Push for young talent takes center stage at SICUREZZA, featuring Hikvision, local brands

“We want to enable young people to touch with their hands what their future can be.”
 
It was Day 3 of SICUREZZA when Paola Sarco, Head of Building and Industrial Exhibitions at Fiera Milano, the organizer of the biannual security trade show, sat down for an exclusive interview with asmag.com to tell me about staffing issues affecting many SICUREZZA exhibitors, but also what her team is doing to help turn around the trend. About 500 students from high schools in and around the northern Italian city were meanwhile roaming the halls of the exhibition, one of Europe’s foremost professional events focused on physical security.
 
The last day of three-day shows is usually the least busy in terms of foot traffic—not so at SICUREZZA, though. Numbers registered at the entrances remained high, much to the delight of Sarco and her team, who expect to have set a new visitor record. The number of exhibitors, too, was at an all-time high of 470.
 
For young people interested in joining the industry, after a college degree or through an apprenticeship right after high school, SICUREZZA offered sharing sessions, workshops and interviews with companies, aside from activities organized at the booths of individual exhibitors—all on the dedicated “Job in Security” Day.
 

Talent needed

Companies increasingly face difficulty attracting new talent and retaining them after training, a situation that is often described as the “manpower shortage.” The idea of tackling the issue head on at SICUREZZA was based on feedback from exhibitors.
 
“For us, the content of our show is very important,” Sarco said. “We have tried to listen to the market, partners and exhibitors, and tried to understand what their needs are and address them during the show.”
 
Companies told SICUREZZA that technicians and installers are most urgently needed, Sarco said, adding that the issue is not limited to Italy or even Europe. Instead, it is a global phenomenon affecting many other industries as well.
 
As far afield as in Dubai during intersec, “we saw it everywhere—technicians are needed. And even outside the show—waiters are needed,” Sarco said.
 

Social media Influencers vs. technicians

At the heart of the issue, Sarco identified a general trend driving a shift in expectations among the younger generations.
 
“I think it all started in the era of social media,” she said. “Nowadays, youngsters want to be online all the time and show others what they’re doing. Some might think it’s easy to become an influencer or YouTuber. Interviews have shown they prefer jobs in that field. Technical jobs are less interesting to them, even if they go to a technical school.”
 
The explanation is intuitive: People, young and old, increasingly spend time online, often looking at the achievements of others far away from their social circles. The achievements of those close to them—parents, older siblings or neighbors, who might be technicians—seem less significant next to the polished lives of their favorite influencers online. Choosing a humble part in life has become less attractive to many young people.
 
“We don’t want to blame anybody,” Sarco said. “Instead, we want to show them opportunities. This is the difference. We want to let them know how beautiful it is to follow the path that they started.”
 

Insecurity and AI

Another factor that makes young people reluctant to join a technical field lies in the perceived insecurity in the job market. While generations that joined the industry before them assumed they could spend their whole careers as technicians, young people feel increasingly insecure about the future. They might ask themselves, “Will the job profile that I’m training for still exist in 10 years?” Such questions feel increasingly relevant, especially as AI promises to upend the way we work.
 
At SICUREZZA, as elsewhere at security industry events, AI loomed large, with many exhibitors showcasing what their latest technology can do. On the flip side of that enthusiasm lies a kind of anxiety felt by many, including tech-savvy young people and other early adopters of AI.
 
“We want to show them that AI is a useful tool, not the enemy,” Sarco said, adding that companies expect the technology to increase operational efficiency in the first place—something that is urgently needed amid increasing demand for their solutions.
 
Highlighting that new opportunities are emerging in security, Sarco said: “At SICUREZZA, we’re seeing, among other things, the birth of a new profession: The cultural security manager, who is increasingly needed to make our cultural heritage safe. The heist we saw a few weeks ago at the Louvre in Paris shows that this is a job profile that will become very important.”
 
Cultural security managers work at museums, monuments or historic sites. Their role encompasses physical security, risk assessment, visitor-flow management and emergency planning, but also site-specific issues such as conservation.
 
In security, another significant shift is that systems increasingly reach beyond their traditional realm, for example helping companies generate business intelligence. This, too, will unlock new job profiles at the intersection of security and other fields.
 
“We want to give young people ideas about what’s possible,” Sarco concluded. “At SICUREZZA, they can speak to people who are working in the field. This can really open their mind. Sometimes they’re simply scared or don’t know their opportunities.”  

Company pitches to new talent

On stage, several companies addressed the young audience on “Job in Security” Day. This included global giants like Hikvision, but also Italian household names such as Bettini or Ksenia. For them, the focus was on communicating what they’re offering to prospective staff.
 
“At Ksenia, we have implemented the ‘Great Place to Work’ principles,” said Claudio Laneve, Technical Training and Support Manager, Ksenia Security, highlighting the home automation company’s efforts to offer the best-possible work-life balance. “We want to make sure our employees enjoy going to work every day because we believe only this way can we be productive.”
 
“At Bettini, we’re running a dedicated school-to-work program,” said Barbara Bettini, HR Manager, Bettini.
 
“It is essential for us to understand where you're coming from and where you want to go,” she said, addressing the young audience directly. “We're looking for young people like you who have the desire to invent. When you arrive at a product that you have made—nothing's as satisfying as that.”
 
“Being innovative as a company also means cultivating new talent,” she added.
 
She then shifted the focus to factors that might make young people reluctant to join the industry, such as the public image of security systems, which might be negative among some.
 
“We're not producing technologies aimed at punishing people or issuing fines,” Bettini said. “It’s about keeping people safe—this is, I think, something everybody can identify with.”
 
Both Ksenia and Bettini understand themselves as local employers deeply rooted in their communities. Both of them produce exclusively in Italy, at the sites where they were originally founded: Bettini just outside Milan, and Ksenia at the Adria coast east of Rome.
 

Global and local

As the biggest security manufacturer in the world, Hikvision has a significantly different profile, but it’s presence in Italy is strong nonetheless. It has several hundreds of local employees.
 
Massimiliano Troilo has been the president of Hikvision Italy since 2012. Troilo, who joined the industry after finishing his secondary education at a technical high school in 1989, previously worked for several Italian security industry firms, big and small. At SICUREZZA, his message was that similar careers are still possible, especially to those who join the industry with dedication and the right mindset.
 

“After school you choose a career based on your abilities,” Troilo said. “Even if the industry changes, a company like Hikvision trains you and guides you and opens new opportunities for you.”
 
Those opportunities might lie far afield or right in front of you. Paolo di Marco is a sales manager in Hikvision’s Palermo branch. When I talked to him at the Hikvision booth, he highlighted that working for the global giant enabled him to remain where he’s from and wants to live.
 
“There are opportunities at Hikvision everywhere, even in a region like Sicily, where you don’t have many jobs,” he said.  
 

Reaching the audience

Zainab, a high-school student from the Milan suburb of Corsico who was in the audience during Troilo’s presentation, said joining the security industry “is really something that I consider.”
 
When I reacted to her answer, saying that I’m happy to hear that, especially as the industry is too strongly dominated by men, she shrugged it off, saying: “I think women can do everything today.”