In 2019, SFC, in collaboration with Confindustria's Brand Identity Area, launched a new structured training program with the goal of transferring marketing tools to the Confindustria System and improving communication capabilities with both member and non-member companies, leading to an increased attractiveness of the System. This program is called MarkeTHINK!

Thanks to the engagement of all association personnel, not just marketing specialists, involved in the project, this program proposes a new way of thinking about marketing as a management philosophy to:

1. Ensure the collective creation of value.
2. Provide the necessary tools to align the organization with the market.
3. Improve communication skills with businesses.

The program follows an annual schedule, consists of multiple sessions, and pursues the following objectives:

1. Strengthen awareness of the fundamental role of marketing within the associative system.
2. Promote a marketing-oriented culture.
3. Ensure the engagement of all association personnel in the collective creation of value.
4. Delve into more technical content aimed at increasing advocacy for the confederal System.

This is the training programme addressed to the System's officers and middle managers. It aims at enhancing the transversal know-how common to all HR through an in-depth study of the mechanisms of company operation (company visit) and the strengthening of the overall vision of organisational and association processes.

The initiative is realised in collaboration with the LUISS Business School and is divided into two training modules, one of which in Rome at Confindustria and another hosted by a territorial Association chosen following an alternation mechanism.

Target and objectives

The course - designed to be the next step after FORM IN - is aimed at the Group HR personnel who, by role and/or function, are called upon to be the "transmission belt" between the Association's management and younger officers.

FORM UP is aimed at those who are the potential 'change initiators'. The course offers the opportunity to train the ability to positively address everything that revolves around the theme of change in the various spheres of association and company life.

Through the integration and strengthening of specialist and managerial skills, the following training objectives will be achieved:

• increase the ability to overview association processes
• strengthen some specific transversal skills common to all officials
• deepen their knowledge of the functioning mechanisms of companies
• become increasingly efficient with respect to the changing demands of businesses

For more than 30 years (first under the name of 'Master in Entrepreneurial Organisation' then under its current name) FORM IN represents the first fundamental step in the training of officials in the System.

The training course has been constantly updated over the years with the aim of promoting, accompanying and supporting change and modernisation processes in the Associations.

FORM IN was created to be a "tool" at the disposal of the Confindustria System and HR, able to contribute to the development and training of an associative human capital which is required to be increasingly performing with respect to the continuous changes in the demand for assistance and services by companies.

It is a corporate training programme intended for newly recruited officers who need to enter into the dynamics of our Organisation, providing them with all the necessary elements for the knowing and sharing the fundamental values and 'basics' of the Association System.

Objectives

Through modular and integrated training, FORM IN aims to provide the young official with a "welcome kit" made up of several elements:

knowledge of the Confederal System and the Organisation's guiding values;

• in-depth knowledge of the macroeconomic context in which enterprises operate as well as knowledge of the main dossiers involving the Confederal System;
• direct knowledge of enterprises and their operating mechanisms;
• soft skills required by the organisation to perform its role effectively and in line with its general objectives;
• networking with a view to the integration of skills.