Bridging the delay
in professional training
The gap between supply and demand is still high.
The initiatives of Aidi and Assil to develop a quality
lighting design: the experts' opinion
T
he American economist Lester Thurow
(1938-2016) was right, when he stated
that “the dominant competitive weapon of
the twenty first century will be the education
and skills of the workforce”.
Which means training courses as a competitive
factor for the economy of a country. In fact,
we often speak of training activities, even
though in practice there still is a marked gap
between demand and supply.
Everyone invokes them, especially in a phase,
like the present one, of economic difficulty
and strong technological advancement,
but the level is still insufficient.
There is a shortage in both the public and
the private system indifferently, therefore in
the universities, companies and professions.
However, two associations seem to have
understood the advice of the American
economist who died a few years ago,
they are the Italian Lighting Manufacturers
Association ASSIL, that unites 80 companies
that produce light fixtures and electric
components, and the Italian Lighting
Association AIDI, that represents
approximately 370 members, both individual
and collective, and carries out a technical
and cultural role related to topics about light.
Two years ago the two associations gave birth
to a joint cultural project, Formazione in Luce
(Lighting Training), with the aim of training
and updating the various stakeholders in the
lighting production cycle.
“The idea was born in 2016 – Andrea Solzi,
managing director of ASSIL, is pleased to state
–, based on a common need: to train and
update technicians in the world of lighting,
starting from a knowledge of the regulations
in the sector and the presentation of a series
of lighting design project experiences.”
Apparently a successful idea if we look
at the numbers of the two editions: 280
participants, 78 hours of training, and 12
professors teaching 12 courses in 2017; 112
participants, 33 hours of training, 8 professors
and 5 courses in this year’s edition,
according to the preliminary data diffused
in mid-2017.
A large number of topics were discussed:
from lighting public spaces to offices,
from commercial areas to homes, from
green spaces to public lighting tenders,
from classrooms to works of art.
“The themes of the two editions
maintained the same configuration”,
Andrea Solzi added, “even if in the edition
that has just ended, some novelties were
introduced with regard to the more topical
aspects in the world of lighting, such
as Human Centric Lighting, lighting design
projects, the UNI 11630 standard, and,
finally, the digital light management
systems. The latter topic was a great
success. As a consequence of the good
results that were obtained, we decided
to propose something new.
We created the Comitato Education
(Education Committee), a group of experts
in various disciplines whose task is to
define the technical and scientific strategies
of the programme for 2019.
The role of this panel is to propose
ALESSANDRA REGGIANI, lighting designer, Aidi
RESEARCH AND INNOVATION / LUCE 326
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