Tinternships abroad, more school-work alternation, innovative teaching, space for foreign languages and, above all, diploma at 18. Lots of practice for a school close to the real world, not confined within four walls. Amanda Ferrario, director of the Tosi Technical Economic Institute in Busto Arsizio (Va), is enthusiastic about the novelty of the 4-year experiment which will start in September, «because it focuses on internationalization, on laboratories and gives greater importance to PCTOs, the former school-work alternation. We cannot continue to measure the school on the 5.6 percent of students who attend classical high school.”
Objectives of the experiment
Offering greater opportunities to young people with targeted preparation and, at the same time, meeting the expectations of businesses: with this objective, the Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara has launched the four-year experimentation for technical and professional institutes. The project is that of 4+2: after 4 years of high school and passing the final exam, the student will be able, if he wishes, to enroll in a two-year course in a Higher Technical Institute (ITS), in order to then enter the world of work with a high level, consistent with the requests of the territory. The schools that participate, in fact, will have to guarantee that they are part of a “supply chain” with local companies and one or more Its.
Excellent prospects: today, 86 percent of those who leave an ITS find work within a year. «According to Unioncamere Excelsior data», said Valditara, «at least 580 thousand specialized technicians will be needed by 2027, but Confindustria estimates that 48 percent will be difficult to find». With this project perhaps the imbalance will be filled.
Students in a professional laboratory. From September the 4+2 reform will give more space to school-work alternation. Getty Images
For the minister it is a success
On the floor 176 schools throughout Italy participated, including 27 in Lombardy, 25 in Puglia, 24 in Calabria and 21 in Sicily. For the minister this is a success. The Flc Cgil school union underlines that this is a low number, compared to 2500 technical and 1500 professional courses existing today, as per the portal’s data School in the clear. As for the contents, «there is an impoverishment of the offer and excessive space given to companies, which can “co-design” teaching. Furthermore, there are no guidelines, and each school will do its own way”, intervenes Graziamaria Pistorino, from the national secretariat. The union’s other concern is that, with one less year, the workforce will be cut. Valditara promised that it won’t happen, “but previous four-year experiments show that it has already happened.” We’ll have to see how registration goes, as it closes on February 10th.
Regarding the risk of a school bent to companies, Amanda Ferrario is categorical: «They are not in charge. We are the ones who select them and decide on the contents. But if a manager explains to kids how his brand works, what’s the problem? It’s a voice from the real world.” As for the alleged impoverishment of supply, the risk does not exist: «We will start lessons in September, we will continue until July. Each student will have his own program, learn to solve problems, apply theory to practice. He will do four weeks of internship abroad and, from the second, eight of PCTO. Without forgetting Dante and Leopardi.”
The schools that said yes
The schools that have joined are already part of a consolidated supply chain and many already have other four-year experiments underway. Like the Itis Galileo Galilei in Rome, which extends over 30 thousand square meters with laboratories in collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering of Sapienza University. Elisabetta Giustini, the principal, agrees with the minister: «Companies are looking for professional profiles that schools do not train, the guidelines are obsolete and need to be updated. What do we train kids to do?”. Galilei, the first and only professional technical center in the Lazio Region, is networked with 31 partners, including two ITs, trade associations, Unindustria Lazio and Naples. Here too the teaching is innovative, with ample space for interdisciplinarity.
The Carlo Porta hotelier in Milan is in the chain with Its Food and Beverage Management, with another equal hotelier and with regional training courses. «We have an interactive methodology, with the active participation of the children, fewer frontal lessons and an enhanced path on STEM, languages and laboratories» says the manager Rossana Di Gennaro. «We go from 32 to 36 hours a week, in September we start a week earlier». In Milan, the experiment did not gather much support: in addition to Carlo Porta, only one other state institute and two private ones said yes. Doctor Di Gennaro claims the goodness of the choice, broadening her gaze to the problems of professional institutes, which have been declining in enrollment for years.
The data is merciless: in 2001 professionals accounted for 20 percent of registrations, in 2023 they dropped to 12 percent. Carlo Porta has dropped from 1500 students to under 1000: «Companies are asking for young people, both for the dining room and for the kitchen, and they can’t find them» says the manager. «The four-year agreement will allow for a close dialogue between the two parties».
School in 4 years: it is important to monitor the results
The issue of misalignment between supply and demand is felt more strongly in the South. The Einaudi institute of Syracuse said yes in an attempt to make the Cat (Construction, Environment, Territory) direction more attractive, i.e. the former surveyors. «Every year I struggle to start a class», complains the director Teresella Celesti, «and yet our graduates all work on permanent contracts and in quality positions.The profession has changed, the surveyors are no longer those of the villas. We must stop having a Risorgimento vision of the school and meet the companies». At Einaudi the experimentation – in collaboration with the College of Surveyors, the Building Fund, Confindustria Siracusa, ITS Archimede and Kore University – will be on the campus model: tFull time from 9am to 5pm and no homework. The flagship is the laboratory open to the territory which provides drones, augmented reality and 3D printers.
Training young people with useful skills to find work is a way to keep them anchored to their land. Maria Maggio, director of the Iiss Enrico Mattei of Maglie (Lecce) requested the experimentation for the Fashion, textile and clothing sector: «Companies are asking, there are no graduates, Lower Salento is becoming depopulated. Yet we are integrated into a supply chain that works and we would like to strengthen it” He says. Like her colleague from Syracuse, she too is fed up with the narrative of a South that doesn’t want to grow. It is not so. The strength is there, the will too. With a more attractive path, the hope is to keep young talents in the area and make them flourish.
However, trade unionist Pistorino doesn’t believe it much: «If there were really so much supply», she asks, «why do professional institutes suffer? Where there are jobs – in Veneto, in Emilia Romagna – enrollments are not decreasing.».
Between enthusiasts and detractors, Carlo Cappa, professor of History of Pedagogy at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, finds mediation. «Experimentation is always positive» he begins. «We need to see the response of the families now and, above all, in a few years the results, which we hope will be made known. Will this path reduce school dropout? Will finishing school a year early help make our country more competitive? Will we get away from the widespread perception that technical and professional institutes are second-class compared to high schools?”. There are many questions and they are accompanied by some doubts: «The first, that the strongest schools, in the supply chain, end up marginalizing the less strong ones. The second concerns the ITS, which are only 104, never really taking off like in other countries. The 4+2 bet is precisely aiming for +2: let’s wait for the results.”
Previous four-year trials failed to meet their goals: the former minister Patrizio Bianchi wanted to start 1000 classes; 243 have been activated. Will it work now? © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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