The province of Bergamo presents the following features:

935,000 inhabitants live on a total area of 2,722 Km², mostly hills and mountains, in 244 towns (average density 335 inhab./Km²) .

The road network totals 3,224 Km.., whereas the railway system assumes a minor role in transportation with relatively few links outside of the province, except for Milan. The modern airport in Orio al Serio, however, provides greater transport possibilities.

Almost half of the 343,000 families comprise two parents with children.

In the last twenty years the birth rate has decreased from 17.7 to 9.8; in the same period, the death rate has slightly fallen, from 9.1 to 8.6.

Total bank deposits currently amount to 19,000 billion (Italian lire) and the average available income per capita is 23.5 million lire.

The 1995 commercial rate had an active of 4,600 billion lire, with an appreciable growth in exportations.

The economy of Bergamo, quite varied, is mainly based on handicraft. Nevertheless, important multinational companies and world-wide leading industries (about 30) are to be found in this area.

Seventy per cent of the 75,000 firms registered in 1996 in the Chamber of Commerce of Bergamo comprised handicraft firms. 67,800 businesses operate in the following fields:

• 21,200 in Trade and Commerce
• 15,300 in Manufacturing
• 16,800 in Catering, Transport and Credit
• 14.500 in other fields

With a total of 373,000 employees in 1995, Bergamo is the 13^th province in Italy for employment. Thus, assuming a 25 million lire per capita income, the global availability of earned income is approximately 10,000 billion lire.

Turnover in employment is rather frequent, estimated to be once every six years.

In 1993 393,000 people, of which 368,000 were Bergamaschi, were employed; with a deficit of 25,000 jobs there was an evident imbalance between the number of Bergamaschi employed and the number of jobs available in the province.

 2. What industries expect from training

The Province of Bergamo and the Industrial Union have commissioned a survey on "Training requirements of businesses in Bergamo", in an attempt to analyze the current structure of the industrial work-force and to outline the expectations of local firms.

250 firms, in twelve productive fields, for a total of 26,038 employees, were interviewed about the

characteristics of the industrial system.

An interesting fact that emerged from this survey concerns the levels of education among the work-force and the expectations of the firms in relation to training.

The various forms of personnel training suggested are:

• Courses in external organizations
• Courses to be organized in the firm

• On-the-job tutoring activities
• Industrial activities alternating school/work experiences

The survey points out the firms’ awareness of the necessity of changing and making innovations, by constantly increasing knowledge and know-how, in order to remain competitive.

Companies and industries thus demonstrate their interest in a system of formation and training, in terms of schools, local organizations and institutions, capable of defining an offer that invests in knowledge as a major factor in both economical development and individual fulfillment.

3. Secondary education in the province of Bergamo

The students enrolled in junior high school (compulsory) and those enrolled in senior high schools (not compulsory), both private and public, increased from 134,921 in 1986/87 to 142,950 in 1997/98. The number of students enrolled in senior high schools in 1996/97 amounted to 33,959.

In the school year 1996/97, approximately 75% of all the students enrolled in 1533 classes of 65 secondary schools (plus 18 minor sections) attended technical or vocational institutes.

4. School and on-the-job training

Creating opportunities for young people to participate in school/work experiences is essential not only for their personal growth and preparation, but also for a correct and complete career guidance. This is particularly true for those students that attend a school whose purpose is to prepare intermediate professionals, without precluding the possibility of continuing studies on a university level.

The first school/work experiences began in 1983/84 as a result of suggestions made by several technical institutes. As of 1991/92 the objectives of such initiatives, in rapid expansion, became clearly defined.

The school/work activities in the province of Bergamo aim to:

• Contribute to scholastic and career guidance
• Help students to understand general norms of business administration
• Promote appreciation of the culture of work, its contents and methodology
• Encourage high quality studies based on concrete requirements
• Educate to work as adaptation to continuous industrial innovation
• Guide students in the transition from school to work
• Monitor the training requirements of firms on a local and provincial level
• Increase training in the direction of specific professional requirements in the province

Any experience, not only those activities done directly in a firm, that enables students to be introduced to the working world, or simply to be put in contact with it, is considered a work experience.

Therefore activities both internal and external to the school are, in fact, training experiences.

• Internal experiences: conferences, debates, reports, seminars with business experts.
• External experiences: opportunities offered by businesses, on-the-job training, guided tours.

