TRANSVAL-EU launch event in Italy – The value of transversal competences in the current job market

On January 21th 2022, the TRANSVAL-EU project was presented in Italy through a launch event organized by the Italian project partners ARPAL Umbria, FORMA.Azione and Pluriversum: “Il valore delle competenze trasversali nell’attuale mercato del lavoro: riconoscerle, apprenderle e valorizzarle” (The value of transversal competences in the current job market: identifying them, learn them and valorise them). The event was organised online, and it received an outstanding participation, reaching up to 160 participants from different Italian Regions.

The event featured Elisabetta Volpi and Paolo Sereni from ARPAL, Sylvia Liuti from FORMA.Azione, Andrea Simoncini from ANPAL (National Agency for Active Labour Market Policies) and Maurizio Serafin from Pluriversum.

Paolo Sereni’s initial greetings stressed the importance of connecting local everyday action and policy making to a more European environment, especially for a public service provider such as ARPAL taking part in the project TRANSVAL-EU. The TRANSVAL-EU project was then presented: its purpose, structure of activities, and opportunities that it offers at regional and national level. TRANSVAL-EU is expected to have a relevant impact at both European and Italian level, bringing to life a system for validating transversal competences, and a set of policy recommendations to guide policy makers for taking action on the matter.

During the event it was also highlighted that transversal competences are gaining more and more importance in the current job market, and their growing impact on the VET sector. Italian Parliament is in the process of approving a new law aimed at introducing the life skills teaching at school and VET, which is leading to controversial opinions among experts, journalists and observers. Indeed, what Andrea Simoncini from ANPAL underlined during the event, is that the attention given to transversal competences favours a progressive shift of focus towards the personal development of the individual, where training is not considered only as a response to emergency (e.g. job search), rather as a continuous re-skilling and up-skilling path. Thus, Simoncini highlighted that TRANSVAL-EU project is a trailblazer for this path.

Finally, the experiences of validation of competences developed in Tuscany were presented, alongside the methodologies devised by Pluriversum: a software devised to accompany the process of Validation in its stages, and the Open Badge system for certification of competences.

The event ended with open questions and interventions from the audience, which was quite active with many professionals expressing their interest in the project, and confirming the relevance of transversal competences in their field of work. The event was considered highly interesting by the audience, and follow-up measures are already in place to maintain such an engagement, also in view of the next project activities to develop at National and local level in Italy.