Reforming VET Policies in Italy Between Path Dependency and Changes during the Crisis

Italy is a country that has traditionally invested in professional education and VET. However its system has never been as developed and well-functioning as the German one and at the same time some of the traditional tools and policies adopted in this field have been increasingly less able to sustain the transition to the labour market of young generations. The difficulties were already evident in the years before the crisis. Since 2007-08, the need to change the way VET policies are framed has become more evident, with the skyrocketing increase in youth unemployment rates, and a relevant debate has started again. Enhanced consensus on reforms has been found both in Centre-Left and Centre-right parties. A reform of the apprenticeship system has been drafted and it is on its phase of implementation. A more general debate about introducing a more effective tracking system is on its way.

On one side, the paper aims at reconstructing the policy debate and changes in the VET system that have taken place in Italy in the last two decades, focusing especially on what has been happening since the onset of the crisis and providing some interpretations of what has happened. On the other side, using micro-data, the essay aims at providing a quite detailed analysis on how the VET system works in Italy and how the policy changes have influenced the way it works from the perspective of students and young workers.