Universities are gearing up to offer master's degrees in line with the market that seeks experts in new emerging professions in the field of sustainable and circular economy

The world is evolving towards an increasingly marked attention to the environment, to recycling, to reuse, to saving raw materials, to production with the lowest possible environmental impact and to a new reconsideration of nature. This will generate new professions.

These are not just appeals launched by the European Community, which is pushing the accelerator towards the change of the production, distribution, energy and logistics model, promptly derided by environmental deniers such as the United States or the indifferent (apparently) such as China or 'India and the various satellite countries.

It is always the market that first grasps the requests for change that come from the base, and it is always the market that organizes itself to support the epochal changes we are experiencing, also dragging with it the political class that must legislate on the matter.

Industrialists have understood that they must support the will of people who viscerally feel the problem of climate change and who try to adopt virtuous behaviors with actions that are reflected in consumption.

Less plastic, fewer cars with combustion engines, less use of electricity and water, less use of airplanes, less purchasing of products that come from far away and fewer products made with virgin raw materials.

This change in needs on the part of the world population will have a substantial impact on consumption and, therefore, also on production processes, which is why industrialists cannot think of waiting for political inertia.

This is demonstrated by the fact that even in the United States, the industrial fabric is not too impressed by the liberal policy and little attention to the environment that the Tramp administration pretends to defend, against all scientific logic, moving with initiatives that meet the needs of the population in terms of respect for the environment.

For these reasons, in the next decade, new professional figures will be created who will have to govern, within companies, the production of goods and services according to a circular economy and sustainability perspective.

To train experts in the sectors that will be among the most requested by the market, universities are organizing Masters, through which new technicians can be certified in disciplines relating to waste systems, the control and management of dangerous substances and company risks according to the new regulations and finally, the scope of technical training on recycled plastics.

• The waste system expert will have specific skills in the field of collection, transport, storage and disposal in relation to environmental and production regulations.
• The environmental safety expert will have specific skills in dangerous substances, workers' health in relation to their use and compliance with environmental regulations.
• The recycled plastics expert will have specific skills in the processing and reuse cycle of plastic waste, in the form of new raw material, giving the sales networks specific instructions on their use in the field of moulding, extrusion, blowing and thermoforming.

See the new professions Il Sole 24 Ore