Continuous training and teamwork: young talents in the electricity system grow

In a country where youth unemployment hovers at around 23% and one in three of all university graduates is forced to emigrate by lack of opportunity and ever-shrinking salaries, the idea of investing in young people and giving them the chance to grow so that Italy can grow almost seems like a revolutionary strategy. It is a strategy that Terna has decided to adopt: it will develop young talents and their skills to build an even more innovative, resilient, sustainable and future-oriented company. One of these youngsters is Gianmarco Castiello, a 26 year-old with a bright future ahead of him. «I graduated in energy engineering in December 2021, right in the middle of the pandemic. I have to say I was afraid of what the future held, but Terna was very quick to give me an opportunity», he tells us.

Castiello is one of the many young people the national transmission grid operator has decided to take a chance on. The figures are clear: in the last three years, the company has hired more than 800 and most of them are under the age of 30. Basically, young people now make up one third of the company's workforce, and the employee average age has been falling steadily in recent years.

These permanent-contract hires give young men and women the opportunity to work and develop their own distinctive skills in a company that is an industry benchmark nationwide and that plays a leading role in energy transition. And they do this while receiving a fair wage. Almost unheard of in Italy. Castiello started out just like that: «Considering my academic history, Terna seemed the most natural career path, although I didn’t expect to get a job quite so soon. In Italy, young graduates usually have to go through a real obstacle course to find something, but for me the chance to work at Terna came up immediately, and it was a great experience right from the very first interview».

The young engineer recounts his first encounter with this big company: «In the first interview, I was expecting technical questions, like a sort of university exam. But instead, Francesco Del Pizzo, Director of grid and Dispatching Development Strategies, set the meeting up so that he could get to know me as a person and gain insights into my reasoning methods and my problem-solving skills. It was very stimulating».

Castiello currently works in the Market Operation Unit within the Grid and Dispatching Development Strategies department. «Our work has two distinct core components», he explains. «There is an operational aspect, which concerns the operational activities of the Market for Dispatching Service, and a more technical part in which we sit on various European panels that require essential evaluations and analyses for the implementation of new market requirements within our systems. We work in close contact with other strategic structures of the company, for example our colleagues at the National Control Centre, who are responsible for real-time management of the entire national electricity system connected to the European grid».

With an enthusiasm befitting his young age, Castiello emphasises an aspect of his job that he considers crucial: training. «Here at Terna I have the opportunity for continuous learning every day about a unique job. I learned a lot at university, but the practice is very different from what you learn in books. The training is more specialised: every day you go deep into different aspects, improving your expertise. I really appreciate the professional growth that I’m gaining by working in this company – thanks also to the support of my more experienced colleagues».

Training – a keyword for the company that manages the Italian electricity grid and pursues the goal of investing directly in expertise and technology development through various paths. These include the Tyrrhenian Lab, a multi-site laboratory organised in conjunction with universities, research centres and innovation hubs to accelerate the forward evolution of the electricity system through the creation of new specialist expertise combining managerial, engineering, IT and statistical skills. The project, which is linked to the Tyrrhenian Link, the world's most important programme for the submarine transmission of electricity, includes a 2nd level master's degree in "Digitalisation of the electricity system for energy transition", offering young participants an innovative training course and an excellent qualification. At the end of the 12-month master's course, the 45 selected students will be employed in the local offices of the cities where the Tyrrhenian Link cables will land, namely Cagliari, Salerno and Palermo.