ORreturn to university and work. Actuary, rewilding strategist, upcycler: Have you ever asked your children if any of these is their dream job? We imagine not. Also because even they – the boys – probably don’t know what it is. These are three of the 100 professions of the future collected in the Wanter orientation platform just launched by Valore D, to help you get to know non-traditional professions, perhaps niche but destined to develop.
A useful tool for high school graduates in 2022, who graduate after two years of a pandemic, of Dad, of long-distance relationships, of remote Open Days, in short, of great stress and tension. Confused students who feel broken. While the parents, also exhausted by the long Covid emergency, are breathlessly on their necks. Too much: according to a survey by AlmaOrièntati, 63 per cent of 2021 graduates attribute an important role to parents in choosing their university path.
University orientation: bridge between supply and demand
“Get informed, learn to know yourself, measure yourself, gain experiences and only then address yourself”: these are the necessary steps, according to Tiziana Pascucci, pro-rector for guidance at Sapienza University of Rome, to progressively approach the new world that awaits graduates.
An important step is the Open Days, which after two years of remote connections finally restart in presence in these weeks. At the Statale di Milano the appointment is on May 14, to Pavia from 4 to 6in Brescia, the Catholic shows up on the 7th of the same month, while La Sapienza of Romethe largest university in Europe, is preparing for the three days of Open Doors in July, from 12 to 14, with conferences in the Aula Magna, stands and virtual rooms for those who stay away.
All orientation activities are precious, underlines Eleonora Riva Crugnola, professor of Dynamic Psychology and co-responsible for the Counseling service in Milan Bicoccauniversity that every year, in February, organizes a special Open Day for parents (the one for students will be from 10 May): “AWe explain mothers and fathers that they should support their children without interfering, favoring its autonomy. The problem is that in the last two years autonomy has been challenged, there has been a regression and the family has become a refuge. They are all more fragile: the children, who have had fewer relationships among peers, and the adults, worried about their future ».
To facilitate this step, from September Bicocca will start with a pedagogical and psychological counseling service in schools, for small groups of parents, “in order to help them understand that their children are other than themselves”. For high school students, however, they are the “Topical Lessons” have already begunan online appointment to deepen the news, while in June the first Summer School will be held for children of III and IV.
In this context of slow recovery of normality, despite the anxieties of the international context, Wanter can be helpful in finding the compass. The approach is new: «We work on stereotypes to unhinge them» says project manager Valeria Leva. «We offer students an orientation course, free of charge: we ask for their passions, and we connect them to professions. Do you like math games? We show you the professions related to logical and mathematical activities, such as the developer of artificial intelligence systems. Then we show the video testimonies of those who do that job, the course of study necessary to have the required skills, the average salary, employment prospects and the location of the universities “. The starting point is the fact that companies often do not find the required profiles“As the 300 who are part of our network tell us” explains Barbara Falcomer, general manager of Valore D. “We would like to enter schools and propose meetings with both teachers and parents, helping to create a bridge between demand and offer “.
The fear of the entrance test
But, assuming you can find the way, there is an obstacle that sows panic among students: the entrance test, the so-called TOLC (i.e. Test OnLine Cisia, from the name of the consortium of universities that develops them), which is used both to select, in the local restricted access degree courses, and to verify the starting knowledge in the open access courses (if the result is insufficient , universities often ask to attend supplementary courses). Just Cisia launched the portal a few weeks ago ORIENTATION.
It works like this: schools ask universities – even more than one, not necessarily in the local area – to be included, so that children can have wide-ranging information, and can try their hand at a simulation of tests, one a year for every matter. “The most interesting aspect is that the system tells you where you stand in relation to the student population that has already taken that test»Explains Bianca Maria Lombardo, soul of the project and vice president of Cisia. “Until June, the student will only be able to practice through the school, but in July she will enter the platform directly and do it alone.” In addition to the simulations, on ORIENTazione there are also in-depth materials: “The goal is to increase enrollments and decrease dropouts” continues Lombardo. “If I try the test in the fourth grade, I have time to work on my weak points.”
New platforms, new strategies alongside others already consolidated, such as AlmaOrièntati, with its path for aspiring freshmen divided into four sections that helps to find the course close to their interests, and the links to the orientation portals of the individual universities. All useful initiatives to reduce the gap with other countries: we remind you that in 2020, Italian graduates between the ages of 25 and 34 were only 29 per cent (Eurostat data which places us penultimate in Europe, above only Romania), far from the target of 45 to be achieved by 2030.
Scholarships for female students
But there is another aspect to underline, and it is in the Dna of Valore D: the oreturn of the girls, their still scarce presence in Stem disciplines, those where it is easier to find work. On Wanter we try to motivate them by showing female success stories, from the drone pilot to the climate change specialist to the data engineer. Particularly useful examples now, when the anxiety of security can lead parents to direct their daughters towards more traditional subjects. Better to focus on the comfort zone, when everything falters. With the risk, however, of losing talents.
The Politecnico di Milano has been activating specific orientation programs for female students for years: “The problem is motivational, the girls don’t even look for information, because they think they are not good at science and technology” says Donatella Sciuto, Deputy Rector. The recent video EnginHERing it helps them understand that they won’t be white flies, and that they’ll do just fine even if they sign up for courses with less than 10 percent female attendance, such as Aerospace, Automation, Electrical, Electronics, Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering. To motivate them even more, there is the call Girls @ Polimi (open until July 20): “This year we are providing 15 scholarships worth 24 thousand euros each»Explains the pro-rector.
The latest initiative, the inclusion in the Politest Top School, the ranking that rewards schools for the best results in the entrance tests, of the new category “Girls Stem” for the ratio between the mark in the tests and the number of students in the engineering tests (she won the Agnesi high school in Merate). “At the last Open Day we saw many girls, interested and attentive, who confronted our students”. Who knows if among the freshmen of 2022 there will be future actuary (risk analysts), rewilding strategist (who restores biodiversity in areas at risk), upcycler (who designs and manufactures clothes or furnishing items from waste materials)?
Rosella Postorino: “Dear young people, never lose your curiosity”
The new book by the winner of the Campiello award is a passionate and exciting message to young people, so that they believe in themselves and in knowledge. And give legitimacy to their wishes.
Three years ago Rosella Postorino was invited, as a former student, to give a speech to the recent graduates of the University of Siena. Years earlier, as a freshman, she had arrived in Tuscany by car with her father, and for the whole trip they had sung together Lucio Dalla. For her parents it was a great source of pride that she had passed the admission tests, but at the same time it was a regret, because their paths would be separated forever. The future writer, Campiello prize for the tasters, was the first graduate of the family, and in her moving speech she recalled the great privilege of those passionate and intense years, with libraries, nightlife, the student residence: people, above all . And she invited young people not to stop, not to simplify, to pursue their own happiness, not to be afraid, to love. In Me, my father and the ants. Letter to the children on wishes and tomorrow (Salani, in bookstores from April 28), Rosella Postorino takes up that speech, rereads it and updates it in the light of the two years of the pandemic, of the new priorities that have emerged, of the new desires. Which must be legitimized. And if you happen to be afraid, patience. Indeed, fear can be a help. And it must be used all.
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