Italy – the overview
Caretakers job market analysis
For the 18,681 first-level graduates of the health professions in 2017, there was a slight decrease in the share of employees with -0.7 percentage points, having fallen to 70.3% compared to 71.0% last year, when there was an increase of as much as 4.3 percentage points on the previous year. The situation is diversified between the four areas: a slight loss of 1.2% for Nursing and Midwifery. Similar reduction -2.2% for professions in the rehabilitation area. On the other hand, employment for the technical area increases by 1.7%.
Analyzing in detail the 22 health professions on the latest graduate data of 2017, they are confirmed for the high employment rate in the top five places Therapist of Neuro and Psychomotricity of Evolutionary Age with 84.2%, Audioprosthelist with 84.0%, Logopedist 83.9%, Professional Educator andPhysiotherapist with 82.7%. Compared to last year, the positions of Dental Hygienist and Podiatrist, who appeared among the top places, fell from 88.8 to 78.0% and from 82.8 to 69.4%, respectively.
In fact, they are almost all profiles that operate mainly as freelancers, as well as partly as employees of public or private entities; These professions are therefore unassuming by the recruitment freeze in the civil service in recent years. In contrast, in the five places, between 51% and 35%, there are some professions with a predominantly dependent employment relationship, like Dietitians with 51.1%, followed by Midwives with 48.6%, Audiometry Technicians with 40.6%, Cardiocirculatory Physiopathology Technicians with 38.2% and to close the Laboratory Technicians at 35.2%, which confirm themselves at the last places as in the last five years. Particularly worrying is the situation for Laboratory Technicians for the high number of about 28,000 enabled, which since 2007 has lost a good 33 percentage points, thus halving the employment rate.
On the other hand, the good employment position for Nurses is maintained, from 74.0% to 73.3%, but still far from the optimal situation of 11 years ago, when it stood at 94% of employment and only six months after graduation. For the high number of qualified, about 425 000, it is the Nurse who statistically affects the total of 22 professions. In the same area there is the profession of Midwife, which has a decline, falling by 5 percentage points, from 53.5% to 48.6%. The loss on 60% 11 years ago is almost 12 percentage points.
On the other hand, the employment situation for Radiology Technician is improving, rising from 47.6% in 2016 to 55.6% today, with 8 percentage points more, which climbs the ranking from 18th to 15th place. It should be noted, however, that the gap of -36 percentage points remains, compared to 92% in 2007 and therefore the employment criticality that would lead to the assumption of a training offer even less than the 736 posts last year.
Qualification requirements for caretaking professions
The Constitutional Court of the Italian Republic has stated that, under the allotment of powers referred to in Art. 117 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic (Part II, Title V) and the numerous pronouncements of the Consultation, the regional legislative power in the competing matter of the health professions must respect the principle that the identification of professional figures, with their profiles and enabling titles, is reserved, for its necessarily unitary character, to the State, falling within the competence of the Regions the discipline of those aspects that present a specific link with the regional reality.
The Law on Unregulated Professions (Bill 3270) was finally passed by Parliament on 19 December 2012 and published in G.U. on January 4, 2013, [1] dictating rules for the recognition of unetied professions, from which, however, the activities reserved by law for the health professions remain.
In fact, paragraph 1 of that law states that:
“For the purposes of this law, ‘a profession not organized in orders or colleges’, later referred to as ‘profession’, refers to economic activity, also organised, aimed at providing services or works to third parties, which is usually exercised and mainly through intellectual work, or at least through the competition of this, excluding statutory activities to persons registered in registers or lists under Article 2229 of the Civil Code, of health professions, crafts and crafts, commercial and public practice regulated by specific regulations.”
This paragraph therefore excludes from the field of activity of “these unregulated professions” the activities reserved by law to the 28 university-level health professions and placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Health.
On 7 February 2013, the State-Regions Conference approved a measure reaffirming that the activities of care, diagnosis, prevention, care and rehabilitation are reserved for the health professions under the supervision of the Ministry of Health; these activities are therefore prohibited from the persons referred to in the law 4 January 2013.
On 15 February 2018, Law 11 January 2018 No 3 “Delegation to the Government on clinical trials of medicines as well as provisions for the reordering of health professions and for the health leadership of the Ministry of Health” came into force. (GU General Series No. 25 of 31.01.2018) also known as Lorenzin Law.
Existing VET learning programs for caretakers
The health professions in the Italian system are all those professions whose operators, under an enabling title issued/recognized by the Italian Republic, work in the health field.
