The requests of the CNI
The National Council of Engineers (CNI) seems to have identified the following points among its priorities:
- Modernization and Structure: therefore the reform as an opportunity, in defense of the supervision of the Ministry of Justice and the fundamental role of the Orders as guarantors of quality and safety for society.
- Reorganization of Skills: therefore need to update and clarify the boundaries of professional engineering skills, especially in the industrial and information sectors.
- Qualifying Degree: with a proposal for a practical-evaluative internship integrated into the university course and qualifying degrees, to obtain the qualification at the same time as the thesis.
- Fair Compensation: with parameters for professional compensation – currently regulated by the Ministerial Decree 17/06/2016 – periodically updated by the National Councils, in agreement with the Ministry of Justice, and also applicable to relationships with private individuals, unlike what now happens with today’s law, reserved exclusively for professional activities carried out for banks, insurance companies, companies with more than 50 employees and a turnover of over ten million euros, and for the PA, with the relevant specifications now regulated differently depending on the amount below or above one hundred and forty thousand euros.
- Continuous training: therefore an evolution of training to make it increasingly in line with scientific and technological progress
The requests of the CNAPPC
The National Council of Architects, Landscape Planners and Conservationists (CNAPPC) has also made specific observations, among which, worth mentioning are:
- Enhancement of the Project: with the centrality of the architect’s role, for a more holistic and less fragmented approach between specializations.
- Fair Compensation: with the restoration of minimum levels of compensation also in relationships with private individuals, similarly to the hope already mentioned by the CNI.
- Access and Internship: with the introduction of professional internships to facilitate the entry of young people and simplify the State Exam, perhaps going even beyond what was already provided for by Presidential Decree 328/2001.
- Continuous training: with a strengthening of relations between Orders and Universities.
- New Orders: with a reorganization proposal to encourage generational turnover, gender balance and the use of telematic methods.
- Innovation: with a focus on artificial intelligence, protection of the landscape and historical-artistic heritage.
A reflection
Well, referring to a previous intervention of mine, relating to the collapse of qualifications recorded by the annual CNI report, together with my almost thirty years of experience in the field of professional qualification for technical professions – which through specific courses has generated the texts I have written for the Maggioli publishing house over the last 25 years, Practical design guide And Administrative urban planning technical handbook (>> you can buy them here together)coming out with the tenth edition at the end of April – I would also like to give my humble contribution.
I start from my experience of studies and qualifications, first of all to state that the real problem is not that of facilitating access to professions, but rather addressing the issue of actual preparation that the entire school first, and then the university, should guarantee. And this, therefore, should require a school and university reform, with better performing schools, and not a professional reform with easier state exams or a total elimination through the advent of qualifying degrees.
From my point of view, in fact, the performance of the university for architects has devastating effects, because what I have always noticed – on myself at the beginning of the 90s at the end of university, and then on the students who turned to me to pass the exam – is that upon obtaining the degree, the majority do not know the typological distinctions, they know nothing about urban planning and building regulations and their correct application, urban planning indices and parameters are practically unknown, let alone technology and structures. And this is starting to take root with engineers too – I am referring in this case to graduates from the civil, construction, architecture and similar degree classes – because even among them the shortcomings are similar to those mentioned previously. So perhaps we should first get involved in school and university and then, if anything, access the profession and the professional system.
I am also convinced that the post-graduate internship should be compulsory, but then followed by an exam where the basic skills are actually verified, which for the architect and civil engineer are also linked to the design of civil construction. Otherwise, as I have been hearing for some time now, “there is artificial intelligence anyway”.
For architects, this facilitation is, moreover, already present in Presidential Decree 328/2001, with the possibility of avoiding the practical test – i.e. the most difficult, where a civil building work must be designed – in favor of a post-graduate internship governed by specific order-university agreements. This would now also be present in the CNI’s proposals for engineers.
Well, the issue of a post-graduate internship that precedes the qualifying exam is a pillar of the law governing access to the legal profession. In this case, despite two years of compulsory training, there are no discounts on the tests; and even if the legal profession – like, on the other hand, technical professions – often involves specific, narrower sectors, this does not mean that at the start you do not have to demonstrate adequate preparation on the whole subject.
It is therefore not clear why the legislator, who already opened up this possibility for architecture graduates way back in 2001, eliminating the most difficult test, i.e. the design test, can now think of expanding it to an even wider audience of future professionals, or even worse, introducing qualifying degrees, without taking into account the general results, rather poor and with high percentages of unsuitable people, which have characterized the qualifying exam since time immemorial.
