Reference Standard - PCTO (ex Work-Related Learning Experience) S. Freud

PCTO (ex Work-Related School Experience )

LAW  13 JULY 2015 n. 107

The Projects of ’ “School-Related School Experience" foresees a period of training at school and moments of learning process ( internships) to support the link between school institutions and professional world"

 The Project of Work-Related School Experience is a training method  that allows students of Upper Schools (vocational schools, technical schools and high schools) to complete a part of their training period in an institution or in a firm. 

The educational and training projects of Work-Related School Experience are required to all students with an age of 15 and 18 years old.  

It's an approach whose primary consists in making flexible the school educational courses, enabling the possibility of combining the theoretical studies with a a practical form of learning within a professional context. .

The Project of Work-Related School Experience represents a proper and real  union of schooling and professional experiences, in cooperation with the world of business, so that students can be able to  acquire useful skills, tasks and competences to their expertise. 

Students will spend periods of learning in a professional context in some firms, but this doesn't represent an individual working relationship. The educational value of these projects focuses on the ownership of the educational and school institutions. The primary aim of the Work-Related School Experience consists in supporting and guiding young people, by spreading the work ethic. I

In particular, the educational projects of Work-Related School Experience are built by pursuing the following goals: 

To create methods of  di apprendimento flessibile che colleghino sistematicamente la formazione in aula con l'esperienza pratica;

To enrich the students' process of education in their educational and training courses, with the acquisition pf competences which can be spent in the professional market; 

To support  the students' orienteeing in order to promote their personal talent, their interests and their individual learning styles; 

To build an organic connection of the school and educational institutions with the job market, by allowing the active involvement of the students in the educational process; 

To connect  the educational offer to the social and economic context of the country.  

In response to the need of a job performance more and more competitive, the educational systems have to improve their quality standards and the levels of their learning outcomes, to properly  respond to their needs of skills and allow their students to enter successfully in the professional world. The general mission of the educational process includes important aims, such as the active citizenship, the personal growth  and the well-being but also the development of  transversal competences, includiding digital skills, so that students can realize new ways of life and  job-approaches with spirit of enterprise, founded on a pro-active attitude, flexible to the changes of the world market. These are the main goals they have to face in the course of their job- career.  

According to the EU perspective all these objectives are strictly connected with the needs of improving all the abilities that are functional to employment and social mobility, according to a major spirit of inclusion concerning the educational system.  .

Within these purposes, there is to find the expansion of the Educational Offer in the form of  ’Work-Related School Experience, that is punctually reflected on the Law  13 July 2015, n.107, where the “Reform of the national system of education and delegation for the re-organization of the legislative provisions currently in force”, introduces this modern learning strategy in all the branches of study of Upper Schools , as an integral part of the educational and traiining process. 

 The role played by the projects of Work-Related School Experience within the educational system is more and more empowered.   

The company/ firm/ institution ,  where students get their internship, takes up the role of a  context of complementary learning as compared to the classroom and the laboratory. Through the direct participation to the business environment, it will be possible to realize the social relations and the transmission of several backgrounds, but also the mutual exchanges of experiences that contribute to the formation of the single person. 

The model  of the Work-Related School Experience wants to overcome the idea of division between educational and working moment, but also focuses on increasing the motivation to study and on guiding the students by discovering their personal vocations, their interests and their indvidual learning styles, by enriching the school education by achieving " concretel" skills.  This condition ensures a competitive advantage as compared with those confine their school training only in  theoretical context, by giving new stimula to the learning process and an additional benefit to the personal training. The autonomy of the school and educational institutions can find one of the most practical experiences in the model of the Work-Related School experience. The actions held by the School show the need to realize organizational actions that simplify the organic link between school and working world. This relation is possibible because the school institution belongs to specific networks and finds its spontaneous development in the field of technical and vocational centres. 

