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The wind from the Strait has the flavor of things that are reluctantly left behind, but for Antonio Perrone, born in 1991, already the protagonist of our Stories, it has always also been the call of a new beginning. Years ago, when he packed his bags to reach Germany, he knew exactly what it meant to leap into the dark. Today, after having built a solid reality with WinAP, which has been a point of reference for the selection and placement of Italian workers on German soil for years, it has decided to look back. Not out of nostalgia, but to chart a course for those who, today, find themselves at the exact same crossroads.
For thousands of new graduates, the day after graduation triggers a thousand doubts: should they enroll at university without any real conviction or should they immediately dive into the jungle of the job market? Between these two extremes there is a third way, solid and tested in some places (Germany, Switzerland, to give a few examples) but still almost invisible in Italy accustomed to unpaid internships: Ausbildung. A dual model that does not offer precarious employment or temporary experience, but a real possibility in the field where theoretical training is intertwined every day with paid practice within companies.
The idea of transforming this formula into a permanent bridge between Sicily and Germany was not born in a formal board of directors, but during a free discussion within the family. It was Antonio’s cousin, Carlo, who launched the spark: why limit yourself to offering jobs when you can bet on the future of the younger ones, preparing the foundations before they even leave? To give life to this vision, the young man from Messina started from his roots. «Messina – says Antonio – has become the pilot construction site for the project. The first contacts with the local schools have already started and from 28 September to 9 October I will return to the city in person to make the first official agreements and look the students in the eyes. Obviously I am available for my fellow citizens.”
What distinguishes the WinAP program from the classic journey of hope is the safety net spread around the children. Each candidate is taken by the hand from the first moment: an orientation interview to identify personal inclination, CV optimization, preparation for selections and targeted matching with German companies. And to break down the highest wall, that of the language, WinAP has structured, with the support of a qualified teacher, a tailor-made teaching path, calibrated on the necessary technical terms both between the desks of the professional school and in German workshops and offices. In the background remains the profound awareness of those who have already traveled that road at their own expense.
«When I left Messina – he remembers – I was young too and, like many kids in our city, I had to look elsewhere for opportunities that I couldn’t find at home at that moment. Emigrating is not easy: it means leaving family, friends and your habits and starting practically from scratch in another country, with a new language and a completely different reality. Precisely for this reason, when I say that I would like to do something for the young people of my city, I intend to offer them what I didn’t have at the time: an already organized path, someone who prepares them before leaving, who puts them in contact with serious companies and who accompanies them at least in the first steps”.
However, his is not an invitation to escape at all costs: «I absolutely don’t want to encourage kids – he concludes – to leave Sicily; I would simply like those who decide to do it to be able to start with a concrete project and not an adventure. If what I managed to build in Germany can serve to open a door to the young people of my homeland, for me this represents a source of great satisfaction.”
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