Vicenzaoro Highlights, September 2023: Jobs in Evolution

«The June edition of the survey on the sentiment of entrepreneurs operating in the gold and jewelry sector once again confirms a positive outlook, especially for medium-large companies and the foreign market.» This was how Giorgio Villa, President of Club degli Orafi Italia, commented on last Friday's talk on the economic survey carried out by the Club in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo. Going into greater detail, he mentioned the most prominent data: «One company out of three has decided to increase investments: in this way, smaller companies aim to respond to the constantly evolving competitive environment. The inclination for medium and large-sized companies to invest is mainly linked to international market evolution and technology and machinery updating... Another crucial and challenging subject is the lack of skilled manpower, a critical issue that is directly impacting the very concept of Made in Italy. It is essential to address this problem in a strategic and collaborative way, favoring adequate training and skills development in order to preserve the identity and value of Italian excellence.» The picture is clear because, besides the figures for average and national turnover and exports, both of which have been growing at double-digit rates since 2021, one of the fundamental issues that the sector has been pondering and working on for some time is precisely that of finding new manpower to guarantee future entrepreneurial generations. An issue that, in recent years, has become the primary mission of institutions and players in the field. Claudia Piaserico, President of Federorafi, has made it her warhorse by pushing the accelerator on initiatives aimed at intercepting the interest of students upstream in order to make them see the beauty of a profession whose creative potential and real employment opportunities are often not perceived. During the Vicenzaoro Opening Ceremony, Piaserico particularly highlighted the numbers of the skuola.net project, a platform dedicated to scholastic orientation that, in a very short time, has already notched up 8 million registrations, and even more than 40,000 contacts in just a few hours after launching a campaign to promote a jewelry-focused study path. Also attracting the new generations today is AI, Artificial Intelligence, which can open up new scenarios in every sector, including jewelry design. This was discussed on several occasions during the Boutique Show, including the talk moderated, as always, by Paola De Luca, Co-Founder & Creative Director of Trendvision Jewellery + Forecasting, who was also a speaker at one of Sunday’s three popular events organized by CIBJO, significantly entitled: The coming revolution. Artificial intelligence and its impact on the jewelry industry. In a flash, business matching and sector culture together for an increasingly international Vicenzaoro capable of making tomorrow's challenges its own.