The National Confederation of Artisans and Small Businessmen (Co.N.A.P.I. Nazionale) facilitates companies’ access to funded training through the activation of tailored projects and technical accompaniment for participation in public calls, national notices and interprofessional funds.
- The Interprofessional Funds
Joint Interprofessional Funds for continuing education have been established in Italy since 2003, with the aim of financing employee training. These Funds are fed by 0.30 percent of the payroll set aside by INPS, a resource that can be allocated to a Fund freely chosen by the company.
Currently, there are 18 operational Interprofessional Funds, 2 of which are reserved for managers. The Funds are joint bodies in which the representatives of enterprises and workers jointly decide on contributions for vocational training. They are the main source of training contributions, involving nearly 10 million workers and about 800 thousand enterprises.
Over the past 20 years, the Funds have provided more than half a billion euros annually for training, benefiting SMEs in particular. This has enabled small and medium-sized enterprises to improve the professionalism of their human resources, increasing competitiveness, innovation, digitalization, environmental sustainability and entry into international markets, while reducing business costs for staff training.
Employers can choose an Interprofessional Fund based on the representativeness of the sponsoring Social Partners or the sector and type of enterprise. It is essential to assess the Fund’s viability in terms of cost and time to access contributions.
The modes of consultation
A key feature of Interprofessional Funds is the consultation of training plans with the trade unions. This dynamic, which can sometimes present complexities for SMEs, finds in the National Co.N.A.P.I. concrete support for the drafting of plans compatible with the needs of all Social Partners.
Type of contribution offer
Contributions from the Funds can be based on a “Company Training Account” or on ranked Notices. For SMEs, access to contributions is mainly through Notices, as the 0.30 percent paid in does not allow significant resources to accumulate in Corporate Training Accounts. Therefore, rigorous needs assessment and careful planning is crucial to successfully compete for the Notices.
Real needs of the business organization
For training interventions to be successful, it is imperative to start from the actual needs of the business organization. It is essential to design interventions that improve and maintain workers’ skills, as a course that does not adhere to actual needs is bound not to generate the expected results
- The New Skills Fund
The New Skills Fund, established in 2020 and managed by ANPAL, reimburses charges for workers’ training hours performed during working hours. Training activities can last up to 150 hours for each worker. The contribution for the training activity is paid by the company or can be co-financed by Interprofessional Funds. Access requires a collective agreement between companies and workers’ representatives that stipulates the training projects and hours to be allocated to training.
Training topics must be related to technological and digital systems, artificial intelligence, environmental sustainability, circular economy, ecological transition, energy efficiency, corporate welfare and organizational well-being. All courses must be certified or, at least, transparent in the skills acquired.
