On the 3 December 2023 at MAM’s in Sassoferrato, the book written by Pepe Caglini and Piero Frasconi entitled “Soft Skills” was presented and among the speakers, SIFA was also called to make a contribution as a company very well known for its commitment to enhancing basic skills and training of students. We thank the authors who invited us.
Our intervention was aimed at making known the activities we organize in order to develop soft skills in the company, in the internships we activate and with the projects in collaboration with Confindustria Ancona, which allow us to reach a large number of students from primary to secondary schools.
In fact, among the corporate values that we try to promote, there are many basic skills including flexibility, collaboration as the ability to help colleagues in need and the ability to work together for a common goal, work ethic, creativity as out-of-the-box thinking, critical thinking aimed at improving every corporate aspect, assertive communication and more than problem solving – a term so inflated as to now be meaningless – reacting proactively to unexpected events before they turn into problems.
The question arises spontaneously…how do you promote them?
Our Code of Ethics is passed down through good example that starts from the Ownership and extends to the last hire, thus being passed down to every new collaborator who arrives in the company.
Then there are soft skills that can be trained and for this purpose we organize ad hoc training courses, for example the “Self empowerment and psychophonetic techniques” course was recently organized with Prof. Gabriele Micozzi aimed at developing an higher trust in ourselves, for example through psychophonetic techniques that help us to be more determined during our speeches.
We also promote that skills through a “different” management of the internships we activate, dedicating a lot of time to tutoring the kids. In fact, before the training dedicated to the office or production tasks, a first part consists of training on self-knowledge: we show them all the functional areas of a company, reasoning together on which could be the most interesting for the internee as a future job; we present the macroeconomic context in which the company is inserted and then discuss together how to start your own business; we also introduce self-empowerment (increasing awareness of oneself, one’s abilities and one’s potential, knowing how to better present ourself exploiting relational skills, public speaking, etc.); we support them in drafting their CV and cover letter and finally we train them on how to manage an interview, even in other language, suggesting how to enhance their aptitudes.
Finally, in collaboration with Confindustria Ancona, every year, we carry out around ten orientation projects aimed at primary school students, first and second level high schools. Projects that consist of activities that implement knowledge of oneself and one’s aptitudes, of training courses and employment prospects in the area, showing excellent local companies and spreading corporate culture.
This is our way to disseminating the values of active citizenship towards young people because currently, in our opinion, that’s an activity that companies can’t delegate to others entities. Every company can give a lot for its community, by doing very little.
