C.I.I. Pistoia scrl - Centro di Impresa e Innovazione (Business Innovation Centre) is a consortium working as a local agency for the local social and economic improvement and development . The company was born in 1987.
The Board of Shareholders of the company is formed by representatives from the public and private sectors such as the Council of the Province of Pistoia, the local Chamber of Commerce, the main local entrepreneurial associations, Pistoia City Council and other municipalities within the area of Pistoia, the main Bank of the city, and some enterprises and private companies situated in the area: they are all very important actors of the local social and economic stage. The majority of them are generally involved in the projects that C.I.I. presents and implements.

Formerly, the main target of the centre was to help the creation, growth and development of new businesses and enterprises. In the past few years, C.I.I. has also developed and enriched its knowledge and competences in other activities. It has started operating in new fields as an advisory service centre for SMEs and a vocational training agency as well as taking part to EC Programmes.

Nowadays, C.I.I.’s main activities are focused on giving professional assistance to enterprises in the process of being created, as well as researching and implementing innovative methodologies for the development and re-qualification of the local SMEs1. This can be achieved through the diffusion of new technologies and the creation of vocational training initiatives, in the effort to avoid risks of collapse as well as to help SMEs be more competitive on the market. Continuing vocational training for employed people and initial vocational training for people out of work is taking more and more of an importance amongst the several activities of the centre.

C.I.I. has participated to different local, National and EC Programmes (Force, Adapt, SME, Leonardo da Vinci, Interreg III, etc) to implement innovative projects, to fund research and Vocational Training actions for workers, employers, workers risking unemployment, entrepreneurs, unemployed and young people out of work, searching for their first job opportunity; actually is involved in some ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ and ‘Interreg III’ programs.

Unemployment afflicts both disadvantaged people with no qualifications and ones with a high school degree, a qualification or even a university degree who are weak in the labour market because they lack experience and need to get in touch with working environments and working reality. These aforementioned cases are also a target group beneficiary of C.I.I.’s training activities.
The Centro Impresa e Innovazione di Pistoia is a bridge connecting the labour world to the academic one: it works in favour of SMEs by promoting research projects as well as projects related to the transfer of both technological and managerial innovation.