonism and a greater awareness of their own talents and vocations; developing self-orientated skills becomes fundamental in a society characterised by the speed of change exacerbated by digital transformation. Orientation becomes more meaningful, the more students act in territorial occupational contexts, which allow them to apply knowledge acquired at school and develop skills through real scenarios”.

Upon the singing, the president of the Port Authority of the Western Sicily Sea, Pasqualino Monti stated: “Since last April the port of Palermo has been a part of the Escola Europea, the European reference centre for training in logistics and intermodal transport. This is a prestigious participation that can help us fill the gap for skills needed in the sector and to favour the continues development of workers’ employability. It is a fundamental step because we strongly believe, in cooperation with the Sicilian Region and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, in the training of new figures that are beneficial – or rather, indispensable – in our ports of call, which we have adequately upgraded and modernised in recent years. Vocational training – which this protocol seals – represents the strategic tool for every company to acquire the strength to compete; the winning weapon to expand into new markets, through the specific and professional skills of each person involved in the organisation’s growth process. A further surge in employment and, therefore, the need for highly qualified personnel, is what we expect in our ports today”.

“The synergy between USR Sicily and the Escola Europea, can undoubtedly represent an important opportunity for growth in terms of training and employment for the city in a strategic sector such as port logistics” said the mayor of the Metropolitan City of Palermo, Roberto Lagalla. “For a city like Palermo, which is currently looking at the port as one of the determining factors for its development, this agreement can only be viewed favourably because it can be a lever for training new professional skills”.