Prima Industrie : Inauguration of the Master in Industrial Automation of Politecnico di Torino organized by Comau and Prima Industrie

La Qualità in Movimento

Press Release

The Master creating specialists in Industrial Automation restarts

The Second Level Master in Industrial Automation from the Politecnico di Torino, organized together with Comau and Prima Industrie, with funding by Regione Piemonte, is ready to start with its fifth edition.

80 young people have already been permanently hired thanks to this training

Turin, 11th January 2016

The opening ceremony of the V Edition of the Master in Industrial Automation takes place today, at 2 p.m., in the Sala del Consiglio di Facoltà at the Politecnico di Torino. The Master from the Politecnico di Torino is organized by Comau and Prima Industrie and financed by Regione Piemonte. Beyond strengthening the educational and professional offer, which has been successfully proposed since 2012, the Master presents important new developments starting from the 2016-2017 two-year period.

Among the organizers of the new edition, in addition to Comau who launched and sustained the Master since its first edition, is Prima Industrie, a company with Piedmontese roots but prominence on an international scale, which is successfully working in the field of sheet metal machines, laser sources, as well as industrial electronics. This collaboration will allow the creation of a profitable synergy between the Turin University, the young talents selected and the partners involved, laying the basis for important occasions for exchange, discussion and inter-corporate growth.

The field of Industrial Automation is a market in continuous expansion, where companies have to face increasingly demanding challenges on a global level. For this reason, professional figures with higher and more specific technical skills are required. The Master in Industrial Automation wants to invest in the future of young, talented, newly graduated people, giving them the opportunity to mature and solidify their skills with fieldwork, which are essential in a sector as highly competitive and constantly developing as industrial automation.

The Master is an educational and training pathway which provides the immediate hiring through a High Apprenticeship contract. The selected talents, among the best graduates in Engineering from both Italian and foreign universities, will join one of the partner companies from the very beginning. Completely run in English, the course consists of 540 hours of lessons for the first year, and 660 hours devoted to the fulfillment of a work project during the second year. Lectures are given by the best managers of Comau, Prima Industrie and by professors of Politecnico di Torino.

It's an opportunity for a concrete admission into the labor market, which has permitted more than 80 students who have attended the Master from 2012 until today, to be hired by Comau with open-ended contracts. Starting from this year, Prima Industrie will also admit in its team some of the Master's new students.

As Mauro Fenzi, Comau's CEO, confirms, "Our Company strongly believes in the worth of young people, and in their ability to achieve and to offer new solutions to the market for the future of industry. Especially in a field like industrial automation, which is increasingly challenging, their contribution is essential for a company aiming for growth and consolidation on a global scale. Comau is convinced of the great importance in the combination between high university specialization and technical culture, which arises in the workplace from concrete experience, as a necessary answer to face the challenges that will come from the market in the coming years. This is the reason why Comau continues to commit to and invest in professional education and in the ability of young talents, with the Master in Industrial Automation and with the other didactic programs offered by its Academy."

An opinion shared by Gianfranco Carbonato, Prima Industrie Executive Chairman: "We enthusiastically joined Comau's invitation to organize together the Master in Industrial Automation. Investing in talented young people is nothing new for the company, and this is concretely demonstrated by our numerous recruitments of young high school and university graduates over the years. We wish that the recent graduates joining our group through this opportunity will grow with the same passion and thirst for innovation that has always characterized Prima Industrie. We believe that relying on their competence and on their will to grow professionally - at technical and managerial level - is the best guarantee of success for them and for the whole organization. All our future projects will be successfully accomplished also thanks to their substantial contribution".

Carlo Rafele, Director of the Specializing Master and Lifelong Learning School of the Politecnico di Torino, commented, "In recent years the training model has changed. Just as research is increasingly conducted in partnership with companies, teaching can be designed in collaboration with business needs to reduce the insertion time in the labor market and initiate company training in parallel with the university. The training courses, funded by the Region of Piedmont, facilitate just such a training method that is bearing fruit thanks in part to solid partnerships, constant over time, such as those that have allowed us for the past five years to offer this training. The Specializing Master School is increasingly committed to offering new training methods in terms of the teaching composition, increasing the flexibility between classroom and on the job components, in addition to the technical delivery, which includes e-learning, video streaming and advanced team work, all with the latest technology."

