Arzignano has a new cohort of Green Leather Managers
After two years of work and study, a new cohort of Green Leather Managers received their graduation certificates on July 30 in Arzignano.
Green Leather Manager is a course that launched in 2017 and now forms part of Italy’s specialist technical institutions (ITS) programme. Students can join after completing high school. It combines classroom and workplace learning.
Arzignano’s leather cluster, il Distretto della Pelle, worked with the local authority, with an institution called Fondazione Cosmo in nearby Padua, leather research body the Stazione Sperimentale delle Pelli e delle Materie Concianti (SSIP) and business organisations Confindustria and Confartigianato to set up a course specifically for a new, sustainability-focused generation of tanning industry managers.
At the ceremony, Fondazione Cosmo director, Roberto Gigliotti, paid tribute to the students and to two the team that runs the course for completing this cohort’s preparation for the world of work, in spite of the pandemic.
He said a high level of employability was one of the most recognisable characteristics of the course, pointing out that companies from across the cluster were proving quick to make job offers to the students, often even before they have completed the course.
Arzignano’s mayor, Alessia Bevilacqua, also spoke at the event. She expressed enthusiasm for the Green Leather Manager course, saying that the skills students were learning were those required to support innovation and improvement in the local leather industry. She said this was fundamental for the sustainable future the Distretto della Pelle aims to build.
Prizes for the students’ work in the classroom and workplace assignments went to two students, Carlotta Maria Miele and Michele Vallarsa, with tanning technology provider Cartigliano funding the awards. Michele Vallarsa and Alberto Fongaro also received a special tribute for obtaining perfect marks in their final exam.
