Circular Economy Specialist: supporting LifeTech ITS Academy in its new training programme

The callenges posed by the circular economy mean that new professional profiles are playing an increasingly significant role in environmental management within industrial companies. This growing demand is shared by businesses, regulatory bodies and the education system in Friuli Venezia Giulia. It is the starting point for the Circular Economy Specialist - Higher Technician for the Circular Economy and Bioeconomy in Production and Territorial System, the new programme launched by LifeTech ITS Academy.

At Gesteco we support this initiative in two ways. Our Environment department contributed its technical expertise to the review of the curriculum and we will also act as a host company during the programme's internship phase.

The programme is the result of collaboration between the training provider, public institutions and companies in the sector. We took part in reviewing the curriculum, drawing on the experience we gain every day in waste management, treatment plants, life cycle assessment and sustainability reporting. 

When the programme was presented to the local media, one need clearly emerged, shared by all the organisations present, from large utilities to small specialised industrial operators: the need for a cross-disciplinary technician able to move confidently between regulations, data and operational management. It is a career path that fits naturally inito companies like ours. 

Our day-to-day work covers two distinct but closely connected fronts. On one side there is measurement, a field that increasingly relies on data, indicators and reporting. On the other there is the operational side, linked to the management of plants and environmental services. This is why the Circular Economy Specialist is an important profile for companies like ours: someone equally at ease on technical-operational ground and on regulatory ground.

For us, measurement is the starting point. What is not measured cannot be managed credibily. Likewise, there can be no circular economy strategy without solid, verifiable data behind it. 

This is the message we try to convey every day: the circular economy is not an abstract concept, but a concrete practice that can be measured and reported. 

We are also well aware of how hard it is to find the right people. We often meet candidates with excellent theoretical knowledge who have never carried out sampling or visited a plant. And in a context where regulations change very quickly, we need dynamic people with cross-disciplinary skills, able to navigate regulations without being tried to a single way of thinking.

The Circular Economy Specialist programme lasts two years and inlcudes up to 2,000 hours of training, with a strongly practical, laboratory-based approach combining excercises, lectures, project work and company visitis. More than 70% of the teaching staff come from the world of work. 

The curriculum brings together chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology and ecology. It also includes specialised subjects such as the principles of the circular economy and bioeconomy, environmental legislation and certification tools, strategies for recovery, recycling and reuse, Life Cylce Assessment, process and product innovation, digitalisation and green technologies. 

One of the programme's key strengths is that it prepares students for the qualifyng exam as Environmental Management Technical Manager (Responsabile Tecnico della Gestione Ambientale) and for registration with Italy's National Register of Environmental Managers (Albo Nazionale Gestori Ambientali), a highly sought-after profile. 

On completion, students are awarded the Specialisation Diploma in Applied Technologies (EQF level 5) a post-secondary qualification that sits between the upper secondary school diploma and a bachelor's degree. 

On the features most valued by companies is the internship: up to 750 hours in a company, supported by a dedicated tutor, to complement the theoretical training. At Gesteco we are delighted to welcome students from the programme as interns, giving them the opportunity to work alongside a multidisciplinary team of environmental and sustainability specialist. 

For Adriano Luci, President of Gruppo Luci, the group's companies have a direct relationship with the environment. On the one hand, it is an area in which they measure and transparently report their own impacts. On the other, it is an integral part of their core business. A profile like the one offered by this programme is therefore a real opportunity: a Circular Economy Specialist is not tied a single skill set. Someone who starts in one for our laboratories can move on to plant design or to the operational management of a site. It is a career path that grows across disciplines, not just upwards. 

The programme is open to anyone holding an upper secondary school diploma who wants to work in environmental management and sustainability. 

The enrolment fee is  €400 per year. Thanks to vouchers from the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, the programme is free for female students.

Applications close on 5 October and the admission test will take place on 7 Octobre 2026.

For more information and to apply, please visit the programme page on the LifeTech ITS Academy website.