La formación profesional en Italia: su historia académica y cultural

Abstract

The essay reconstructs the history of education (theoretical) and training (practice) with regard to labor market (lower-skilled occupations) in Italy from taking into account the legislation in that field, tracing briefly the main steps of a process from 1859 to the present day. The phenomenon, characterized by a wide range of founding reasons and ideal grounds (philanthropics and mutualistics, seculars and religiouses, publics and privates, humanitarians and productivists...) according to an ancient and glorious tradition, has always been –at least until the latest reforms–, ambiguosly alternative to the traditional school and just recently they were understood as initial rather than complementary to work. The gap between the two courses was proposed again in 1970 with the raise of the Regions with ordinary statute, which established the dualism between State and regional expertise in the field of professional education and training, confirmed in 2001. Since then, the discussion has been based not only on the role of both the State and local governments, but also on the creation or not of a system empowered by equal dignity between the high school and professional choice.