Alternating school and work can present a number of problems:

• Keeping up-to-date: Teachers must mediate between the requirements, tasks and functions of the business world, and that which is basic to their jobs: encouraging students to develop skills useful in different environments;
• Resources: Specific laws and norms; setting up groups to coordinate activities in the area and in the province; appointing and training a person, for each school, in charge of coordinating school/work experiences, teacher training, and contacts with the business world.
• Organization: The projects, once actually tried and experimented upon, must be assessed and re-organized according to the observations made and the needs discovered. It’s therefore necessary to create a system of documentation and analysis in progress which allows adequate functionality.

5. Activities promoted by the Industrial Union

Schools and companies, respectful of each others’ specific spheres, currently cooperate in the field of vocational guidance, focusing on the formation of human resources - young people - considered a strategic element for the country’s future.

The constant commitment of various associations (Unione Industriali, Camera di Commercio, Associazione Piccole Imprese, Confartigianato, Confcommercio, Unione artigiani, Associazione Artigiani) has gradually succeeded in offering principals, teachers and students a concrete and correct view of the complex business reality.

The contribution of the Industrial Union of Bergamo has been fundamental to the development of various projects.

Provincial Education Offices Committee

The committee consists of a supervisor, principals, teachers involved in school/work projects and representatives of the Industrial Union.

The aim is to know and screen all the activities for students and teachers in the scholastic institutes in the province, with the help of associations and organizations in the area when necessary.

Knowledge: the key to building your future

The conference, which will be held by experts and entrepreneurs in the month of November, is intended for students who will be graduating at the end of the school year. It aims to provide information about current trends in businesses, the job market, new professions and new legislation which encourages young entrepreneurs.

Approaching work: an educational journey

After the successful experience of the project "Knowing the business system", which lasted until 1996 and which proposed to divulge notions basic to the entrepreneurial environment (marketing, industrial economy, technological innovation, human resources), the Industrial Union decided to propose a new initiative.

The project " Approaching work: an educational journey " aims to make young people aware of the complex reality of the business world by means of various opportunities whose purpose is, among others, to obtain information about the possibility of continuing studies after high school.

Sixteen classes of the last two years of senior high school, in eight secondary schools, will follow a program which directly involves the students.

The participants will be divided into groups directed by a psychologist and a teacher; the activities will last two years and will include visits to firms and on-the-job training.

Trends in work and training, industrial organization (human resources, capital, skills), aids in looking for jobs (CV, pre- and post-high school diploma opportunities) are all topics which will be studied in depth.

Yearly on-the-job training for secondary schools in Bergamo and the province

Each year the Industrial Union proposes to facilitate contact between training supply and demand by locating available firms among its members and by assisting the relationship which is developed between schools and companies. The Industrial Union also facilitates meetings between the company tutors and the students who have completed the training period so as to publicize the most significant experiences and reports.

Teacher training courses for school/work activities

The rapid expansion of school/work projects has become a factor stimulating the growth of professional competence in managing these experiences.

The director of the training projects for students plays an important role in the management of school/work activities. Thus the aim of the teacher training course is that of providing teachers with the professional skills necessary for designing, managing and assessing educational projects in a working environment.

The course proposes to give teachers several conceptual instruments for:

• critically making the most of personal experiences in managing the periods of on-the-job training for students
• developing, from these experiences, skills useful for increasing the effectiveness of this kind of activity in relation to achieving the final goals.

The school/work project can become even more effective if the people involved - firms, teachers, students - have the possibility of participating in assessing this formation process.

These concepts therefore require a definition of the work process necessary to the realization and fulfillment of the school/work experience.

The following three stages are thus closely linked:

• Stage 1: definition of aims and characteristics of school/work experiences in order to include such experiences in the general scholastic course of studies, linking their aims to the working environments actually available, and defining educational goals which the individual students can achieve.
• Stage 2: definition of guidance/counseling activities supporting these experiences by means of specific modules planned for facilitating the students’ adjustment to the working environment, and for developing adaptation and learning skills necessary for such work experiences.
• Stage 3: gathering, formalizing and assessing the results of the experiences for the purpose of re-organizing subsequent projects.

The current project, which will last one year, from December 1997 to November 1998 (bridging the school years 1997/98 and 1998/99), obliges teachers to:

• attend a training course of 60 hours, 50 of which in the school year 1997/98 (from December to June) and 10 in 1998/99 (from September to November);
• design and run, together with their own committee, summer on-the-job experiences for the students of their schools;
• direct educational activities introductory to the on-the-job experiences with the groups of students of their schools who are involved in the project.

