Not just Recovery Fund. Why the New Skills Fund should not be wasted
Alessandra Servidori's post
Gripped by the Recovery Fund syndrome and Mes 1-2, important measures are missing which in these hours give the pragmatic compass of how to invest the funds that (perhaps) arrive from the EU in the first half of 2021.
Europe, and significantly Ursula von der Leyen who has the undisputed faculty, points the finger accusing us of "Not knowing how to spend European resources". How can we fail to agree, given that in previous years we have amply demonstrated that we are at a serious fault.
If we go for example to the Svimez website (Association for the development of industry in the South) we discover that of the 44.7 billion euros available to our country, in the 2014-2020 EU budget period – and time is running inexorably – has been projects started for only 18 billion. But there are more than 595 thousand programs, which have an average size of about 30 thousand euros.
With a few exceptions, we are not faced with strategic choices, on an adequate scale, and with a horizon of growth. In many cases, the fundamental distinction between ordinary and extraordinary resources has failed. The funds are distributed in advance and essentially become the exclusive property of the beneficiaries, regions and ministries.
Overall, for the 2014-2020 programming cycle, Italy had a significant amount of resources available for cohesion policy. Between European funds, co-financing of the revolving fund and additional resources of the development and Cohesion fund, the budget to be spent in seven years amounted to approximately 145 billion euros.
The variables that affect the spending delays of the structural funds are mainly linked to four aspects and contextual responsibilities: administrative stability (the slowdowns – especially in the planning and publication phase of calls for tenders – are related to political and administrative turnover); the lack of skills to formulate projects and follow the forms and timing provided for in the calls as well as the inability to have pragmatic partnerships; the quality of governance (the administrations that already work even with ordinary resources are the ones that use the European ones more quickly); continuous regulatory innovations (the rules introduced to stem corruption have aggravated administrative procedures and slowed down spending).
Close to the end of the year, the deadline for Italy to prove that waste is not admissible comes into effect. We are talking about two measures that now and now can represent a step in responsibility. The New Skills Fund must be used to address the urgency of the search for professionals capable of occupying jobs in sectors without resources: doctors, health technicians, sanitation specialists. Then with the necessary time to consolidate this sector with the funds provided by the Reocvery Fund and Mes.
Unioncamere in its report indicates that the number of entries expected by companies for the month of December is down to almost 192 thousand, with a decrease compared to the previous year that exceeds 36%. On the other hand, the search for healthcare professionals goes against the trend (and is increasing strongly). Unemployment is rising in all sectors due to the restrictions and the forecasts are dramatic. Despite the significant decline in planned entries by companies from all economic sectors, the demand for some professionals related to health, health security management, digital transition and scientific disciplines is growing. In particular, the demand for doctors and health technicians is growing (respectively by 3.6% and 10.5%), as well as for professionals specialized in sanitation and cleaning activities (+ 31.5%). The demand for specialists in mathematical, computer, chemical, physical and natural sciences is also growing (+ 16%), professions that apply and make available Stem knowledge and skills useful for facing the economic, social and health crisis that has hit the country.
Employers can submit an application to Anpal to access the interventions of the New Skills Fund. The contributions disbursed through the Fund remunerate employers for the cost of personnel, including social security and welfare contributions, relating to the hours of attendance of training courses to develop skills established by the collective agreements stipulated. The measure is therefore aimed at private employers who stipulate, by 31 December 2020, collective agreements for the reshaping of the working hours of their workers, due to changed organizational and production needs of the company or to favor relocation paths. The reduction of working hours must be aimed at specific paths to develop the skills of the worker.
The new skills fund is implemented on the basis of the provisions of the inter-ministerial decree of 22 October 2020 with an operational notice published from 4 November. The endowment of the fund is made up of 730 million euros, of which 230 million from the national operational program Systems of active policies for work, co-financed by the European Social Fund. It can be increased with additional resources from the national and regional operational programs of the European Social Fund and, for specific purposes, from the Fund for training and income support for workers and the joint inter-professional funds.
It is therefore clear what a relaunch bet can now be developed even outside the famous control room which seems to swallow up all the planning capacity of the funds for the coming years.
Assuming that the problems in our house are resolved and above all that we manage to be credible in Europe. The real problem is the agreements with the trade unions, the training bodies (some already decocted) foreseen in formulating the projects, the deadline that is very close, the impossibility of the individual worker to express his availability. The norm establishing the Fund for new competences (art.88 of decree law 34, converted into law 128/2020 modified by art.4, of Legislative Decree no.104, converted into law 226/2020) assigns a role, in its governance, to the Ministry of Labor, Anpal, the Regions, INPS, joint inter-professional funds and the Fund for the training of temporary workers. The dialogue between all these subjects must take place through agreements, conventions, opinions, notices: these are bureaucratic activities that must end with the end of the tragic 2020 in 20 days) and the training courses must also start.
The vocational training system is on the ropes and the very weak provision of the fund provides for the achievement of a qualification of level EQF 3 or EQF 4. That is, the worker and the worker acquire the skills corresponding to a certificate of professional operator (EQF 3) or diploma professional (EQF4). Nothing to do with EQF 5, 6, 7, 8, which correspond to the qualifications possessed after attending an ITS or a degree course among those most requested by companies, which could and should have constituted the priority objectives, considering the serious defect of professionalism especially in the health sector of this level that characterizes the Italian labor market and of which we have an extraordinary urgency given the conditions in which we find ourselves.
On the other hand, both INPS, which must donate the Fund and Anpal, which must monitor the correctness of use, are suffering from bureaucracy and incompetence as well as uncertain and contestable data both on the use of resources for citizenship income and beyond. Great suffering.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/non-solo-recovery-fund-perche-non-va-sprecato-il-fondo-nuove-competenze/ on Fri, 11 Dec 2020 09:32:48 +0000.