Change takes time
Carlo Briccola is president of the young business leaders’ group at Italy’s main representative body for the fashion sector, Confindustria Moda Accessori. He is also involved in leathergoods manufacturers’ association Assopellettieri, all while helping to run his family’s bag-making business, Bric’s. Here, he argues that the leathergoods industry is important for preserving skills and creating jobs.
What is the current situation regarding preparing new generations of leathergoods artisans in Tuscany and in other parts of Italy?
The issue in Italy is that many parents want their children to become doctors or lawyers, or to enter another profession that is widely regarded as prestigious. But we need manual workers, too. We have technical high schools, now called ITS Academies, but there is a skills gap because, although these schools are forming people in some aspects of the world of work, they are not forming the workers that our businesses need.
What are the needs of leathergoods businesses?
There are good internal schools in some of the bigger companies. From an Assopellettieri point of view, the programme that we have invested in in Milan, Ispel, is also working well. It teaches young people about cutting, colouring and stitching leather. Our plan to build a similar school in Tuscany is still in place. I have calculated that we have around 21,000 workers in the leathergoods manufacturing sector in Italy now and that only 9,000 of them have gone through our formal training programmes. It is a good thing for the government to develop ITS Academies because these institutions can give people not just the opportunity to learn, but also the time to learn. Nevertheless, it is impossible for a young person to come into our companies from one of those ITS Academies and be up and running right away. What is necessary is for the association, the government and companies to work together to develop a new generation of workers.
What do you tell your workers or potential new employees about the opportunities available in leathergoods manufacturing today? How do you convince them that they should devote time to suitable training and then come to work in the industry?
There are around 40 different professions that people can pursue in leathergoods manufacturing companies. There are the traditional activities mentioned above, such as cutting. Others include being an e-commerce manager, or a business analyst or a sustainability manager. I think this is exciting, but there is little point in a company like Bric’s, which is medium-sized, investing in sustainability and the digitalisation of our sales operations if we cannot cut leather properly. I am 36 years old and I know the generation that is now finishing education and potentially looking for a job in a company like ours. I know we have to give them time. I make a point of holding regular discussions with our new workers. Just recently, I was talking to three of them about this. All three of them said that the best thing about the job was holding the fruit of their time and effort, a finished product, in their hands.
Are bigger companies doing enough to help?
Yes, some are. As mentioned, some run their own schools. We work closely with some of the big brands and we are able to invite them to Ispel to talk to students there about their products and their manufacturing processes. That works well. But, of course, small- and medium-sized companies are a very important part of our sector. What is necessary is for us all to help each other on this, to work together to preserve Made In Italy.
In 2024, a minister for education in the Italian government, Giuseppe Valditara, visited the Micam and Mipel exhibitions in Milan and suggested that one of the ways to preserve Made In Italy might be to bring workers from Africa into the industry as part of a controlled immigration programme. He said young people in Egypt and other countries could learn the Italian language and about Italian technology and production methods in Africa and then come equipped to work in Italy for a time. Could this be a solution to the workforce challenges that leathergoods manufacturers face?
Well, you would need to find out from the Italian government more detail on exactly how that would work. It is true that there are Italian companies working in North Africa. You could bring people from there to work in factories here to help manufacture products that would be Made In Italy. That could be a short-term solution. But we need to look further ahead, too. We need a long-term solution. We have to change the mentality of Italian people, and I mean parents as well as young people, to convince them that this is a good industry to work in. That is a change that could take five or even ten years to bring about.
Confindustria Moda Accessori young business leaders’ president Carlo Briccola. Credit: Micam
