Apprenticeship and remote working: Studying for the recovery in school
The internship experiences set up by the VET centers in Italy are working. Students working on new hospital facilities or trying to “fix” tablets and laptops: these are some of the stories collected by the ENGIM foundation in Italy.
The students of the VET centers are willing to play a major role in the reboot of the productive activities. This is the message coming from the 25 Centers of the ENGIM foundation – Ente Nazionale Giuseppini del Murialdo, which operates in Italy and abroad as an offshoot of the Saint Joseph Congregation, founded in 1873 by Saint Leonard Murialdo.
Owing to the sudden interruption of the face-to-face lessons and the simultaneous closure of the companies, students attending the Centers found themselves ”crippled” by the absence of lab and internship learning. In order to keep the apprenticeship experience alive, the Engim foundation has developed “the smart working internship” formula. Thanks to it, students could experience “true working sessions” in remote from their own house, following with the educational programs previously established in the labs of the VET centers.
«In recent weeks – relates Marco Muzzarelli, the ENGIM foundation Director – students have taken part in lab projects, carried out in remote, showing such an incredible commitment, energy and enthusiasm, which would be helpful to the companies ready to reboot. Now the companies open up, we hope both the internships and the apprenticeship experiences should be renewed. Obviously, once the measures vital to safeguard our students well-being are taken. We are taking care of the scrupulous implementation of the aforesaid measures in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor and the associations of the productive sectors».
Meanwhile, the students attending the ENGIM VET centers, are currently engaged in their smart working experiences. Particularly noteworthy, because of the peculiar context where it takes place, is the experience made by the students from Bergamo attending the Thermo-hydraulic systems operator course. Their project work, realised in collaboration with the Consortium of artisanal plumbing installers and the Association of craftsmen from Bergamo, consists in the realisation of thermohydraulic diagrams for the new hospital built by the National Alpini Association in the Fiera area to host patients affected by COVID-19. On the other hand, the students attending the Electronic operator course in the ENGIM VET center Artigianelli in Turin came up with the project “Artigiani Digitali”, which consists in offering free counseling in remote, to anyone needing to fix his computer, tablet, or smartphone.
The lockdown compelled the farm of the ENGIM Center located in Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region, to interrupt the cultivation of its vegetable garden. Even so, the students are working on the realisation of the environment of the new outlet “Officina Ubuntu” from their houses. Still on the subject of nutrition, the students affected by disabilities attending the cookery course are following their lessons in distance learning. Only the teacher has the access granted to the cooking lab, from which he broadcasts his lessons online. However, the dishes he prepares are real. Therefore, in order not to waste them, due to the school closure, they end up on the table of the homeless every day, thanks to an agreement with the Italian Red Cross. It is an example of circular economy as well as real solidarity amidst the Covid emergency period.