“Cantiere Lavoro Italia”: the training program for working in large infrastructure works

Italy is increasingly a construction site, and this construction site is inhabited by people. Men and women, some looking for their first job, others unemployed, the majority of whom are young. The large ongoing and planned construction projects, from the high-capacity Messina-Catania-Palermo railway to the Jonica State Road to the Third Giovi Crossing, require the employment of new professional figures who need to be recruited, trained, and launched into the professional world.

To meet this need, the Webuild Group plans to hire 10,000 people in the next three years with the goal of “building the Italy of tomorrow.” They are the heart of “Cantiere lavoro Italia” (Job Site Italy), the new training and employment program dedicated to young and unemployed individuals,  technicians looking to specialize, construction workers of all levels and managers, officially launched last week by Webuild CEO Pietro Salini.

Nearly 3,000 (2,800) of the 10,000 people to be hired in the next three years will be included in the program. The majority (2,500) will become skilled workers, while 300 will attend the “school of professions” and be placed in construction site staff.

In a challenging moment for the country and Europe, “Cantiere lavoro Italia” provides a response to the problem of unemployment, not only by hiring personnel but also by training people with new skills and offering participants the opportunity to learn and acquire highly sought-after expertise in the market.

To complete the training programs, Webuild has established a network of “schools of excellence.” The first is the “territorial school,” managed in collaboration with employment agencies and training entities nationwide. It involves establishing partnerships with research institutes, universities, municipalities, construction schools, and unions to select and provide basic training to participants. The second is the “trade school,” a real training program for new entrants to the sector, designed to learn construction skills under the guidance of specialized figures. The third is the “professional school,” which involves the creation of Advanced Training Centers, one in Novi Ligure, one in Sicily, and one in Campania, where, once hired, new construction technicians can acquire advanced skills such as those related to mechanized excavation.

For those trades that are learned in the field, today, the construction site is a place of innovation. Machinery and cutting-edge technologies accompany human work, making it increasingly challenging. The training path designed by Webuild aims to create the workers of the future, skilled technicians capable of using the most innovative tools on the construction site. Among the skilled workers, special attention is paid to the training of excavator operators, electricians, installers, experts in TBM (tunnel boring machine), the mechanical moles that dig large tunnels through which the highways or railways of the future will pass.

The goal is to create “builders of tomorrow,” offering them specialized paid training, regular employment with room and board, as well as a system attesting to their acquired skills. It is a new paradigm that aims to integrate young people, recent graduates, unemployed individuals, mobile or laid-off workers—those who, even if excluded for the moment, may in the future occupy a place among the country’s excellences—into the construction world.