Donatella Pinto (Comau Head of Human Resources) and Ezio Fregnan (Comau Training Manager) will open the Master's inauguration ceremony, followed by speeches from Maurizio Cremonini (Comau Head of Marketing), Matteo Benedetto (Prima Industrie Marketing Vice President), Franco Deregibus (Comau Head of Quality & Master Scientific Coordinator) and Luca Iuliano (Full professor of Politecnico di Torino and Master Scientific Coordinator). After which, Luca Civitico (Comau HR Business Partner BU Body Assembly and HR Europe Coordinator) and Franco Canna (Prima Industrie - HR Prima Power) will introduce the Master's fifth edition and present the new participants for the 2016-2017 session. After a short break, the event will continue with the presentation of the work projects run by the students of the Master's fourth edition, under the coordination by Massimo Ippolito (Comau Innovation Manager). Together with spokesmen from Comau and Prima Industrie, as participating companies, Luca Iuliano will officially present a preview of the new Master in "Additive Manufacturing". The ceremony will be closed with speeches by Mauro Fenzi, (Comau CEO), Gianfranco Carbonato (Prima Industrie Executive Chairman), Marco Gilli (Rector, Politecnico di Torino) and Gianna Pentenero (Piedmont Region Councilor for Education, Labor & Vocational Training).

Comau

Comau is the worldwide leader in manufacturing flexible, automatic systems and integrating products, processes and services that increase efficiency while lowering overall costs. Headquartered in Turin, Italy, with an international network that spans 17 countries that employ more than 13,500 employees, Comau uses the latest technology and processes to deliver advanced turnkey systems that consistently exceed the expectations of its customers. Comau specializes in body joining & assembly, powertrain machining & assembly, robotics and maintenance, as well as advanced production systems and environmental services for a wide range of industrial sectors. The continuous development of its products and services enables Comau to lead the automation industry in meeting the unique requirements of each customer, and through all phases of the project - from design, implementation and installation, to production start-up and maintenance services.

www.comau.com

Press Office:

Giuseppe Costabile - Corporate Communication Manager [e-mail]

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Burson Marsteller Alessandra Boscolo [e-mail] [phone] [phone]

Daniele Zibetti [e-mail] [phone] [phone]

PRIMA INDUSTRIE heads a leading Group in developing, manufacturing and marketing of laser systems for industrial applications, sheet metal processing machinery, as well as industrial electronics and laser technologies. The parent company Prima Industrie

S.p.A. is listed on the Italian Stock Exchange since 1999 (MTA- STAR segment). With almost 40 years of experience the Group can count on about 12,000 machines installed in more than 70 countries worldwide and is among the main worldwide manufacturers in its own reference market. The Group has over 1,600 employees and manufacturing sites in Italy (PRIMA INDUSTRIE S.p.A, PRIMA ELECTRO S.p.A, FINN-POWER Italia Srl), Finland (FINN-POWER Oy), USA (PRIMA ELECTRO North America Llc, PRIMA POWER LASERDYNE Llc.) and China (PRIMA POWER SUZHOU Co. Ltd.). Remarkable is as well its direct commercial and after-sales presence in BRIC, NAFTA, European Union and other emerging Asian countries, serving more than 70 countries worldwide.

The Prima Industrie Group is structured on 2 Business Units:

Laser and sheet metal processing machines (Prima Power): including design, manufacturing and marketing of:

• Laser machines for cutting, welding and drilling of 3D and 2D components.

• Machines for sheet metal treatment by means of mechanical tools (punching machines, combined punching/shearing systems, combined punching/laser cutting systems, panel benders and automation systems).

Industrial electronics and laser technologies (Prima Electro): including development, manufacturing and marketing of power and control electronics, and of high-power laser sources for industrial applications, destined both to the Group machines and to third parties.

www.primaindustrie.com

For further information:

Prima Industrie SpA Operational Marketing Dept. Simona Di Giovanni [phone] [e-mail]

Studio Mailander Ufficio Stampa Bruno Caprioli 335 5901402 - [e-mail] Carlo Dotta 333 2306748 - [e-mail]

POLITECNICO DI TORINO

Media Relations:

Tiziana Vitrano, Elena Foglia Franke [e-mail]

[phone]/6286 - fax [phone]