Educational and formative policies after the welfare crisis

Abstract

This paper draws on professional experience within the “Education” branch of Confindustria [Italian employer’s federation]. Thus, an analysis is developed on how schools and universities that are linked to the work world may provide a country with economic added value. In previous times, many policy mistakes lessened the ties between the educational system and that of work and enterprise. Consequently, thanks to this historical and analytical
perspective, it is possible to highlight their main features, as well as the critical spots that nowadays prevent Italian schools and universities from being competitive—thus damaging the whole country. In order for the system to adapt to the “society of knowledge,” the author identifies some virtuous models: it is the case of school-enterprise networks and of partnerships between
school and the world of industry. These cases prove why these tools are essential for the development of competences required to step out of the current crisis.