Verona is home to Italy’s first app designed to guide international agricultural workers. In addition to teaching basic Italian, the goals include teaching labor contract terminology, rights and obligations, work rules, and safety. As a result, the project “Learn Language with Safety in Agriculture” seeks to prevent exploitation as well as accidents caused by a lack of knowledge about labor rights and safety. The app will offer specific training in the sector’s most frequent languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, and Polish.
Workers, among other things, will be able to learn work-specific terminology such as working hours, rest periods, payroll, overtime and night shifts, Tfr (severance pay). Basic Italian language courses will be made available to foreigners who are learning the language for the first time and are new to Italy, and after they have reached the appropriate level, they can access the particular course for safety and rights.
The project has already been tested in recent weeks by a target group of a dozen workers and will begin in January through a management platform that will track the program’s progress and application. Unions, trade groups, companies, labor consultants, and migrant hosting associations will collectively assign 1,000 accesses to the 12-month app every year.
Agribi completed the project in coordination with Verona-based firm 8 Wave for the communication and graphic elements, and Busuu, an app and digital platform that is revolutionizing language learning. The initiative is financially supported by Spisal-Aulss 9 Scaligera and Inail.
