Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Italy: Structure and Changes at National and Regional Level

Even though the institutional framework is strongly centralised, Italy displays important territorial differences in the education system. Historically, such differences are interwoven with territorial differences both in economic and social development. This is the background of our analysis of technical and vocational education and training in Italy. In particular, in Section 1 we shall characterise the national education system; in Section 2 we shall outline the process of reform that has led to the present system of technical and vocational education and the main features of the regional vocational system. Within this framework, we shall present our main thesis – namely, that the system of technical and vocational education is also influenced by action undertaken at local level by the social actors who promote and fuel economic and social development. It is not possible to describe the several territorial specificities which ought to be taken into consideration if one is to speak of Italy as a whole: this because there are no systematic data to enable such analysis to be performed. In this paper, we shall therefore consider only the case of Emilia Romagna (Section 3), which is representative of areas of the Centre North having a highly developed local economy. In this context, we shall concentrate on three points: the role of technical and vocational education in the diffusion of the skills that encouraged the development of small and medium enterprises in the 1950s; the transformations in the last twenty years and, eventually, the process of adjustment of the training system within the changes both in the productive structure and in the composition of the population (age, origin). The last section draws together the threads of our interpretation of the system of technical and vocational education in Italy. Our analysis highlights three goals for a reform of the Italian education system: (1) to revise the meaning of primary literacy; (2); to fuel a social tendency towards technical and vocational education and training; (3) to bridge territorial differences in the education system. The first goal implies an education policy opposing the tendency to limit the possession of knowledge merely to a narrow minority of the population. The second goal considers technical and vocational education an essential element for activating a virtuous circle of growth, starting with a nucleus of knowledge learnt at school that thereafter is diffused and filters down in the tissue of technical and social relations. The last goal in our list calls for policy measures stressing the importance of the interweaving of social and economic sphere and education and training system The attainment of these goals requires sweeping changes involving several fronts of political, economic and social action. With regard to this, we argue that a necessary condition for a convincing start of the process of change is the redistribution of competences between the State and the local authorities. This implies redefining the role of teachers and directors of the individual schools, and the role and competences of the local authorities.Analysis of Education; Education Policy; Regional development policies; Innovation

Cooperation networks and innovation: A complex system perspective to the analysis and evaluation of a EU regional innovation policy programme

Recent developments in innovation theory and policy have led policymakers to assign particular importance to supporting networks of cooperation among heterogeneous economic actors, especially in production systems composed of small and medium enterprises. Such innovative policies call for parallel innovations in policy analysis, monitoring and assessment. Our analysis of a policy experiment aimed at supporting innovation networks in the Italian region of Tuscany intends to address some issues connected with the design, monitoring and evaluation of such interventions. Combining tools from ethnographic research and social networks analysis, we explore the structural elements of the policy programme, its macroscopic impact on the regional innovation system, and the success of individual networks in attaining their specific objectives. This innovative approach allows us to derive some general methodological suggestions for the design and evaluation of similar programmes.Innovation policy, cooperation networks, evaluation, regional development, SMEs production systems, complex systems

Industrial districts in a globalizing world: A model to change or a model of change?

Industrial districts – and especially industrial districts in Italy – have been put forth as a model of economic development premised on the deep rooting of firms in a local socio-economic system that is both rich in skills and tied into international flows of goods and knowledge. But there is also a sense today that those districts are in transformation, that globalization has put them “on the move.” This has led some to question whether a model that is becoming many models can still in fact be a model. In this paper, we use a study of the Modenese mechanical district – an archetypical industrial district – to examine this “movement.” We argue that when properly understood the Italian districts do still offer lessons that are generalizable to other regional economies. We show that the district in question is changing, and show in particular that there has been a rise to prominence in the district of relatively small multinational firms. These are changes that are not atypical of industrial districts in Italy. We argue that a deeper look at just how the districts are changing makes clear that this rise to prominence has not severed these firms’ ties to smaller firms in the district. Rather, they have drawn upon those relations for essential support both on production and innovation. We also show also that there is a cognizance of this fact in the district, evidenced in efforts to recreate private regional institutions consistent with a district structure “on the move.” Drawing on our these findings, and on a theoretical approach that holds that productive systems in industrial districts are constituted by the multiplicity of interactions between firms, we conclude that changes in the district in question require also changes in the institutions that sustain those interactions, including especially the emergence of “new public spaces” and new “scaffolding structures.” Using the concrete example of a company created to foster collaborative technology transfer among its owner-members, we discuss the nature of the public spaces and scaffolding structures attuned to the needs of a more vertical and fragmented open district structure. We finally consider implications for public policies supporting innovation.Innovation policy; local development policies; regional development policies; evaluation management

