The TechPro2 international project is celebrating its tenth year. Initially managed by Mopar – the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles aftersales brand for Services, Assistance, Customer Care, Genuine Parts and Authentic Accessories – in collaboration with CNOS-FAP (the National Centre for Salesian Works), TechPro2 is a professional development programme with a social mission created to offer opportunities for young people who have completed their compulsory schooling often from socially disadvantaged backgrounds or problematic parts of town. The project was extended to industrial vehicles (including commercial vehicles and agricultural machinery, later joined under the banner of CNH Industrial) in 2011 with the introduction of specific courses that expanded the scope from the automotive industry to working machinery. After kicking off in Italy, today TechPro2 is active in more than 60 schools worldwide, in Argentina, China, India and Ethiopia, to name a few, as well as Europe, in Poland and Italy, for instance. The latest country in order of time to join the TechPro2 family is France, where seven schools that over the next three years will educate over 200 students have been operating since July.
Over the past ten years, some 13 thousand youngsters have attended TechPro2 courses, totalling 380 thousand hours of training and 6500 hours of internship in the FCA and CNH Industrial service networks. TechPro2 is not content with these results and is pushing towards new goals. FCA has recently expanded the course portfolio to include the Workshop Reception area with the objective of training service consultants and started a Racing Team Technician course, the latter in collaboration with Abarth.
The objectives of the two global organisations (FCA and CNH Industrial) converge in TechPro2 with the training goals promoted by CNOS-FAP that foster the education and growth of young people. More in detail, TechPro2 is a programme created to deliver to life plans to young people. This means giving real, well-structured growth opportunities to the new generations, allowing young people to build a future made of employment. At the same time, it forms a pool of highly qualified resources needed by service networks.
The objectives of the project are achieved by recruiting, training and hiring young people through a scheme which combines theoretical classroom lessons in Salesian vocational schools and practical hands -on experience during internships in authorised workshops. Lessons are planned and organised by FCA and CNH Industrial in accordance with the regulations applied by the two companies in their own networks. Furthermore, the internships in service centre workshops allow the young people to develop robust technical-professional skills and gain important experience on the field. Strong of the opportunities offered by the TechPro2 programme, the highly skilled workers required by the company become readily available.
An important event that will be held in 2019 is the next edition of the “TechPro2 Award“. By means of a written test (technical questionnaire), an oral test focusing on the professional profile of workshop receptionist (simulating a customer-receptionist exchange) and a practical test (troubleshooting and repair of a simulated fault), each country will reward the most deserving students.
“TechPro2 is a project that I am very familiar with and one that for years has promoted a winning model of relationships between training organisations and corporations to foster the all-important synergy between schools and jobs“, said EMEA Chief Operating Officer of FCA Pietro Gorlier. “This partnership between three important organisations, that are the leaders their respective fields, is creating well-trained professionals. It is the ideal combination of an excellent technical background and a strong system of values aimed at developing the high level of personal and professional growth which are fundamental for our technicians of tomorrow“.
Derek Neilson, EMEA Chief Operating Officer for CNH Industrial, recognizes that TechPro2 is “a concrete and effective project, having proved itself over this past decade. Our long-term investment in new courses is meant to overcome skill shortages and, at the same time, assume social responsibility, supporting and strengthening the communities where we operate. As CNH Industrial, we brought TechPro2 to a number of new realities, from Africa to China. This program has enjoyed a renewed season of success, particularly in Africa, where our graduates reached an outstanding 100% employment rate, demonstrating that the TechPro2 formula can really make the difference.”
For Father Enrico Peretti, Director General of CNOS-FAP “the remarkable success of the collaboration between FCA-CNH Industrial and ourselves in TechPro2 stems from the need to interpret the educational experience through the inspiration of Don Bosco and that of civil responsibility – young people, families, manufacturing, vocational training and territories – to foster the convergence of the necessary skills. The joint activity of CNOS-FAP, FCA and CNH Industrial – now in its tenth year – is a successful example of job training for youngsters, the potentials of which are worth studying and should be an inspiration for many other companies“.
TechPro2 is certainly an emblematic example of vocational training, because it involves corporations and schools with equal level of responsibility to build the professional and personal growth of young people to make them responsible and provide the technological skills they need to operate autonomously and in team.