Energie per la Scuola: businesses and schools together for energy transition
The objective of Energie per la Scuola (Energy for School) is to promote the orientation and training of young people for the jobs of the future through an innovative teaching method that reinforces knowledge acquired in the classroom. The program was launched by our Group to meet the energy sector’s demand for new and highly specialized professional roles.
“Energie per la Scuola is part of the younger generations’ journey towards the working world, which is necessary for Italy to successfully achieve its goal of revolutionizing the energy system.”
– Nicola Lanzetta, Head of Italy, Enel
In line with our #EnelperlItalia commitment, we are contributing to the development of the national economic system with our increasingly smart and digitized infrastructure and networks. Through the Energie per la Scuola project, we are involving students, schools, training institutes and our supplier companies on a path of growth through a professional and certified training course. This path offers many young people the opportunity to make the big leap into the working world and it will contribute, in a broader way, to accelerating the energy transition.
During the 2021/2022 school year, Energie per la Scuola saw the participation of 100 students from all over Italy who were then hired directly by our supplier companies at the end of the course. The success of this first phase, the response of the regions involved and the growing request for professionals with specific skills in the network field are the elements that have further strengthened the program. In the 2022/2023 two-year period, the project will involve sixty schools nationwide, with a commitment to hire more than 500 students at more than 25 companies in our corporate supply chain.
The program
Energie per la Scuola is geared towards students in their last year at both technical and vocational institutes to direct them towards employment opportunities upon graduation offered by the Group’s partners.
The arrangement between schools and businesses includes the stipulation of an agreement based on the model laid out in the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research guidelines.
The training course is free of charge and consists of a basic course totaling 120 hours inserted in the school curriculum during the fifth year that is a prerequisite for the acquisition of technical network jobs. It also includes a specialized practical course totaling 40 hours done after acquiring a diploma. The courses are provided by certified training institutes, in partnership with participating schools.
The vocational skills that the program helps to acquire are that of cable pullers, operators skilled in medium (MV) and low voltage (LV) splicing and termination, operators who assemble secondary substations and Pole Transfer Posts (PTPs), and low-voltage live wire operators. The objective is for the participants, over time, to be able to perform all roles in complete safety.
A Virtuous Model for Schools
Energie per la Scuola aims to enter the classroom not just to provide more in-depth information about the electricity sector, but also as a way to highlight the work opportunities that energy transition brings with it.
A virtuous cycle involving education and the work world that is already serving as a model for bringing together career guidance and sustainable development. In 2023, Energie per la Scuola became part of a school curriculum for the first time. The Giovanni Giorgi Professional Institute for Industry and Craftsmanship in Potenza offered the course on Maintenance and Technical Assistance for Enel's electricity production and distribution networks, the first totally dedicated to training in the electricity sector
The Giorgi school implemented a specific academic course as part of the fields of study already offered, with the objective of providing new ways to teach and learn, in order to respond to the needs of modern society. The curriculum was adapted to the real requirements of companies in the Lucania region, while giving students concrete opportunities to enter into the work world.
The pilot project – a joint effort among our Group, the Giorgi Institute, the certified training institute App-Energia and ANPAL Servizi, in cooperation with the Golden Lucano Consortium – aims to gives schools some autonomy in the current regulatory framework by rethinking education and raising awareness through additional training and outside workshops, provided by App-Energia.
New opportunities for career guidance and training allowing students, starting in their third year of high school, to supplement theoretical lessons with hours of hands-on learning, taking part in testing and maintaining systems so as to familiarize themselves with how the infrastructures work. At the end of the course, participants will be able to make the most of immediate career opportunities at one of our partner companies in the Basilicata region and apply the skills they have acquired in a stimulating, innovative work environment, contributing first-hand to creating increasingly efficient, digital, and sustainable electricity grids.
This initiative confirms our commitment to combating school attrition and promoting youth employment by supporting job placement in a sector – the energy sector – that is constantly evolving.