Leonardo Da Vinci

"Elaborating methods and innovative training products aimed at strengthening the professional training's contribution of improving the entrepreneurship, through the promotion of a new training culture within the SME. Individualizing and motivating, in a planning logic, the interventions in the present human resources or in those to be included in the company, developing the reading capacity and the formulation of strategies and companies management results".

This is the main aim, from the companies' side, for the "SME's TRAINING PLANS" small and medium enterprises' training plans.

The project which ensures today its fulfillment in 2003-2004, was already born in embryonic form in 2000 within the Training Area of the Industrialists Association of Pistoia.

The study of the normative and substantial changes established by the Ministry of Labor and the social (1) security's communication n.65/99 , has generated within our Association a debate and a working group for the company's Training Plans development (2).

As a grouping association, meant to support coherent actions with the companies' development, we have immediately accepted the ministerial indications about the Training Plans and have started working on the context, on the explicit or latent formative demands' survey and on the possible structure of the company's training plans.

The topic, fascinating and innovative, has induced us to create effective supportive instruments for the company in its strategic plan's choices and human resources management.

While elaborating the project, however, we've realized that the first link to the planning's development chain was missing: the fulfillment of a school/enterprise training system able to specify the job world exigencies and make them become contents for a school teaching program, en-couraging the meeting between training interventions' demand and sup-ply.

From this need of completeness and interaction between education and initial training was born Leonardo da Vinci project, SME's TRAINING PLANS.

The aims established while elaborating the project have been the precursors of today's normative evolutions, whether in the continuous training world with the inter-professional funds, or in the school's world with the reform being carried out and meant to emphasize the interactions between education and the experiences gained through the job world.

For this reason our association, with the pride and the will to contribute to the development of economic fabric and companies, wants to thank all those who have helped in the fulfillment of this project and this volume.

Il Presidente dell'Associazione degli Industriali della Provincia di Pistoia
Cav. Uff. Marcello Flori
1) As established by Law 236/93 art.9, comma 3 and taking into consideration the disposi-tions included in Law 196, June 24 1997, art.17 about the subject of continuous training.
2) We refer to the agreement undersigned between the government and the social parties on September 24, 1996 (job agreement) and on December 22, 1998 ( employment and develop-ment pact).