Conference Program
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
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H.02. Adult Learning as Democratic Renewal: Empowering Citizenship and Envisioning Alternative Futures (2/2) Location: Aule di Botanica (CU028): Aula Blu5 Convenor(s): Marcella Milana (Unievrsity of Verona, Italy); Margherita Bussi (UCLouvain, Belgium); Roberto Angotti (Inapp, Italy) | |
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The Generative Value of Work-Based Learning in Tertiary VET: Promoting Capabilities, Inclusion, and Active Citizenship Università degli studi di Roma Tre, Italy Recent scenarios relating to the transformation of work driven by digital transition have brought to the forefront of international and national debate the issue of the vulnerability of human capital and the need to combat youth unemployment. This is particularly critical in Italy, which suffers from one of the lowest rates of tertiary education attainment in Europe (30%) and a concerningly low employability rate for three-year degrees (27%). The European Commission (2019) has emphasized the need to strengthen technological learning environments to improve the quality and inclusiveness of VET systems. This underscores the urgent need for reskilling and professional development policies aimed at long-term employability. In this context, the paper explores, from a socio-pedagogical perspective, the educational value of work-based learning (Marcone, 2018) within Tertiary VET A significant innovation in the Italian VET system is the "technological-professional" reform (DM 221/2025), which introduces the 4+2 curricular model (linking vocational schools with ITS Academies). The ITS Academy model demonstrates high employability (84% one year post-graduation) and strong alignment between curricula and labor market needs (93%). Moreover, 69% of these programs focus on digital skills via Industry 4.0 technologies (Indire, 2025). The educational value of the ITS Academy lies in the training internship, which serves not merely as a practical application of the curriculum, but as a pedagogical methodology (Potestio, 2020) that enhances learners' agency in making informed career decisions (Poliandri, 2025). From this perspective, work-based learning (WBL) represents a vital lever in European strategies for improving VET quality (European Commission, 2013, 2015), fostering lifelong learning, social justice, and inclusion. According to Milana (2017), vocational training is considered not only as a response to market demands, but as a form of social education for active citizenship. From this perspective, skills represent cognitive potential for building inclusive citizenship rights, where work-based learning serves as a strategic lever to bridge the gap between individual action and the demands of the digital and ecological transitions (Angotti & Fonzo, 2022) Adopting the Capability Approach (Sen, 1999; Nussbaum,2011) as a theoretical framework, this perspective implies a policy transition from supporting mere employability to fostering the development of capabilities (Margiotta,2012). This shift is rooted in the principle that the individual’s agentive dimension is the key to developing a critical and conscious approach to life choices, effectively transforming vocational training into a 'training ground' for freedom, enabling students not only to 'be' workers but to 'do' and 'be' what they have reason to value. In conclusion, WBL can represent one of the fundamental pillars of VET system for a qualitatively based approach to the integral development of the person (Alessandrini, 2017) Consequently, this paper emphasizes the necessity to:
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