What are professional needs and new work skills in the Italian automotive supply chain in regards to electric transition? Some research outcome on sample of Italian’s firms

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Abstract:

The double transition underway, technological and environmental, is affecting the entire global economy and the world of work. In this scenario, the automotive sector is particularly challenged by the environmental sustainability, which requires a reduction in emissions and a review of urban transport policies, and by the impact on employment of technological changes in production (electrification of the powertrain). (Cabigiosu, Lanzini 2023).
New technologies displace and make obsolete incumbent innovation competencies, as they have a direct impact on the configuration of a business ecosystem (Adner, 2017) as it has happened in different industries (e.g., Tripsas e Gavetti, 2000). The introduction of new powertrain technologies and the broader digitalization of the automotive industry suggests that carmakers and suppliers need to develop new workers’ competencies and skills for some labour processes. The ongoing transition in the automotive industry is expected to have an impact in terms of shrinking labour force for some tasks while, at the same time, to attract new professional profiles with expertise in digitalized labour processes (ILO 2020).
As part of an Italian national project studying the job-skills development and firm innovation competencies in the automotive sector in Italy and Poland, we focus on the Italian case, where the technological transition seems particularly difficult, due to the workforce’s high average age and a limited generational turnover, as it is the case for the main automotive producer (Stellantis) and its suppliers. Specifically we present some results based on some case studies of supplier firms in Italy, on the impact of the technological transition to electric vehicle on work organization, on the re-arrangement of professional skills and re-training and about the reorganization of supply chain, in particular to relation importing components from China.
The current situation of Italian automotive production and the trend of the electric car market pose several challenges to component companies today. These still maintain a high exposure in regard to Stellantis in Italy even if many others are directed towards production for other European OEMs. While some of these, especially those most directly affected by the transition due to their type of production (because they already produce electronic components or because their product is destined to no longer exist as such), are making investments towards the transition, others that produce mostly invariant products are experiencing uncertainty linked above all to Stellantis volumes and the more general contraction of the automotive market in Europe. Staff training and requalification activities, especially in the absence of significant investments, also appear to be still absent with the exception of those companies that are focusing more in the direction of the transition, favouring if anything a new cycle of hiring of workers with specific technical skills more than retraining of those already employed. The new hires, however, do not accompanied a turnover capable of fully guaranteeing existing employment levels.
Moreover, we focus on the role of public policies and industrial relations in ensuring social sustainability (quantity and quality of employment), and of institutional actors in the field of vocational training and labour market intermediation in supporting firms in their needs of new skills.