European Project Committee

The committee comprises the Industrial Union, ASCOM, Banca Popolare di Bergamo - Credito Varesino, Banca di Roma, General Electric, and teachers of the Istituto Tecnico Commerciale "Vittorio Emanuele II " (Technical Business Institute).

As the economic and social union of European countries draws nearer, it becomes increasingly important to experiment the new possibilities of cooperation and telecommunication among teachers, students, parents, businesses and universities.

One of the projects in progress is the "Thesis project", which proposes to prepare business students to assume highly innovative positions which result from the introduction in Italy of European norms in the banking and monetary fields.

The project was presented at the European committee head meeting held in Stoccarda by the Lombard delegation.

An experimental counseling module for the first two years of technical high schools in the province of Bergamo

The course is intended for teachers (40) working in the first two years of technical high schools, and lasts three years (1995-1997).

Several factors were considered important in the feasibility analysis of the guidance project: lengthening compulsory education; the introduction of new scholastic programs in the first two years of technical high schools; the need to strengthen contacts between schools and the working environment.

The experimental activity is guided, supported and assessed by a group of experts comprising a manager of the IRRSAE of Lombardy, a psychologist, a representative of the Industrial Union of Bergamo, a representative of the Province of Bergamo and the principals of the schools involved.

This activity aims to support guidance and counseling and to limit the phenomenon of drop-outs by:

• acquiring methodology using multimedia proposed by IRRSAE
• improving curricular planning and cooperation among teachers
• acquiring the basics of the culture of work and information about professional fields
• improving evaluation skills and scholastic quality.

At the end of the course the various experiences will be compared so as to create a basic, uniform model to be used in the various technical high schools.

Agreement between Hewlett Packard S.p.A. and ITIS "G.Marconi" of Dalmine

An agreement between HEWLETT PACKARD S.p.A. and ITIS "G.MARCONI" (Public Technical Industrial Institute) of Dalmine, sponsored by the Provincial Education Offices of Bergamo, the Industrial Union and the Province of Bergamo, has been recently signed. Its purpose is to:

• create conditions whereby it is possible for Hewlett Packard employees to obtain a technical high school diploma of Expert in Electronics and Telecommunications;
• increase the ITIS students’ knowledge of the productive system and the organization of a leading business in its field.

The 5-year project is divided into yearly stages: at the end of each stage the employee-students must, in accordance with current law, pass qualifying exams in order to continue in the subsequent year of studies.

ITIS Dalmine not only supplies the team of teachers, but also prepares a course of studies, provides teaching material, classrooms and equipment to the HP employees during the 250-hour yearly course.

The resulting contact between the school’s teachers and the company’s technicians is equally essential to the educational growth and the job awareness of the students of the "parent" classes.

In fact, company technicians will come to school to share their experiences with the students, the students will be taken on guided visits to the company, and the possibility of work experiences for these students during the school year will be evaluated.

6. The prospects of school/work experiences

Partial statistics concerning school/work experiences during the school year 1995/96 were presented for the first time at the convention "Beyond school/work experiences" held on October 30^th , 1996.

Twenty-five public and private secondary schools responded to the survey. The statistics concern:

• 1,283 students
• 165,200 hours on-the-job training
• 386 public and private firms

Various concrete indications and several needs emerged from this survey:

• Email for every school involved, to facilitate communication
• Dedicated Internet site to handle supply and demand files
• Organization of forms and norms
• Definition of criteria for analyzing crucial factors concerning school/work experiences
• Immediate availability of data and reports
• Sharing of experiences among schools
• Publicizing initiatives in the territory

The data gathered should also be analyzed in terms of investigating the attitude and needs of students, teachers and companies, of identifying the most efficient organizational models, and of outlining the best working hypotheses.

Committees formed of school and company representatives and provincial study teams, with the help of professionals that can offer stable reference, could best work to meet such needs.

The role of coordinating schools and territorial organizations has been covered since 1996 by a teacher seconded for this specific purpose.

Prof. Dario Maggioni

Seconded for School/Work Experiences

Translation by Prof.ssa Kathy Coyne

I.T.I.S. "G.Marconi" Dalmine (BG) Italy

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