The Salento stage of the Mondadori Academy Forum Orienta has ended. At the former Augustinian Convent, over two days, over 5,000 students met universities, businesses and institutions. On Wednesday there was talk of a return to the South, of young businesses, of hydrogen and of mentors.
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More than 5,000 girls and boys in two days. This is the outcome of the Lecce stage of the Mondadori Academy Forum Orienta, which on 10 and 11 November brought high school and university students from across the province to the Cloister, the rooms and the stands of the former Augustinian Convent. He started on Tuesday with a question to the city, “Lecce, do you care?”: according to the UniversityBox observatory, 81% of students like the city, but more than one in two thinks of leaving after their studies, especially due to lack of work. Many meetings on Wednesday tried to answer precisely this.
Antonio Dell’Atti, founder of Project School, told his story of departure and return, and how a social impact business in Salento was born from his return. Immediately afterwards Pasquale Pignalosa, from Invitalia, moved from examples to tools: he explained how Resto al Sud 2.0 works, the incentive for under 35s who want to open a business in the South.
The morning began with Paolo Gull, who presented the master’s degree course in Digital Heritage at the University of Salento, where cultural heritage is also studied with digital tools.
Luca Di Benedetto, general director of APT Gorizia, took the public into the transport transition: hydrogen buses, new technologies and professions that didn’t exist until a few years ago. In closing, Paola Villari talked about the training activities that the Chamber of Deputies offers to young people.
In the Sala Colonna the thread was that of the people who help to choose. With Francesca Campa we talked about the “Salento that can be done” and how important it is to have a mentor by your side. The schools of the Plena group (RUFA – Rome University of Fine Arts; Saint Louis College of Music; SPD – Polytechnic School of Design; Ferrari Fashion School; CAST Alimenti – The school of taste professions; Campus CIELS – linguistic mediation) replicated the meeting on creative professions, and the ITS Academy A. Cuccovillo presented higher technical training, a path that leads straight to work.
In the Library Room there was the workshop “What possible futures? Discovering one’s own direction”, led by Francesca Folda, journalist (she was director of Evidence Network) and strategic consultant for social impact. It was an hour in which the audience worked more than listened. The workshop, dedicated to young people between 17 and 25 years old, did not give ready answers: it asked them to get involved.
First the exercise of looking at all possible paths, without discarding any from the start because “it’s not for me”.
In the same room Marcello Lucchetta explained how companies now select also by looking at the online reputation of candidates. For teachers, Marcello Cafiero proposed a way of using generative artificial intelligence in the classroom that does not stop at either enthusiasm or prohibition.
The Forum was sponsored by the Municipality of Lecce and Confindustria Lecce.
Institutional partners of the initiative are the Minister for Sport and Youth, which promotes the National Youth Card, and Invitalia, which presents Resto al Sud 2.0, the measure dedicated to young people who want to start an entrepreneurial activity in the South. Mondadori Academy Forum Orienta Lecce also had the moral patronage of the Business and Skills Foundation for Made in Italy.
Other partners include Banca Ifis, as part of the activities of Kaleidos, the institute’s social impact lab, and APT Gorizia, which presents new technologies and professions linked to the ecological transition, with an in-depth look at the use of hydrogen for zero-emission buses.
The next stop of the Mondadori Academy Forum Orienta is in Taranto (1-2 December). In 2027 the Forum will arrive in Catania, Bari and Brindisi, and will return to Palermo and Lecce.
