Sostenere i distretti orafi: strategie partecipative per un settore in crisi

PS IT-S2-MDL-084
SOSTENERE I DISTRETTI ORAFI:
STRATEGIE PARTECIPATIVE PER UN SETTORE IN CRISI
Referente: Ente di Formazione I.RI.GEM. soc. coop.

PROJECT

The Italian goldsmith sector, which was at the first place for production and exportation, is now in crisis. The goldsmith companies in Italy are nowadays 12500 and the employees are 51000.The fragility of the system is principally caused by the high percentage of craftmen and artisans and because the companies are mostly family companies. After 2001 the sales went progressively down, and also the exportation were in crisis. The recession was caused by many aspects, as for example the crisis of the international markets, the quotation of euro and dollar, the competition of the asiatic markets. The Italian industry sector was deeply in crisis, and the goldsmith industry was more damaged by the recession because its economy was mainly based on exportations. There are also endogenous causes, because the goldsmith sector is based on traditional technology and so little is done towards innovation and vocational training. There is also a deep fragmentation in the Italian goldsmith districts and no aim to form a network between small companies. The goldsmith district seems to be unprepared towards globalisation of the international markets and risks the expulsion and the loss of specific handcraft skills.

The main lines of action will be:

promote collaboration between Arezzo, Valenza and Vicenza goldsmith districts and create a national certification of skills;
work in order to requalify the skills of employees that risk the exclusion;

To promote collaboration it will be useful to organise workshops between districts in collaboration with local authorities, associations and entrepreneurs. The aim is to design innovative strategies together and create a sort of national certification of skills for the workers of the goldsmith area. The workshops will take place in the three districts and will be addressed by external mediators. The discussion will be oriented towards practical issues.

To retrain the workers of the goldsmith area the two directions are to organise updating courses and to convert the workers in other fields, where the can use the skill acquired. This second aspect will take place only after agreements between the entrepreneurs in order to choose vocational training courses adherent to the workers needs, and courses for the workers of the goldsmith industry that already left this field and need to retrain their skills.