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SUMMARY OF THE MAIN RESULTS
Building and tourism. These are the channels
through which a solid base can be constructed for the Interreg
III project, which has the purpose of stimulating greater
collaboration between the two shores of the Northern Adriatic.
There are a number of reasons that lead us to reach this conclusion:
· The two sectors are the main economic
and production resources both for the Province of Venice and
for the Slovene Regions, namely Goriska and Obalno-Kraska.
· They stand out owing to the ratios of specialisation, which
is higher than the local average.
· They constitute the main reservoir of new jobs, both in
absolute and percentage terms.
Furthermore, integration might benefit from
the close connection between building and tourism, with the
latter often supplying the driving force for the development
of the former.
THE GENERAL PICTURE
We will now talk more precisely and in greater detail about
the outcome of our research. Starting from empirical data,
we see that the survey of a sample of firms in the Province
of Venice and the two Slovene Regions involved gives us quite
a clear picture. Firms engaged in building and tourism are
the biggest sources of the new jobs forecast in 2004 in both
areas. The only difference, a subtle one to tell the truth,
is that in the Province of Venice building prevails, while
over the border the tourism sector is pre-eminent.
The other productive sectors are some way behind, even if
Venetian textile, clothing, footwear and chemical firms together
will provide a quarter of the new jobs in 2004; the chemical
sector is holding up in Slovenia too (10% of the new jobs),
the same as that recorded by metal and mechanical engineering
industries.
The good prospects as regards new jobs in building and tourism
are borne out by the importance of the positions of these
two sectors in their respective economic structures. In straight
figures, the Province of Venice has nearly 10,000 workplaces
involved in building, about 14% of the total for the area,
behind commerce and agriculture. Sectors connected with tourist
activity, such as hotels, restaurant and tourist services,
are among the most important in the economic structure of
the Province of Venice, with more than 5,000 workplaces, the
significant proportion of 7.3%.
The picture outlined for the Province of Venice repeats itself
on the other side of the Adriatic. The tourism and building
sectors can count on important shares in the economic structure
of the Slovene Regions of Goriska and Obalno-Kraska - 9% and
11%.
In both the Province of Venice and the Slovene Regions building
and tourism have the advantage of human resources with a higher
degree of specialisation than the national averages.
The occupational skills most in demand reflect the tendency
that emerges at a general level, which identifies building
and tourism as the major sources of new jobs in 2004. In the
Slovene Regions the person sought after is the skilled workman,
especially in building firms and in tourist enterprises, while
in the Province of Venice the firms engaged in building are
those that most require this type of worker.
The study also revealed that in the Province of Venice there
is a demand above all for unskilled workers, mainly in building
and tourism, not to overlook opportunities with textile, footwear
and chemical firms.
New job opportunities in the other sectors are expected to
be significantly lower. It should be noted, however, that
there are, in practice, some jobs for office workers in the
Province of Venice (specifically, by tourism firms), while
executives find work above all in the building and tourism
sectors in Slovenia.
Most of the businessmen contacted said that the new staff
they expected to sign on will be managed through forms of
fixed-term contracts, making use of the employment flexibility
advantage this kind of solution provides. This trend seems
definitely to be more pronounced in the Venice area, while
there is a smaller preponderance of fixed-term over indefinite
contracts in Slovenia.
The tendencies that emerge can be summarised briefly as follows.
The sectors in which there will be most new jobs in 2004 will
be building and tourism, followed to a lesser extent by chemicals,
both in the Province of Venice and the Slovene Regions. This
fact takes on even greater importance if we consider the important
place each of these sectors holds in their local economies.
The categories of employee most in demand will be workmen,
unskilled in the Province of Venice and skilled in Slovenia,
while the type of work contract most likely to be offered
will be one for a fixed term.
THE AREAS IN DETAIL
To make a more detailed analysis at the territorial level
and to obtain a map showing where the jobs are expected to
be, we have no choice but to concentrate only on the sectors
that are the sources of these new opportunities: building,
tourism and chemicals.
Building
In the Province of Venice firms in the areas round Dolo, Mirano
and Venice are the most probable destinations for new building
workers, while on the Slovenian side the position is essentially
even in the two Regions of Goriska and Obalno-Kraska. The
Portogruaro and San Donà di Piave areas in the Province of
Venice seem to be less important from this point of view.
The Venice area, however, is not specialised in the building
sector, unlike Mirano and Dolo, which suggests that the position
should be considered favourable particularly in these two
areas. Skilled workmen seem to be mainly in demand in the
Dolo and Mirano areas as far as the Province of Venice is
concerned and in Goriska in Slovenia. In San Donà di Piave,
on the other hand, there is a preference for unskilled workers.
Tourism
As was to be expected, the Venice area has the lion's share
of job opportunities in tourism, followed by Dolo and Chioggia.
