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Trieste

Trieste is the capital of the Region Friuli Venezia Giulia, located in the north-eastern corner of Italy. The Region borders Austria on the north and Slovenia on the East. The Municipality has a population of 205.000 inhabitants. The economic activities are mainly tertiary, covering over the 80% of the local GDP, testifying the city sustainable development. The GDP per capita is around 32.000 Euro, and it is higher than the national average. Trieste has an important merchant heritage, currently hosts several relevant international business companies (inter alia Fincantieri, Assicurazioni Generali, Allianz, Illy) and his Port is the most important in Italy.

The City is already known as “the City of Science”, since it is the European city with the highest density of researchers and its universities are among the leading research centres  in terms of volume of research produced. Thanks to this international network the city has been selected as 2020 EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) hosting city.

The Research Agencies are also promoting the start-up of economic activities based on clean and green productions, in particular in the bio high tech sector, which has had an interesting development in recent years, helping to widen the smart city productions of the local economy.

About the social inclusion the city has a remarkable offer of welfare services, with integration between social and health services. The wellbeing of the population is also an interesting data, considering that the demographic age groups show a presence of elderly people larger then in the most developed countries: the over 65 are almost the 30% of the entire population, with the majority of them active and participating in the social and cultural life. 

• Formal and Non-Formal Learning infrastructure

The city has all the formal school and educational framework, a local university, and moreover some specialized scientific universities or research centers, internationally known (ICTP - International Centre for Theoretical Physics,  ICGEB - International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, SISSA - Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Area Science Park (the largest science and technology park in Italy), just to quote the most relevant).

Trieste boasts an integrated municipal education system from 0 to 18 years of age which is unique at national level; in addition to 18 nurseries and 30 nursery schools, 13 RICREATORI (RECREATIONAL CENTRES - EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES) of centenary tradition are present,  in each district of the city, with extra-school, non-formal, and peer-to-peer educational offers for over 3000 users. The main activity is the School Integration Service, organizing homework and study preparation complementary to the public school.

In the non-formal education context, the city historically records the presence of several private institutions dedicated to lifelong learning especially as: the Popular University, founded in 1889, the University of the Third Age active since 1982, and the University of Free Age established in 1997, that offer courses and educational activities all year round.

In recent years, language schools have also grown, attended mainly by young adults, also foreigners, thus favouring social inclusion. The education offer (mainly non-formal) is completed by other courses that develop various themes and skills, cultural, handicraft, artistic, etc.

The public bodies, like the business sector, also offer specific training education, obviously linked with the needed specializations, with a very large amount of organizations able to offer the trainings on line.

• Learning City Developments

In the scientific field, to develop a common strategy and co-ordination the 'Trieste City of Knowledge Network' was established through a “Memorandum of Understanding between the Municipality and the local Universities and Research Institutions” (see https://www.triesteconoscenza.it/en ) with the aim to promote joint programmes, to attract students and researchers, and to widespread the scientific knowledge. The Network has 18 members, including the main research institutions.

An example in the cultural field is the 'Pact for Reading', active from 2018 and signed by 130 organizations, develops a very large network,  including public bodies, publishing houses, booksellers, theatres, theatre companies, academic institutions, healthcare companies and sector professionals. The Pact is effectively the meeting point between the different needs of the partners and activates new cultural experiences.

More generally collaborations between institutions, associations, academia and civil society are fundamental in the cultural life of the city. Many educational offers are directly managed by single stakeholders, in many specific fields, contributing actively in the non-formal learning city framework. In the current phase, thanks to the improvement of communication and digital environment a lot of increased learning opportunities can reach the citizens, improving their knowledge quality.

• Some key activities in the Learning Cities field 

In the scientific field many activity are jointly offered by the Municipality and the institutional research agencies through well-known events fitted to support the setting up of a learning city. Every year the city organizes the scientific festival called NEXT (https://www.triestenext.it/) which consist of many public events spread all around the city: formal meetings, workshops, conferences dedicated every year to a specific subject. The festival is largely visited. NEXT, connected to the EU Researchers' Nigh, brings 1500-2000 primary and secondary school pupils and students to visit the scientific laboratories. In recent years the event has attracted up to 60,000 visitors

About the historical activities of non-formal education for adults, quoted in section 2:

the Popular University  (http://www.unipoptrieste.it),

the University of the Third Age (https://www.uni3trieste.it/),

and  the University of Free Age  http://trieste.auserfvg.it/universita-delle-libereta/),

In the Literary field in the last years the 'Pact for reading' (https://bibliotecacivicahortis.it/patto-di-trieste-per-la-lettura/), a local network of public and private, profit and non-profit organizations,  coordinated by the Municipality, represents a context of non-formal and informal education to deepening the cultural offer and exchanges.

Moreover, to quote another field, every year the city support ITS-International Talent Support (https://www.itsweb.org/jsp/en/index/index.jsp), the most highly recognized platform to showcase & support the strongest young talents about creativity.

In terms of social inclusion, the welfare policies of the City consists mainly of prevention activities promoting  sociality, education and community development targeted on the disadvantaged people and thus representing another informal education source.

• Priority Areas for Future Development

The city of Trieste has been investing for years in inclusive and continuous learning of all its citizens activating several actions according to the targets. It stimulates the actors in the field of Long Life Learning to increase education activities in the formal, non-formal and informal context, also cofounding initiatives and taking part to projects.

The main areas of strategic development regards:

• the widespread diffusion of scientific knowledge, through the existing network, promotion the participation of all the students and the information of the entire citizenship, also to  favour a positive environment for future employment and innovative economy
• different kind of cultural events, considering in the city they are very popular, for example with cycles of conferences held even in the opera house, with seats always sold out, in which thousands of people take part
• the disadvantaged people, thanks to the city welfare that provide public services like day-care centres for disabled people where they are empowered through creativity; hospices for elderly where they are stimulated through different learning activities; community development programmes, with educational stimuli, in the partially deprived peripheral areas, co-organized by health and social services with the social economy cooperatives and  volunteers organizations.