What can the Government, the University and the Order of Engineers do to help young aspiring entrepreneurs. Fifty, perhaps forty years ago, choosing to study engineering guaranteed a secure job and, in many cases, companies looked for young graduates directly in university faculties. At that time, the public sector was rapidly expanding and hiring considerable numbers of technicians for the management and control of infrastructures and systems. Those who chose freelance work had an enormously smaller number of competitors and an Italy to be designed and built.
In short, the scenario was completely different and applied to almost all traditional engineering specializations (civil, industrial, mechanical, electrical, aerospace, chemical, etc.).
The new specializations of electronic, IT and biomedical engineering still benefit from some advantages due to the recent development of these sectors of industry and the market consumer with a job offer that is not yet saturated; however, the development of new technologies and the Internet has opened up new job opportunities in these fields too.
In all these years, the University - which has the triple task of conserving knowledge, training the new class of technicians and managers and carrying out research and innovation - has changed too slowly compared to the radical transformation of the labor market. This occurred mainly in the more traditional sectors of engineering, representing, at times, a brake even for the more innovative sectors. Above all, it has remained far behind in setting up courses, teaching and, even more so, in the connection with the job market which widely uses the recruitment on the Internet.
Furthermore, students are given little information on the job opportunities they will be able to undertake after their three-year or specialist degree and, apart from a few exceptions (and excellences) which certainly exist, the training is basically oriented towards clerical work or freelance work, whether carried out for a company or for a Public Administration. The opportunity for the engineering student to study and then become a strattupper is remote because, first of all, its teachers do not believe in such a career opportunity (and therefore are unable to transfer this possibility to them), and secondly because the university structure and the organization of courses is absolutely far from training a young inventor/entrepreneur.
Yet in Italy, but also in many other countries, there are many cases of engineers who became entrepreneurs, although, until about ten years ago, most of them were already children of entrepreneurs, therefore not real startupper – in the meaning of "business creators", i.e. first generation entrepreneurs or children of entrepreneurs who launch a new entrepreneurial challenge for a product/service different from that of their family business. But, more generally, as reported by a recent survey by Italy Startups on the identikit of startuppers, not only engineers but first and second level graduates, including Masters, represent over 50% of startup founders in Italy and the USA.
It would therefore be desirable to have a university system that also aims to train young people who launch startups and realize their own ideas and businesses; not just a traditional organized system for training professionals, designers or employees for other people's businesses. A university system capable of telling young people that, after graduating, they can also aspire to be entrepreneurs, create (not just plan) a real “business”, in the sense of “a series of unpredictable actions for an ambitious goal that can change men's lifestyle habits.”
I believe that this is possible in all fields of engineering, certainly in electronics and IT which are more suited to digital startups, but also in civil engineering where, in addition to the building constructor, there is a world of opportunities for new technologies on smart buildings and the smart cities. Or chemical, mechanical and environmental engineers who can design and create software systems and/or devices for industry and environmental protection. Access to a large market through the Internet, the use of 3D printing for prototyping, low-cost information technologies such as Arduino, are just some examples to tell how it is possible to move more quickly from the innovative idea to the prototype and be able to imagine the engineer inventor/entrepreneur.
Therefore I hope for an engineering sector that is more open to inventiveness, closer to patenting, more in contact with venture and seed capital investment funds. A wider and more varied range of university courses with the presence of programs for business creation, writing a business plan, product design, marketing, spinoffs and technology transfer.
How many degree theses contain truly innovative ideas that remain in university libraries, due to the lack of an ecosystem predisposed to technology transfer and the creation and support of startups.
Evidently the topic ofecosystem that doesn't exist has many reasons linked to the backwardness of the Italian university system, to the slowness of politics to outline new scenarios also by borrowing them from other international contexts, to the negative economic situation which has reduced the possibility of allocating resources to the University. However, the opportunity to create startups for young graduates is a topic that must become primary on the agenda of government, politics and the National Council of the Order of Engineers.
In this regard, the CNI could carry out an important action such as: a) stakeholders to propose public policies that favor the modernization of the university system; b) entity that offers professional training to support the University in career orientation and support on issues for the creation of a startup; c) professional association that protects the guarantees of the young startup engineer with a set of measures ad hoc.
Sparks represents a first, very important step in this direction: a national award, an opportunity for support and visibility of the engineers' startup ideas but, above all, a change of direction with respect to the members of the professional association who could become more numerous if the CNI continues in the direction started, strengthening it with further actions.
While waiting for the institutions and the University to adapt to the transformations in the world of work, for young engineers with brilliant and innovative ideas who can have a market, I would like to say don't stop. As in all great challenges, tenacity and a bit of luck are needed but, in addition to the opportunity to become employees, professionals or family entrepreneurs, there is a fourth way: create your “business” and launch your startup! Good luck!

(from the "Scintille" blog of the National Council of the Order of Engineers, http://www.cniscintille.it/startupper-la-quarta-via-dellingegnere/)