Webuild CEO Pietro Salini: “Large industrial groups have a role in supporting young talent through training and collaboration with public institutions to foster growth in infrastructure in Italy”

Eight young students and a University lauded for best theses and research project with Alberto Giovannini Prize created by Webuild to promote innovation in infrastructure

• Webuild event with Minister Valditara on value of training in developing the PNRR and ensure a long-lasting and systemic growth

• Eight winners for second edition of Premio Alberto Giovannini promoted by Webuild, and one award for research at Università degli Studi di Salerno

MILAN, June 26, 2023 – Technical professional training plays a leading role in the development of the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan in Italy), and it spurs growth in production in Italy in an evolving global scenario. Such was the conclusion at “The Evolution of the Infrastructure Sector: Youth Training”, an event held by Webuild today in Milano at the Corriere della Sera newspaper with the participation of Italian Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara, Webuild Chief Executive Pietro Salini and Webuild General Manager Massimo Ferrari.

“One of the things that the country must do is to have technical professional education become a Series A education,” said Minister Valditara. “Soon we will do an important reform in this sector to give many young people the opportunity to learn that they might not have today. We need a network of schools of the highest calibre to help projects take off.”  

“Supporting young people is one of the main objectives behind the PNRR. It is the role of large industrial groups to join this process by initiating public-private collaborations with the institutions, investing in training to attract and retrain the best talent. Only in 2022, Webuild dedicated one million hours of training to almost 700,000 on safety and the environment,” said Pietro Salini, Chief Executive of Webuild. 

“Large industrial groups lay the seeds of development,” continued Salini. “They can attract talent, invest in innovation and research and training, develop a new safety culture… important issues to train professionals who are needed today and tomorrow to carry out the PNRR. In the entire construction market in Italy, Webuild in 2022 acquired €1.8 billion of new orders. It is a number that translates into a share of the domestic market that is far less than those held by other large European groups that are our competiors (in their respective domestic markets). Scale is essential to grow not just a single company but a network of companies, and that is what we have been doing for many years with our supply chain, which in Italy reaches nearly 10,000 businesses.”

“Like Webuild, along with the training programmes that already exist, we will soon launch a recruitment drive for the younger generations, the unemployed as well as those who want to enter the labour market again but in a very attractive sector like that of infrastructure, from north to south (of Italy). Training will be done on construction sites where innovation is being one, one of the pillars of the Group’s growth,” he said.

The Webuild Group is working on 31 projects in Italy, with 16,000 people employed, directly and indirectly, of which 4,500 in southern Italy. The average age of Webuild’s workforce is 38 years. Those under 35 years represent 45% of the workforce worldwide. And the number is set to increase, given the number of initiatives that Webuild is deploying to support training and offer opportunities to young people, all of which serve as an essential leverage to meet in the best way possible the growth targets linked to the PNRR.

Today’s event was also the occasion to announce the winners of the second edition of the “Premio Alberto Giovannini” for innovation and digitalisation in infrastructure, an award programme created and promoted by Webuild and named after the economist and former Chairman of Webuild who passed away 2019. The eight young winners have been offered jobs at the company to grow within the Group thanks to their theses on topics related to innovation for the maintenance of public works, and instruments and technology that can prolong their useful life. The University degli Studi di Salerno was also given financing for three years of doctoral research. The young winners, with an average age of 27 years, come from various regions in Italy: Calabria, Campania, Molise, Lazio, Emilia-Romagna, Liguria and Lombardia.

The Premio Alberto Giovannini belongs to a wider Webuild Next-Gen initiative dedicated to the professional growth of young people and trades. It includes the Challenge4Sud competition, and the 100 Ingegneri per il Sud Italia (100 Engineers for Southern Italy) to recruit youth in southern Italy. There is also the Scuola di Mestieri (Trades School) dedicated to trades and those that want to start an apprenticeship at one of the projects that the Group has around the world.

For more information on Webuild Next-Gen, please click here