The Apulian IT sector is growing and needs to attract young IT talent to be employed in its companies, beyond those graduating annually from Apulian universities.
This is one of the main elements that emerged during the presentation of the 2018 report produced by the IT Observatory of the Apulian IT Manufacturing District. The report consists of three researches carried out thanks to the support of the Universities of Bari and Foggia and conducted on the District's member companies and students and graduates.
"The Apulian IT sector is solid, dynamic, growing and alien to the clichés that consider it engaged mainly in supply activities to the PA," explained the president of the Apulian Information Technology Productive District as well as President & Innovation Director of Openwork Salvatore Latronico. "However, an additional effort needs to be made to make the Apulian one perceived as an innovation territory: this can happen if a concrete strategic collaboration between universities, institutions and businesses, the three key players in innovation processes, is realized. The implementation of policies to foster the digitalization of the territory and to support the industrialization of innovations, realized by the established collaboration between businesses and the research world, could strengthen the local production system and motivate many young people to stay or come to Puglia. At the same time, in order to improve the match between the two sides on the job market, it is necessary for the demand for labor from businesses to be more properly targeted and specialized."
Specifically, 77 percent of students and graduates in IT disciplines from Apulian universities would like to stay in the area. However, Apulia's IT sector is struggling to find the skills needed in the labor market to support its growth.
Each year, in fact, the five Apulian universities graduate about 550 students for a total annual need of the entire Apulian IT sector (composed of about 1,000 companies) estimated at several thousand (about four times as many).
Moreover, between 2016 and 2017, both turnover (over half a billion euros) and the number of people employed in the District's enterprises (over 5,000) increased by 6 percent.
On this complex path toward innovation and digital skills, Politecnico di Bari and Openwork are already active in the field thanks to an agreement to create a Center of Competence on Business Process Management (BPM) in order to provide companies-through the work of young graduates and undergraduates-with qualified skills in the area of business process digitization.
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