New technical training takes off in the Centre

To offer young people a training close to the needs of the world of work that facilitates, at the same time, the continuation of their studies in the tertiary education pathways of the Its Academy, and thus obtain a highly specialised technical qualification, for which companies are literally on the hunt. This is the figure of the new technological-professional training chain, envisaged by the Valditara reform, the so-called 4+2 model, i.e. four years of upper secondary school plus two years in the Its Academy, which is one of the main innovations of this school year, 2024/25.

This novelty is eagerly awaited by families, students, teachers and the business world, since it sanctions the birth, also in Italy, of the 'second leg' of technical training that is immediately professionalising, with the twofold objective of 'not losing young talent along the way' and of starting to attack a mismatch, i.e. a shortage of personnel, which now affects one out of every two recruits, with peaks, precisely for scientific-technological skills, of 60/70 per cent.

This year we start with a national trial involving 172 schools (MIM, at national level, has validated about 200 chains). In the regions of the Centre, the data are promising: there are some thirty institutes involved with around 500 students.

The pathways of the chain provide four-year (instead of five-year) state study courses, with the diploma of secondary education being awarded one year earlier after passing the state examination, as is the case in many European countries, e.g. Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Austria. Pupils are faced with new programmes, not a compression of those designed for the five-year period. The five-year teaching staff will be committed to the four-year curriculum, without any reduction to guarantee the quality of education, thus opening the way to a true enhancement of teaching. There will be more room for alternating school-work and laboratory teaching, a strong internationalisation, and in the professorship - for the first time - company teachers will be able to take up their posts in order to adapt the offer to the needs of the territory and innovations. All this will allow students to quickly enter highly qualified sectors. Research will also be encouraged.

All the four-year courses, relying on the same number of teachers as the five-year courses and on additional company teachers hired on performance contracts, are designed to guarantee a solid preparation in the basic subjects, making up for the gaps in Italian, mathematics and English, and a greater preparation in the specialised ones, using a great deal of teaching flexibility (the current Ip courses provide about 20%).