>Why the degree constraint? There are some professions (among which Engineers and Architects) that have a separate (let's call them "guilds") pension and assis

>Why the degree constraint? There are some professions (among which Engineers and Architects) that have a separate (let's call them "guilds") pension and assistance fund, that is of a "private" nature and - generally speaking - better managed than public ones. Traditionally the Engineers contributions (coming mainly from civil and mechanical engineers) were: 1)relatively high (since they had relatively high income) even if the percentage on income is lower (currently it is - I believe - 14.5%) 2)going on for a very long time, an engineer or architect used to work since the degree until well into their 70's or over 3) they had the (unfortunate but good for the fund) habit of dying shortly after retirement (or before retirement) In recent years things changed: 1) the work (and thus the income and the contribution to the fund) has been more intermittent than before 2) many people are not (unlike before) entirely or mainly freelance, and when you are employed by a firm you pay a minimal annual fee to the guild, but the large part of pension/retirement funds go to the mentioned "Gestione Separata" 3) generally speaking contributions start later and people retir earlier (and live longer), and overall there was a flattening (to the bottom) in either rates of pay or amount of work, so income overall has lowered whilst expenditures have increased The net effect is that until a few years ago the (medical) assistance was if not excellent very, very good and the retirement/pension monthly wage was relatively high, whilst in recent years everything has toned down a lot.