Legislation 

The Project of Work-Related School Experience  belongs to our educational school system according to the Law 28 March 2003, n.53, that 

in article 4 includes the possibility to all fifteen years old students (last three years of Upper School) to carry out their educational training at the age of 15 and 18 “through the projects of Work-Related School Experience, under the responsibility of the school institution according to conventions with firms or with representative associations or with the Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Handcraft or Agriculture or with public and private bodies, including the Service Industry available to accept students in periods of internship not representing individual employment relationships”

The Law Decree 15 April 2005, n.77, as a consequence of the previous Law, defines the project of Work-Related School Experience as the effective realization of the courses of the last three years of the Upper School that provide the students with the basic notions, but also with the achievement of skills that can be spent in the working world. The students can submit their request under the responsibility of the school and educational institution. The study program foresees lessons at school and in working contexts, by respecting the same educational profile of the students' study program.  In other terms, the student keeps up his/her status under the responsibility of the school institution. This project is seen as an educational approach and doesn't represent an employment relationship. The activities in the host structure can be also  undertaken  in the periods of suspension of school lessons. For students with special needs or disability,  the learning periods by means of working experiences are balanced so that they can promote the autonomy to entry into the labour market. 

The role played by the Work-Related School Experience has been akcnowledged and enhanced thanks to the Provisions enacted with the dd.PP.RR. nn. 87, 88 and 89 in 2010,  concerning the new arrangements of the vocational school institutions, of the technical colleges and of high schools, in the following “Guidelines for the transition to the new school system, the last two years and the fifth year ”of the technical and vocational  schools and in the “National guidelines” of Upper Schools. In the process that has contributed to the reinforcement of the method of Work-Related School Experience, a very important role has been played by the D.L. 12 September 2013, n. 104, converted by the Law 8 November 2013, n. 128, that reinforces the cooperation, with educational goals, between school and the labour market, with the aim of simplifying and accellerating the application of rules that link together school and working experience, formal non-formal and informal ways of learning. 

Law 107/2015, finally, in commas from 33 to 43 in article 1, systematizes the process of Work-Related School Experience of the school year  2015-2016 in the Upper Schools, through :

a. the prevision of required courses concerning the project of Work-Related School Experience in the last two years and in the fifth year in Upper Schools, with a different total lenghth concerning the specific school system:  at least 400 hours in the technical  and vocational schools and 200 hours in High schools, which must be included in the Three Year Plan Offer;

b. the opportunity to enter into agreements concerning  the projects of Work-Related School Experience with  professional associations and with  istitutions that are engaged in any activity regarding the artistic,cultural and environmental heritage or with sports promotion institutions recognized by CONI;  

c. the opportunity to realize activities of Work.Related School Experience during the suspension of educational activities and abroad, but also with the approach of business simulation; 

d. the adoption of a regulation that defines  “Charter on Rights and Obligations of Students doing their Work-Related School Experience ”, with the opportunity to express an evaluation on the efficiency and on the coherency ot the projects in conformity with the school curriculum; 

e. the reliance on the upper schools to organize training courses with regard to health and security protection in the workplace, addressed to all students engaged in the project of Work-Related School Experience in conformity with  d.lgs. 81/2008;

f. the allocation of  100 milions of euro per year in order to develop the projects of Work-Related School Experience in Upper Schools starting on the year  2016. These resources want to fund the activity of Work-Related School Experience, the techinical support and the monitoring of the activities; 

g. the reliance on the Principal to identify the firms and the public and private entities available for the activation of the projects of Work-Related School Experience and for the  signing of agreements whose primary aim consists in supporting  the student's guidance. Similar conventions can be signed with museums  and other cultural places, but also with the central and branch offices of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs;

h. the drafting of a final assessment report  of the affiliated structures that must be written by the Principal at the end of the school year, where the specifications of their formative potential and the possible difficulties in the course of this working collaboration must be emphasised;  

i. the establishment in the Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Handicraft and Agriculture starting on the school year 2015/16,  of the National Register of the Work-Related School Experience,  in where you can find the firms and the public and private entities available to receive students for this project ( in particular they choose the students and the period of internship).

In particular,  first of all, the firm , or the entity of the Third Sector, or the public institution that wants to promote projects of Work-Related School Experience must: