L'alternanza scuola-lavoro quale metodologia per la valorizzazione pedagogica della persona

In a socio-political-cultural-uncertain work environment, in constantly evolving, training is the essential point of start for each person, in order to enhance talent and carry out life, family and professional projects. “Person”, “training”, “work”, “school”. The synergy between these elements is the key to achieve truly effective educational projects. In this context, the pedagogy plays an essential role, because it is aimed to promote a “people oriented” work culture, to enhance subjectivity and creativity of each person and to consider working in all its educational value. Therefore the school has the task of training soft-skilled young people and of directly communicating with the world of labor and the productive system, in order to promote employment transitions. Infact, in Italy the non-optimal integration between education system and production system has obstructed the rapid entry of young people into the labor market, with particular attention to those who finish secondary school. In this framework, it is necessary to examine in depth the methodology of alternation between school and work, understood as a method for effective learning and employment transitions, highlighting its postive and negative aspects. The actual integration between school and work is, in fact, the starting point for the entry of young people in the productive system and it is an effective remedy to the current situation of young Italians (very different from European and non-European colleagues). The thesis examines the position of the European Union, which has drived the Member States to adopt appropriate strategies and tools for increasing educational/ employment opportunities for students, for offering young people the opportunity to build a project of study and practical work for the future, focusing on the training on the job to contrast youth unemployment. The path of alternation between school and work aims to allow the student to have a training experience in a company, under the supervision of the school. So the alternation has multiple purposes, including: promoting the connection between the world of school and the world of labor; enable students to carry out training courses with innovative teaching methods, focusing on the teaching laboratory; allow students to live a work experience and to relate in a competitive environment; allow students to measure their own inclinations and classroom learning efficiency in comparison with the demands of the working world; allow companies to know in depth the world of education, thus promoting the mismatch between demand and supply of labor. This thesis has been structured in three stages, corresponding to three different chapters. In the first part, there is a brief historical and legislative reconstruction of the Italian school system, highlighting the various crucial stages, up to the Law no. 107/2015, known as “Good School”. The research was conducted in a pro-European perspective, through a constant comparison with the EU legislation and practice in this sector, with a focus on the Europe 2020 Strategy and on European policies in the educational training field. There is also the analysis of the reasons why our country has not yet reached the level of growth of more developed European countries, with dangerous consequences for youth employment. In the central part, the attention is focused on the alternation between school and work interpreted as a teaching and training methodology essential for the development of cross-functional skills necessary to compete in the labor market. In particular, the research has underlined the objectives of alternation, the design methods of the various activities, the certification of acquired skills. In addition, after recalling authoritative doctrine and some theoretical approaches, an attempt was made to investigate the benefits of planning in alternating training, with particular emphasis on school-company network, highlighting the mismatch between skills demanded by the market and training provided in favor of the students. The concluding part is focused on concrete ways by which it would be appropriate to value the educational alternation, so as to create the conditions for a rapid extension of this experience in all systems and learning contexts. The research contribute to the debateon the (un)employment of young people in Italy, proposing, with the helpof European policies and some Italian good practice, the alternance school-work as a training method that could support the student in his career and study choices (providing an important orientation action), and that could incentive school-company relations in order to promote personalized learning paths, with attention to the needs of new generations.