The Chioggia data are particularly interesting, also in the
light of a high specialisation ratio, while an unpleasant
surprise comes from businesses in the San Donà di Piave area
(which includes Jesolo among its municipalities), where 2004
is expected to be a lean year for new jobs.
On the Slovene side the most positive signs are those from
firms in Obalno-Kraska, which have the advantage of a solid,
well-established specialisation in tourism output. In this
sector, the enterprises in the Province of Venice mostly need
unskilled workers, evidently with different requirements from
those of their colleagues in Obalno-Kraska, who tend to look
for skilled labour. Firms involved in the tourism sector in
the Province of Venice report requirements for unskilled and
skilled workers; in absolute terms the Dolo need for skilled
workers and that of Chioggia for unskilled workers is noticeably
lower than in the area of Venice, the provincial capital,
which also records a fair number of offers of jobs for clerical
staff. The firms in Obalno-Kraska are much more demanding:
there is a strong tendency to engage skilled workers.
Chemicals and plastics
The percentage of new jobs expected in this sector in both
the Province of Venice and the two Slovene Regions is 10-12%,
even if the specialisation ratio is in each case below the
average in the two macro-areas considered. The main source
of jobs is Venice, followed by Portogruaro and San Donà di
Piave; the situation of job opportunities in this sector in
the two Slovene Regions does not show any particular lack
of evenness.
What occupational skills are wanted? In the Venice area firms
do not seem inclined to seek particularly skilled people,
as is also the case in Goriska. The results from Obalno-Kraska
should not be overlooked: 9% of the new job vacancies for
skilled workers in the Region is expected to come from the
firms in this sector.
Other sectors
The sectors we have looked into up to this point have provided
quite high percentages of new jobs in both the Province of
Venice and the Slovene Regions. Nevertheless we must point
out that there are other sectors that may provide opportunities
of work, even if not on both sides of the Adriatic.
In the Province of Venice the sectors concerned might be textiles,
clothing and footwear, especially those located in the Mirano
and Caverzere areas, where these activities have a specialisation
ratio higher than the Italian average.
The position is similar in the Slovene Regions for the metal
and mechanical engineering industries, even if in the context
of a contradictory picture: while the highest percentage of
new jobs is among the firms of Obalno-Kraska, this sector
only seems to be specialised in Goriska, where the demand
for new personnel is half that of the Gorizia area.
THE OCCUPATIONAL SKILLS REQUIRED IN DETAIL
Our analysis will now dwell on the quality characteristics
of the occupational skills required in both Slovenia and the
Province of Venice, concentrating particularly on building
and tourism, the sectors in which not only is there the greatest
need for new personnel, but above all the sectors that are
expected to be the quickest to increase output and job opportunities.
Building
Any flow of workers from Slovenia to Venice could take advantage
of the demand from Venetian enterprises. According to our
survey most of the firms that expect to take on fresh workers
intend to do so by means of indefinite-term contracts, thus
attracting above all workers from over the border in Slovenia,
where short-term contracts seem to be much more common.
In general Slovene and Venetian building firms can benefit
from many points of contact. The skills requested are not
particularly high, especially for labourers: the qualities
most sought after are reliability and basic technical competence.
To help the flow of jobs, on the Slovene side efforts should
be made in improving technical skills and the other abilities
required in the sector, judging from the fact that building
firms in the Venice area complain of a certain shortage of
people with these necessary qualities.
The building sector expects a high standard of education from
office staff and executives (sometimes a higher secondary
school diploma is not enough), and also language (knowledge
of English is indispensable) and information technology skills.
Venetian businesses have found quite some difficulty in finding
middle-level employees, especially because of a shortage of
the abilities required for these positions, while Slovene
firms complain of shortcomings due to the employees' educational
background even among the more qualified personnel.
Tourism
Good knowledge and adequate mastery of English are elements
shared by all the requests from Venetian and Slovene firms
in the tourism sector, as much for workers as for clerical
staff. The ideal identikit on the Slovene side, however, seems
to be even more complete, because the candidate sought should
also know German and Italian and have basic information technology
skills.
In spite of this, knowledge of languages is also the weak
point in personnel employed in this sector: both Slovene and
Venetian enterprises name their staff's degree of mastery
of a foreign language as the aspect they are not quite satisfied
with. This seems to be the key factor in recruitment, also
because no other particular abilities seem to be required.
There are, on the other hand, material differences in the
type of work contract proposed: in this, unlike their Slovene
colleagues, Venetian employers aim at greater flexibility
in managing their conditions of employment, induced by the
very seasonal nature of this sector.
The strategy to assist employment relations between the two
areas in this sector, then, appears quite clear: to concentrate
on training, especially on learning foreign languages (English
in the Province of Venice, English, German and Italian in
the Slovene Regions) without neglecting information technology
skills.
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