Background information

In accordance with art. 118 of legislative decree n.388/2000, interprofessional paritarian funds for continuous training are bodies of an associative nature promoted by the social partners at national level through specific interconfederal agreements that aim at supporting training activities of employed people. Although these institutions have a longer tradition in the construction and the craft sectors, nowadays they cover most of the sectors according to the relevant collective bargaining agreements.

Content of measure

Inter professional paritarian funds are established in two different steps:

• a collective agreement signed by social partners, which sets out the purpose of the body and defines its statute and internal regulations;
• the authorisation of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies to start the operations.

Inter professional paritarian funds are funded by means of a 0.30% social security contribution (the so called 'contributo obbligatorio per la disoccupazione involontaria') on the employee wage bill, which employers can decide to devolve to an interprofessional paritarian fund or to the National Institute of Social Security (INPS). Employers can enroll in any authorised vocational training paritarian institution, regardless of their specific economic sector. Inter professional paritarian funds finance company, sectoral and territorial training plans, which the single or associated companies decide to implement for their employees. In addition, they can also fund individual training plans, as well as other additional training initiatives. Since 2011 (Law n.148/2011) inter professional paritarian funds may also involve apprentices and workers employed with parasubordinate contracts.

Examples of interprofessional funds: Fondimpresa, Fondirigenti, Fondo Artigianato Professioni, For.Te, Fondo Banche Assicurazioni, Fon.Coop.

Use of measure

Interprofessional funds system comprises, as of 2022, 19 funds, of which 16 are for employee training and 3 for managers, with one in liquidation. Member companies amount to 760,323, involving 10,095,112 workers. Larger companies show a greater propensity for membership, with an average of 13.3 employees per member company, higher than the general average of 8.9 employees in the non-agricultural private sector.

Fonarcom leads in number of member companies (20.1%), followed by Fondimpresa (18.7%), which however ranks first in terms of member employees (44.6%).

The membership trend, which grew steadily from 2003 to 2017, experienced a decline in the 2018-2020 triennium, attributable to changes in calculation methods and the impact of COVID-19, before recovering in the last two years.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment	Applies to all businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Trade unions Employers' organisations Local / regional government	Companies Employer

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Consulted	Consulted
Form	Unknown	Unknown

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

The social partners are called upon to define and make concrete use of professional standards as criteria for the preparation and verification of training courses aimed at passing on a trade.

Views and reactions

Social partners have expressed their stance concerning the regulation of interprofessional funds in the framework of the discussion on act no. 150/2015 (Jobs Act – labour market reform, hereinafter ‘JALM’), which reforms active labour market policies. Generally speaking, they asked for stricter authorisation criteria, especially in terms of representativeness of founding social partners, and complained that the coordination powers attributed to ANPAL may impose targets other than those set by social partners, infringing upon the autonomy of interprofessional funds.

Sources

• 10 July 2014: Interprofessional funds: role and evolution - Executive summary (www.fondoforte.it)
• 24 November 2021: Rapporto 2021 - Digital Learning e Fondi Paritetici Interprofessionali per la Formazione Continua (fondolavoro.it)
• 30 December 2021: Funds for companies for continuous training (www.lavoro.gov.it)
• 01 February 2024: I fondi interprofessionali nel contesto italiano della formazione continua (confprofessioni.eu)