Conference Program

Current studies highlight the importance of well-being in the helping professions, because the quality of the intervention seems to be closely linked to the well-being of professionals. United Nations Agenda 2030 emphasises the importance and the connection between the well-being and sustainable development. The third SDG, which concerns health and well-being, and the fourth SDG, which focuses on quality education and lifelong learning, can be considered the most salient priorities. According to WHO (1948), health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and is not merely the absence of disease. When this concept is applied to professional contexts, particularly to helping professions, it implies that working conditions directly affect health. The literature describes burnout as a complex syndrome, with manifestations of emotional exhaustion, that is the feeling of being drained, depersonalisation, that is emotional detachment and negativity towards users, reduced personal fulfilment and a sense of perceived ineffectiveness. Burnout is often conceived as an individual phenomenon, but it should be considered in a systemic way (Maslach e Leiter, 2023). In this sense, preventive care becomes crucial. According to Tronto (1993), care involves considering individuals as interdependent. Tronto's idea of “democracy of care” is significant in highlighting care as a practice (2013) and the centrality of individual needs. In this framework of interdependence, it is useful to refer to the well-being of both users and educators, considering the virtuous circle that can be generated through solidarity and mutual recognition of the other. Promoting the well-being of educators is crucial: there is a wealth of scientific literature on burnout among teachers, while scientific literature on educators is considerably more limited. This study aims to investigate and promote the well-being of educators from a preventive perspective with regard to burnout and to show how good practices can promote it. In particular, it starts from a pedagogical perspective through which narration is considered a constructor of reality and re-signification (Demetrio, 2003; Vygotskij, 1978). The paper develops an initial top-down complemented by a bottom-up approach, assuming the participatory action research perspective. The study aims to show whether autobiographical practices and self-help groups can be useful tools to promote the well-being of educators. Autobiographical workshops would be meaningful in stimulating reinterpretation on a professional and identity level; reformulating helps to retell oneself, and this transformation helps to attribute a different view of past events, while self-help workshops can increase the sense of belonging by preventing isolation. In groups, the dynamics of solidarity and listening promote empowerment and a virtuous circle of awareness. These are horizontal groups where the facilitator is on the same level as the other participants in terms of dialogue (Steinberg, 2002). Both approaches have a transformative matrix oriented towards subjective and intersubjective well-being and can be outlined as adult learning practices to support empowerment and critical reflection in a vision of active citizenship.

In a complex, fragmented society, rapid cultural transformation and the pluralisation of educational contexts require approaches that can connect different perspectives, methodologies and resources. It is crucial to encourage reflection on the role of adults in relation to the younger generation, and to develop collective skills and transformative approaches through inclusion and participation.

This paper presents an initiative from the Adolescence Working Group (AWG) of the Municipality of Varese. This group comprises institutional representatives, social workers, healthcare professionals, teachers, representatives of voluntary associations and secondary school students. The group aims to redesign programmes for adolescents and their families (Ferri & Bonometti, 2025).

The AWG was initially intended as a territorial coordination mechanism to engage and activate various local stakeholders, encouraging reflection on current community development issues related to youth well-being in the Varese area. This would be achieved through shared awareness and collaborative design with shared goals.

Subsequently, the AWG recognised the need to create an authentic adult education programme on adolescent issues to help adults adapt to changes. This approach was developed through participatory action research, drawing on Engeström's Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (Engeström, 1987; Engeström et al., 1999; Engeström & Sannino, 2017) and the Change Laboratory methodology (Virkkunen & Newnham, 2020; Botha, 2017). These theoretical and methodological references enabled us to interpret social intervention practices as activity systems situated in history and characterised by contradictions and generative tensions that facilitate expansive learning. Tools such as historical analysis, the activity system model, and the zone of proximal development concept have enabled us to identify organisational fragmentation, overlaps, discontinuities, and criticalities. This has favoured the shared construction of new operational hypotheses (Virkkunen & Newnham, 2020).

This process enabled the AWG to evolve into a Community of Practice (Wenger, 1999), providing a reflective, transformative and ongoing educational space. Adults were encouraged to critically examine their role in relation to adolescence, adopting a systemic and relational approach. These moments of interaction fostered the construction of shared knowledge, enabling community members to reflect on their practices and recognise the value of learning from concrete experience. Open discussion has enabled recurring difficulties, which often remain implicit or are addressed individually, to be brought to light through collective reflection and the analysis of different perspectives. Participants were able to strengthen their sense of belonging to the community and promote collaborative learning processes.

From this perspective, the AWG can be interpreted as a space for the co-construction of meanings, as well as a laboratory in which adult learning is intertwined with processes of transformation and community empowerment (Sannino, 2022).

The experience highlights the Change Laboratory's potential as a training opportunity and a catalyst for paradigmatic change towards collective learning, resulting in the formation of the Community of Practice. This has led to reflection on the social responsibility of adults as a conscious and shared commitment to the community. It has also strengthened intergenerational solidarity based on mutual recognition and the promotion of active and participatory citizenship (Milana et al., 2024).

Workplaces are a central arena of adult learning, yet the training-performance debate (Garavan et al, 2021) still underexplores whether workplace learning systems are inclusive for groups that face barriers inside organisation, i.e., women and older workers (50+) (Okatta, Ajayi & Olawale, 2004). This matters for firms because unequal access can reduce the efficiency of training investments and organisational performance (Alheiji et al., 2016) and for society because learning at work can consolidate norms of fairness, voice, and participation beyond the firm (Rasmussen, Milana & Bussi, 2024).

