Country report: chapter 3

3.1. Qualifications Design: Processes and Responsible Bodies

The Italian system of education and vocational training has been traditionally programme-based, where a programme is to be intended as a prescriptive list of disciplinary contents to be taught to students in a specified period of time. However, in time, the focus has been shifted from programmes to curricula, i.e. a range of learning outcomes comprising knowledge, skills and abilities to be achieved in each subject.

During the last decade, all segments of the VET system have been affected by an important reform process still not entirely concluded. Regulations of Law 53/2003 issued for each type of training offer included in the cycle, lay out the expected outcomes in terms of knowledge, abilities and skills results. In particular, the ‘Student educational, cultural and professional profile’ defined in Annex D of the Regulations indicates the learning outcomes common to all pathways and the learning outcomes for each pathway included in lyceums and technical and professional institutes, making it clear that these should comprise skills, abilities and knowledge often outlined on the basis of EQF standards.

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3.1.1. The introduction of new qualifications

The introduction of new qualifications in the national qualification system is directly managed by the authorities that are responsible for awarding them: the Ministry of Education and the Regions. Those awarded by the Ministry of Education are regulated by the principle of ‘legal value of the qualification’ (valore legale del titolo studio). This principle implies that any qualification - either newly established or pre-existent- should be formally recognised as official qualification by the public body responsible for the specific VET segment involved.

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3.2. Forecasting labour market needs - the contribution of the National Information System for Professional Needs

An information system managed and promoted by ISFOL for the last ten years on behalf of the Ministry of Labour to support the actions undertaken by market operators to prevent skill mismatches. The system. ISFOL's information system is connected to the systems managed by other public bodies such as ISTAT (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica - Italian National Institute of Statistics), INAIL (Istituto Nazionale per l'Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul lavoro - Italian National Institute for Insurance Against Industrial Injuries) and the Ministry of Labour.

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National Information System for Professional Needs

3.3. Non-formal and informal learning validation

In Italy, despite a general consensus about the right to formal and social recognition of learning, regardless of the context and experiences from which it is derived, the principles that would enable the development of instruments and processes for skills validation and certification have only been partially implemented due to both the lack of a National Qualification Framework and to the specific features of each single regional system. Nevertheless, institutions have become increasingly aware of the need to address the issue through cohesive and binding regulations, also considering its close connection with the European strategy for people's mobility and employability and a number of other EU initiatives (including EQF, ECVET, EUROPASS, and EQAVET) that have made remarkable
progress in the last two years. In the case of apprenticeships some concrete measures to enhance the value of learning were adopted with Legislative Decree 167/11, ‘Testo Unico sull'Apprendistato’ (Consolidated Text on Apprenticeships).

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