Making of: Arsutoria School. Who invests in training?

“We find ourselves at an unusual intersection between two situations that are in blatant contrast to each other. On the one hand the objective need for generational change. On the other a stagnation of the locomotive that has been driving the shoe and bag manufacturing industry, luxury, in recent years”.

If 2022/23 were great years for manufacturing, today the scenario has changed, and the attitude is very cautious. In the meantime, the manufacturing field has changed: groups working on the high-end continue to open and/or purchase factories.

In this scenario, what happens to training? In a nutshell: the big ones continue to invest, the medium-sized and small ones are paralysed.

“The big ones invest for several reasons: because training, innovation and sustainability are the pillars of a value proposition they all share. Because the increase in average age remains a reality. Because the current downturn in luxury cannot be structural and those with broad shoulders make their investment plans looking at the medium and long term. Finally, because in the years of euphoria, people with no, or limited, experience were often hired, and now they need to be brought up to speed

The problem instead concerns the ‘independent’ contractors. For them, it is risky to invest in people, the typical fixed cost of manufacturing companies. What will happen in the next 12 months?

Difficult to say – Pasca concludes -. The big teams continue to keep their engines warm and training remains a priority for now. The economic and financial difficulties of small and medium-sized independ- ent companies could, however, put immediately available skills on the labour mar- ket and cool the focus on investment in training a little. We will see