initiatives to present light on an exquisitely
cultural level.”
But why is it necessary to promote training
courses in this sector? Specially, why have
two associations felt the need to engage their
efforts in this field? And more, is the training
provided by universities sufficient for
the requirements of the designers, the
entrepreneurial world, and public
administrations? Are the companies’ updating
programmes in line with the technological
innovation that the sector has shown
in these past years?
LUCE addressed these questions to some
insiders. This is what they replied:
“For an entrepreneur, cultural growth,
together with technical progress, is a primarily
important factor for strategic competitiveness
because it creates a context, a system,
a unique cultural, technical and productive
territory,” says Massimiliano Guzzini,
president of ASSIL and vice-president of
iGuzzini Illuminazione. “For me, as also for
the more dynamic entrepreneurs, light has a
social value and is synonymous with culture.
For this reason, two years ago, with our
friends at AIDI, we launched the Formazione
in luce project also to prove that we could
team up. In order to carry out a training
programme in a culturally advanced
ecosystem such as ours, you need
professionals and high-quality industrial
production. Our sector, even though it is still
characterized by small and medium sized
companies, is the second largest in Europe,
with regard to turnover, after Germany.
However, notwithstanding the results we have
obtained, today lighting professionals are too
few because a specific culture still does not
exist. Therefore, what we entrepreneurs must
do is to invest in our capacities. Along with
this fundamental ingredient we need clients
who are able to understand the importance
of light as a social and cultural factor.
For all these reasons, with AIDI we have
decided to invest in the preparation of
designers, technicians, and operators in the
public administration, proposing specific
courses. More recently, we have furthermore
created a place to elaborate strategies,
a think-tank, which we have called Comitato
Education, which has the task to extend our
baseline horizons. Finally, a last aim: our
sector, with the exception of some important
excellences, still shows some delay with
regard to knowledge of digital technology,
we need more commitment in order to make
the new opportunities offered almost daily
by technological innovation better known.”
Gian Paolo Roscio, president of AIDI and head
of Network Sevices of Iren Energia, is well
acquainted with the topic of training in his
professional life.
“It is a topic I have taken to heart,” the newly
elected president explains. “My professional
history has led me to appreciate the
importance of technical training activities.
However, in the lighting design sector today,
a big step forward must be made so that the
operators understand that training activity
must extend over a vaster area. A cultural
approach is necessary, and at the same time
it must keep in mind the technological
GIAN PAOLO ROSCIO, presidente / president Aidi
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evolution of the lighting systems. Today we
are going through a phase that is historically
relevant. Just think of public lighting, which
is an important part of our sector:
we are seeing changes that up to some time
ago were unimaginable.
Presently, with the financial crisis in the local
administrations and their need to reduce
costs, tenders for public lighting are
proliferating. Often, however, this process
is not accompanied by an adequate technical
culture – this can be seen in tenders, in the
project designs, and mainly in the final
results, which are not always good enough
for our present requirements.
The public administration is still not well
known to us, and we need to intervene there
with a greater preparation. And this explains
our initiative with ANCI, the National
Association of Italian Municipalities, to define
an agreement in order to fight the present
critical issues. Another front where we are
working, which represents another difficulty
in the system, concerns university
preparation. There are excellent universities
where the culture of light is taught in detail,
and others where the topic of light is
neglected: for this reason, we have formed
a group called Università e Ricerca (University
and research), which will also be useful
to widen the base of our association.
We must incentivize start-ups in the sector,
and we are doing so by setting up a contest
for innovative ideas. Lastly, with regard to our
training initiatives, we must try to reach as
many sectors as possible and explain that a
strictly technical training is no longer