Building on Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) evidence that training can improve organisational capabilities and performance (Becker & Huselid, 2006; Jiang et al., 2012), we focus on distributional mechanisms, asking whether “who gets trained” and “how training is designed and evaluated” condition the benefits (Garavan et al., 2021). We connect strategic HRM with the diversity training (DT) scholarship which shows mixed (sometimes adverse) effects and highlights a theory-practice gap and weak evaluation routines (Pendry, Driscoll, & Field, 2007). Reviews also warn against relying on immediate, self-reported “surrogate” outcomes that cannot capture intended systems-level change (e.g., discrimination, retention), motivating longitudinal evidence on organisational outcomes (Devin & Ash, 2022).

We conceptualise inclusive workplace learning as a diversity-sensitive training system: observable investments whose design, monitoring, and access patterns can be linked to objective firm outcomes. We test whether workplace training in Italian firms is associated with organisational outcomes and whether narrower participation gaps for women and for workers aged 50+ relate to stronger and more persistent returns.

We address five questions: (RQ1) how is training related to HR outcomes (turnover; worker motivation) and to operational/financial outcomes? (RQ2) does quality/evaluation matter beyond intensity? (RQ3) do smaller gender and 50+ gaps coincide with more robust outcomes? (RQ4) do delivery modes and content moderate associations, especially after Covid? (RQ5) do institutionalised arrangements (e.g., interprofessional funds; social partner involvement) correlate with more inclusive training profiles?

Empirically, we merge Italian INDACO-INAPP Firms microdata with AIDA balance-sheet accounts to build a pre/post-Covid panel. Training is operationalised through (i) intensity/coverage; (ii) quality and evaluation; (iii) delivery and modality; and (iv) inclusion metrics capturing women’s and 50+ workers’ relative participation. Outcomes include INDACO-based HR and operational perceptions (e.g., process improvement; innovation capacity) and AIDA indicators (e.g., operational performance; ROE/ROI). We estimate longitudinal models with Post-Covid × Training interactions, explore lags (t → t+1/t+2), and test whether motivation improvements partly transmit training effects to objective outcomes (Ostroff & Bowen, 2000; Aguinis & Kraiger, 2009). We also examine heterogeneity by sector/technology intensity, size, internationalisation, and macro-areas.

We hypothesise that narrowing gender and age gaps in training access strengthens collective capability building, reduces turnover, and translates into performance over time. Contributions are twofold: for adult-learning and work research, we offer a replicable measurement strategy distinguishing intensity, quality, delivery, and inclusion using INDACO items; for DT and HR policy, we provide longitudinal field evidence on whether inclusive training systems improve equity for women and older workers without sacrificing performance, and under which organisational and post-shock conditions. We also outline incentives rewarding evaluated inclusion in training systems.

This paper reconceptualises the relationship between Adult Learning and Education (ALE) and Global Citizenship Education (GCE), drawing on a selective reading of the academic literature, research papers and reports issued by supranational institutions, particularly UNESCO, as well as international non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Adopting a conceptual and policy-analytical approach, the paper interrogates how these two educational fields have evolved in parallel yet largely disconnected trajectories.

While GCE has gained significant traction in global policy discourse—particularly through UNESCO initiatives and its inclusion in Sustainable Development Goal 4.7— scholarly debates have predominantly focused on its implementation in higher education (Horey et al., 2018) and in formal schooling for children and young people. Studies that connect ALE to GCE are still rare (cf. Larjanko, 2015; Dorio, 2017; Schreiber-Barsch, 2018). We contend that this separation is conceptually and strategically limiting, given the shared commitments of ALE and GCE to democratic participation, social justice, and lifelong transformative learning. This disconnect also reinforces policy silos that obscure ALE's transformative potential in addressing global challenges.

First, we discuss how diverse interpretations—from neoliberal, skills-oriented views to critical, social-justice-based perspectives—shape differing expectations of what it means to educate for global citizenship. This analysis underscores the importance of a critical vision that recognises global citizenship as an ethical and political stance oriented toward justice, inclusion, and mutual recognition across diverse contexts (Bourn, 2015; Tarozzi & Torres, 2016). We then demonstrate that ALE and GCE share structural and ethical affinities, including commitments to participatory learning, social justice, and lifelong engagement with global concerns.

By bridging conceptual frameworks from both policy and scholarly literature, we elucidate how ALE can be reconceived not merely as a site for GCE content delivery, but as a broader educational paradigm consistent with the aims of global citizenship. Building on this analysis, we advance a conceptual model that frames ALE as inherently constitutive of GCE. The model is organised around four interrelated dimensions: (1) Aims and Scope (What for?), which emphasises the pursuit of social justice, democratic participation, and sustainable futures; (2) Contents and Competences (What?), focusing on critical understanding of global issues, intercultural dialogue, and ethical reflexivity; (3) Processes and Pedagogies (How?), advocating participatory, dialogical, and transformative approaches consistent with critical adult education traditions; and (4) Actors and Learning Environments (Who and where?), recognising the multiplicity of stakeholders and spaces involved in adult learning, including civil society organisations, workplaces, communities, and digital platforms (Milana & Tarozzi, 2021).

By articulating this framework, we challenge prevailing hierarchies that prioritise formal schooling in global citizenship agendas and marginalise adult learners. We argue that positioning ALE as a central vehicle for GCE can strengthen policy coherence, enhance curriculum development, and support research that foregrounds adult agency in addressing global challenges such as migration, inequality, and climate change. Ultimately, we call for a paradigmatic shift: rather than viewing GCE as an optional add-on to adult education, ALE should be recognised as a critical and enduring site of global citizenship formation in an interconnected and unequal world.

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:

• Bridge the structural and conceptual gap between VET and adult education;
• Position adult education as a fundamental safeguard against the fragility of human capital;
• Link adult education to a renewed sense of democratic solidarity and active citizenship;
• Cultivate WBL environments as generative spaces for human capabilities