THE green jobs require ad hoc training courses. The newest will start next academic year: it is the Master of Science in Transformative Sustainability and will be carried out in collaboration between the Bocconi University and the Milan Polytechnic. The oldest is 150 years old but has been renewed in version 4.0: this is theGaribaldi agricultural institute in Rome, part of a pole that also includes an ITS (Higher Technical Institute) and a university. The green study courses are multiplied and updated: they range from tech and digital ones to transversal ones and also open to those with a humanistic background. You can study them already in high school, or “discover” them only in master’s degrees. On the other hand thehe energy transition cannot be postponeddrought jeopardizes crops, lifestyles and consumption adapt to emergencies.
The job market requires more and more profiles at the height: according to the 12th GreenItaly Report of the Symbola Foundation and Unioncamere, among the employment contracts activated in 2020, 35.7 per cent concerned green professionsAn average that, according to forecasts, should continue until 2025. Better prepare, therefore, and help our children discover paths that have a lot to offer.
A student of the Garibaldi Agricultural Technical Institute in Rome in the greenhouse.
Green training: in high school, between fields and mountains
TO Tione di Trento, the Guetti is thethe only Italian high school for mountain professions. Nothing to do with sports high school: “With us, students learn how to teach skiing, or climb, or evaluate a territory,” says the contact person, Antonella Moratelli. Guetti has a traditional curriculum, with Latin, philosophy, art history, but students are also obliged to follow two paths: the first leads to the ski instructor exam, the second to a mid-mountain guide. The third is optional, for aspiring mountain guides. «We add to the traditional hours those dedicated to practical technical activities. Without discounts for anyone »continues the teacher. 85 per cent of the youngsters from all over Italy – continue their studies; the others throw themselves on the track.
The oldest agricultural technical institute in the country – which celebrates 150 years in November – is the Garibaldi in Rome, in the center of an estate of 76 hectares with olive groves and vineyards, greenhouses and cultivated fields. The school is the heart of a training center, because the ITS Agroalimentare del Lazio is located in the same location and a framework agreement has recently been signed with the Biomedical Campus. High school, Its, university, all together. «We study the production and processing of agricultural products but also the planning and financial sustainability of an activity. And there is also the specific address on viticulture. All this with the help of technology »says the manager, Andrea Pontarelli.
Its: energy under control
Its offer two-year professionalizing courses, which take place half in the classroom, half in the company. Among the six planned addresses, there is a specific one on energy efficiency: “It trains specialists in the maintenance and control of digital energy systems, or in the installation of high-efficiency systems, or specialized sales technicians” explains Marina Perego, director of the Green Foundation in Vimercate (MB). “We optimize production and thus reduce the environmental impact”. Registrations for the Open Days for 2022/23 are already open: “The prospects are excellent, 85-87 per cent have a stable job within a year“. The only gripe, the lack of girls: «For now they are 1 percent, very few. Now they are signing up more, but always with low numbers ».
Sustainable mobility is also spoken about by the sea: theIts of the sector in Catania offers two courses, one for deck and engine officers, the other for logistics 4.0 technicians. “Sustainability lies in the search for how to combine the passage of goods from land to sea in an efficient and therefore less polluting way” explains president Antonio Scamardella, who has recently started a course for energy managers. Even here, more efficiency means fewer emissions. The data on employability are excellent: among deck officers, after one year it is 100 per cent; among the logistics experts – remaining in the commercial field – it is close to 90. It is worth thinking about it.
The students of the Milan Polytechnic in Valtellina for the Idro-Stelvio project.
All-round degrees
From A for Environmental Acoustics to V for Environmental Pollution Impact Assessment: al Politecnico di Milano there are almost a hundred green-themed courses, including those delivered multiple times, and are present in all degree courses, including Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering. In other universities, these numbers are not reached, but there are still many green courses. Here we will point out the most innovative, or interesting ones, taking into account that interdisciplinary and inter-university proposals are multiplying. Because today the job market requires not only specialists but also people with a broader view, who know how to connect different actors and maybe have behind them, why not, a curriculum of humanities: green managers, experts in urban regeneration, sustainability, human health, land management.
A transversality that is expressed well in wide-ranging universities such as Statale di Milano, where among the 30 courses on the subject (last year alone five started, including Environmental Change and Global Sustainability) we would like to point out the master’s degree course which will be inaugurated in the autumn: Analysis, planning and sustainable management of the territory, which can be accessed with a three-year course in Environmental Sciences or Political Sciences, as long as you have 60 credits in the green field. «We try to find a union between natural and man-made environment, a sustainable way to enjoy it. The landscape remains at the center »says Guglielmina Diolaiuti, professor of physical geography and coordinator of the working group. At the end you can graduate in Geographical Sciences or in Territorial Planning.
Transverse also the first level master Iaccs (Interdisciplinary Approaches to Climate Change for Sustainable Growth), also departing from the University of Milan, which was born in collaboration with research centers around the world (the call will be online in June): “Climate change requires knowledge of various disciplines, such as economic, legal, political and ethical sciences, as well as environmental” explains the coordinator, Sara Valaguzza. In the previous edition the master, which last year was second level, had 25 students: «All good, all busy».
Future work in plants
Many Masters and Master’s degrees are in English: a way to facilitate the arrival of foreign students and allow our students to open up to the foreign market. Of note in Bocconi is the Masem (Master in Su stainability and Energy Management),with courses ranging from Management to Water Resources and Waste Management, and the 97 percent employed after one year.
TheUniversity of Bologna, which has been dealing with green for 30 years and this year expands its offer with Greening Energy Market and Finance and Science of Climate. But the flagship is the inter-university course between Bologna and Padua Biology of Human and Environmental Health: «There is a lot of biology but also analysis of epidemiological data and the relationship between the environment and human health “says the delegate for guidance, Elena Fabbri.” The two themes are intertwined, Covid has pushed us to accelerate “.
Covid has also accelerated a reflection on the management of tourist flows, because it pushed those of proximity, local. It has fostered slow, sustainable, low-energy tourism. The master’s degree course in Tourism, Culture, Sustainability of the University of Padua, born less than a year ago. “We train operators who manage tourism with local actors, who know how to enhance and communicate it” explains the contact person, Professor Nicola Orio.
Finally, the course that more than the others, already from the title, is projected towards tomorrow: it is the master Vegetable future of the University of Florence, coordinated by Leonardo Chiesi, sociologist, and by Stefano Mancuso, director of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology. Here too, interdisciplinary teachings (teachers come from 12 different areas), with theobjective of «forming new figures, who understand plants but also how they fit into society»Explains the head of the organization, Fabio Ciavarella. “It is the most enrolled master of the university, it is frequented by students, entrepreneurs or professionals who want to open up to the future, in search of innovative solutions inspired by the plant world. If you want to plant trees in the city, the agronomist is not enough, you need an integrated vision ».
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