Kering Academy for Excellence, the first academic year gets underway With a ceremony attended by Luca De Meo, CEO of Kering

The Academic Year 2026/2027 of Kering Accademia per le Eccellenze officially gets underway — the educational ecosystem created by the Kering Group to enhance, transmit and renew the heritage of artisanal skills that represents a significant part of Italian excellence in the luxury sector.

The inauguration took place at MIND Milano Innovation District, in the presence of Luca de Meo, Chief Executive Officer of Kering, and Sabina Belli, President of Kering Italia and head of Kering Accademia per le Eccellenze. The event brought together students, Maisons, schools and educational institutions involved in the project, creating an initial opportunity for direct dialogue with the new generations.

The Academy's figures speak to the breadth of the initiative: more than 1,500 students are involved, across 40 training programmes, seven partner schools and a network of over 400 master craftspeople and professionals. The courses are delivered across six Italian regions and encompass a total of approximately 62,000 hours of training, including 22,400 hours of internships.

The project connects the educational experiences of the Maisons Bottega Veneta, Brioni, Gucci, Pomellato and Kering Eyewear with those of seven institutions: ACOF, AFOL, Galdus, Accademia HModa, ITS Cosmo, Istituto Modartech and MITA. The goal is to forge an ever-closer link between education, businesses and local communities, facilitating young people's entry into the sector's professions.

During the inaugural day, participants had the opportunity to explore some of the central elements of luxury's artisanal heritage: from goldsmithing mastery to the preservation of historical archives, through to the knowledge and working of materials. A journey designed to show how tradition and innovation can coexist and mutually enrich one another.

The educational offering is not limited to traditional skills. Alongside tailoring, leatherwork, jewellery and clothing, technology, artificial intelligence, new materials and sustainability all have their place, with the aim of preparing students for the transformations currently reshaping the luxury industry.

"Excellence cannot simply be preserved: it must be nurtured, put to the test and opened up to new ideas," said Luca de Meo, underscoring the desire to pass on to young people the value of Italian craftsmanship while at the same time accompanying its evolution.

For Sabina Belli, the Academy's value lies in its ability to bring together "artisanal mastery with creativity, materials research and technological innovation," offering new generations the tools they need to navigate the sector's changes.

With the launch of its first Academic Year, Kering Accademia per le Eccellenze thus enters its operational phase, with the ambition of making luxury crafts more accessible and appealing to young people and of ensuring continuity for a heritage of skills that continues to set Italian manufacturing apart on the international stage.