Since 2006 they are exclusively of university level, Fisioterapista [2] are placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Tecnico Sanitario di Radiologia Medica Health, and to exercise one of them one must have obtained a master’s degree Educatore Professionale (Doctor, Psychologist, Dentist, Farmacista, ChimicoPharmacist, Chemical, Physical, Biologist, Veterinary) or a three-year degree (Nurse, Physiotherapist, Professional Educator, Technical Audioprosist, Medical technician of Biomedical Laboratory, Dental Hygienist, Audiometrist Technician, Healthcare Assistant, Orthoticist, Occupational Therapist), and having subsequently passed a state examination for the qualification to the relevant profession.
Alongside them, there are also lower-level figures, with serving and auxiliary functions, whose training does not take place in the university (O.S.S., assistant to the armchair); Under Act 43 of 2006, the Regions are allowed to identify and train health-care workers who are not attributable to existing health professions, whose vocational training is secondary and non-tertiary.
VET learning programs in caretaking for deaf
Art. 1 – paragraph 1 letter of law 68/99 includes deaf people, referred to in Law 381/70, among those entitled to compulsory placement. It is not the first time that the European Parliament has been involved in this debate. Article 1 – paragraph 2 of Law 95/2006 stipulates that:
“the sensory impaired person of hearing suffering from congenital deafness or acquired during the evolutionary age that has compromised his normal learning of spoken language, provided that deafness is not exclusively psychic in nature or dependent on the cause of war, work or service”.
The previous rule of compulsory placement in Law 482/68, which was repealed by law 68/99, provided for a special reserve quota for deaf people equal to 1% of the recruitment of private employers and public economic bodies with more than 100 employees. Today, however, Law 68/99 provides a general reserve for all persons with disabilities under a single reserve quota, regardless of the type of disability. Contrary to what has happened for certain categories of blind workers, such as the centralists and mass-physiotherapists, for whom some special provisions have remained in force which, even before Law 68/99, provided for specific reserve quotas in their favour. The abolition of a fixed quota for the recruitment of deaf people has led to several problems repeatedly highlighted by the guardians because in recent years there has been a gradual decrease in the employment levels of hearing impairments. The lack of employment opportunities only exacerbates the condition of isolation and prevents the full inclusion of people with hearing impairment. As shown by the data published on the website www.storiadeisordi.it the total share of the deaf started at work has fallen over time to reach insignificant percentages (0.52% in 2008, 0.67% in 2009, 0.45% in 2012, 0.48% in 2013), far lower than the 1% expected before Law 68/99.
Such a difficult situation for the employment of deaf people has led some conservation associations to consider a change in the law to return to the definition of a fixed quota of deaf people to be hired by companies. The particular difficulties, linked to the communication problems of deaf people, have a major impact on the path of job placement which could be facilitated, in the first place, with the good functioning of employment services and a more adequate preparation of the operators in charge. The full implementation of the directives under Law 68/99 on targeted placement should encourage the meeting of demand and supply of labour. The most appropriate use of the tools provided by the law, starting with the assessment of disability with the assessment of residual skills, can facilitate the search for the most suitable job and advise, for example, the preferential route of start-up agreed under an agreement with the relevant services. In the search for job opportunities, however, the skills, expectations and aspirations of the person with disabilities remain essential so that job placement can take place for professional skills and not on the basis of a specific physical characteristic. It is not the first time that the European Parliament has been involved in this debate. 6 paragraph 1 of Act 308/58 stipulates that the specific suitability to carry out duties for the deaf person is granted by the competent doctor, with the intervention of a specialist in otolaryngology designated by the National Agency for the Protection and Assistance of the Deaf. It is not the first time that the European Parliament has been involved in this debate.
Employability of deaf and hearing impaired people
Most health professions take place with face-to-face interaction and therefore it is necessary to have achieved a good level of autonomy in understanding and eloquement, as:
– Medical
– Radiologo
– Radiologist Obstetric
– Nurses
– Social Health Worker
The lack of knowledge of deafness and the technologies currently available leads companies to think that some professions are not suitable for them (or rather, that they can only carry out manual ones), but they are wrong. Thanks to the aids and intensive use of computers and smartphones, these barriers have collapsed or can be easily overcome: even deaf people, adopting by chance in case the right solutions, can perform all kinds of work, like all other people.
In fact, it was once thought that only manual activities or to be carried out on their own were accessible and that it was impossible for a deaf person to achieve a higher education, today, thanks to the changed way of working that sees intensive use of computers and smartphones, many barriers have fallen or are easily overcome even during training and therefore more and more often people with hearing difficulties are able to graduate or perfect themselves in disciplines even very much as are all other people.
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