The IP Corporate Academy is the group’s main tool for developing and propagating skills and knowledge and is located in two physical sites. The first is at the IP head office in via Salaria, Rome, and consists of a multimedia training room and auditorium with over 110 seats, while the second is at the Falconara Marittima site, where it is housed in its own building which is completely set up for training purposes only. The IP Corporate Academy was the first such organisation to be accredited as a training body by the Marche region.
The Academy also includes an online training platform and this has proved invaluable over the years in offering responsive, agile and easily accessible information to an increasingly larger user base, including service station operators.
It is involved in partnerships with the Marche Polytechnic University, ASVIS (Alleanza Italiana per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile or the Italian Sustainable Development Alliance), the LUISS Business School, Turin Polytechnic and the Sapienza university in Rome.
These collaborations not only ensure the company delivers quality training, but are also a crucial conduit for exchanging visions and perspectives between the corporate world and that outside it.
In 2022 the Corporate Academy introduced a long-term strategic plan, based on four main areas (Figure X):
⦁ TOP DOWN – for sharing priorities and strategies
⦁ BOTTOM UP – responding to operational training needs
⦁ GRASSROOT – focused on employee personal growth
⦁ COMMUNITY – being at the service of the nation.
A fifth key training area can be added to this list and that is based on meeting COMPLIANCE demands. It covers mandatory training in matters such as Health & Safety, Environment (the Seveso Law 105/2015), compulsory privacy updates and Law 231 or updates to Italian Decree Lgs. 81.
Activities that fall under the mandate of the first pillar Down) include partnerships with renowned training institutes to work on specific needs; customised programmes to share new management models; education on the topics of sustainability, energy transition and innovation; and bootcamps for new employees. It also includes keynote lectures with authoritative figures and leading experts on specific contextual issues relevant to the group.
BOTTOM UP training activities are based on specific operational needs, for example creating material to support service station operators who are on the front line every day.
The GRASSROOT pillar focuses on creating customised training and solutions for employees and their families, designed around personal development, through study grants, coaching or bespoke courses created to address specific needs.
With the COMMUNITY action point, the Academy looks outside and creates specific training content for partners, business, schools and universities.
Some Academy data
In 2022, the IP Corporate Academy di IP reached 974 people, with a total of 20,111 training hours. Of these, 17,649 were to IP personnel with an average of 17 hours per person, while service station operators accounted for 1677. The remaining 785 hours were allocated to the academic world, reaching students at the Sapienza and Luiss universities in Rome and the Polytechnic University of Le Marche. This marked a change of direction and confirmed IP’s ambition to use the Corporate Academy as a forum for creating dialogue with communities and external partners.