Competition and cooperation in a metal engineering production system

In the discussion on the prospects for growth of the manufacturing system in Italy one still unsolved problem stands out: the small size of the firms. There is a great concern regarding not only sectors facing strong competition from countries with a low labour cost, but even sectors with a good position in the world market, as the engineering firms in the province of Modena. As a matter of fact, in the mechanical-engineering sector there is a large number of small firms and only very few firms belong to “groups” (and instances of foreign groups are rare): small size of independent companies is considered a sign of weakness that could be a mark of their inability to operate on international markets and thus to face the challenges of globalization. The paper investigates the systemic characteristic of the mechanical-engineering production system in Modena and the strength of many short chains of linkages within the network of companies operating at local level for the global markets. Our focus is the dynamics of change of the system. The literature on industrial districts has frequently emphasized how the firms that operate in the district are in competition with one another, when it is a question of firms specializing in the same stage of the production process; whereas they cooperate in the case of firms operating in different stages in the same production filière. This particular pattern of competition and cooperation among firms specializing in a stage could be one of the distinguishing marks of the system (“equilibrium” factors, as Brusco, 1989 and 1999, calls them). This explanation supposes that the firms can be either in competition or cooperating, we find forms of competition, for certain activities, among firms that cooperate for other activities. The data on the presence of competitors among the suppliers or the clients give an idea of how extensive this phenomenon is in the Modena engineering system. In this paper we show that the weak points of Modena’s mechanical-engineering industry lie not so much in the size of the firm as in the mechanisms that fuel and regenerate the competences needed to sustain the development of the network of firms. This line of research opens new question in the analysis of market systems and network of competences that are addressed in the last part of the paper.local production system, mechanical-engineering firms,cooperation, competition, market system

The Officina Emilia Initiative:Innovative Local Actions to Support Education and Training Systems

The issue of the regeneration of skills, in particular in the light engineering industry, is addressed by Officina Emilia (henceforth OE) as a crucial one in order to re-examine the interweaving of education, innovation and local development in the SMEs production systems. The project, aimed at the education and training systems, is designed to enhance the industrial culture in order to strengthen technical and scientific education. First sponsored in 2000 by the University of Modena & Reggio Emilia (Italy), over the last years OE has gathered the support of local actors dealing with the themes of training, culture, and local development. In 2009 it opened its museolaboratorio (“workshop-museum”) in which teaching activities promote an interest in the themes of work, technologies and the socio-economic development of the territory among the students and teachers of schools of all types and levels. The involvement of class groups, of teachers and other visitors takes place through active learning practices that foster motivation and develop a sense of belonging which is likely to lead to a more profitable educational experience, both secondary and tertiary, as well as to contribute to improving career prospects. Officina Emilia proposes innovative action on a local level, allowing for the implementation of effective teaching practices as well as the broadening and consolidation of best practices which might support a society-wide trend towards maintaining a high demand for a better quality of education and the ability to provide it. Ten years after the beginning of the initiative, with this paper we intend to open up the discussion on the various research issues and on the actions undertaken, focusing on the analytical tools and the main critical areas in the further implementation of the Officina Emilia initiative.Analysis of Education; Education Policy; Regional Development Policies; Innovation

Units of investigation for local economic development policies

The idea that industry is not an adequate research unit in the analysis of development pol-icy is well known. It was present in the tradition of regional economists working on the con-cept of industrial complex, in Perroux’ theory of the pole of development, in Damhen’s defi-nition of development blocks, and in the view of development put forward by Hirschman. Nevertheless, even if they have typified the development policies of many countries in the past decades, the notions of industrial complex and pole of development now seem less effec-tive than the notion of industrial district. This notion, which emerged during the Eighties in the interpretation of the development of certain Italian regions, is gaining wide acceptance in the Anglo-American literature on development policies and in the literature investigating the “hybrid forms of organization” that are neither market, nor hierarchically coordinated. Comparing the notions of industrial complex and pole of development, this article intends to offer a preliminary outline of the conditions in which the notion of industrial district can become an effective tool for analysis and formulation of development policy. L'idée que l'industrie seule ne constitue pas une unité de recherche suffisante dans l'analyse des politiques de développement est bien connue. On constate sa présence dans la tradition des économistes dont les recherches se concentrent sur les régions et qui s'occupent du concept de complexe d'industries, dans la théorie de Perroux sur le pôle de développement, dans la définition de Dahmen du bloc de développement, et dans la vision du développement proposée par Hirschman. Quoiqu'elles caractérisent depuis des décennies les politiques de dé-veloppement de beaucoup de pays, les notions de complexe d'industries et de pôle de déve-loppement semblent moins efficaces que la notion de district industriel. Cette notion, qui émerge dans les années quatre-vingts dans l'analyse du développement de certaines régions d'Italie, s'impose de plus en plus à l'attention dans la littérature anglo-américaine sur les politi-ques de croissance et dans les études sur des formes hybrides d'organisation qui ne sont coor-données ni selon le marché ni selon une hiérarchie. Mettant la notion du complexe d'industries en comparaison avec celle du pôle de dévelop-pement, cet article propose de donner un aperçu des conditions dans lesquelles la notion de district industriel peut devenir un outil efficace pour l'analyse et la formulation des politiques de développement

Units of investigation for local economic development policies

The idea that industry is not an adequate research unit in the analysis of development pol-icy is well known. It was present in the tradition of regional economists working on the con-cept of industrial complex, in Perroux’ theory of the pole of development, in Damhen’s defi-nition of development blocks, and in the view of development put forward by Hirschman. Nevertheless, even if they have typified the development policies of many countries in the past decades, the notions of industrial complex and pole of development now seem less effec-tive than the notion of industrial district. This notion, which emerged during the Eighties in the interpretation of the development of certain Italian regions, is gaining wide acceptance in the Anglo-American literature on development policies and in the literature investigating the “hybrid forms of organization” that are neither market, nor hierarchically coordinated. Comparing the notions of industrial complex and pole of development, this article intends to offer a preliminary outline of the conditions in which the notion of industrial district can become an effective tool for analysis and formulation of development policy. L'idée que l'industrie seule ne constitue pas une unité de recherche suffisante dans l'analyse des politiques de développement est bien connue. On constate sa présence dans la tradition des économistes dont les recherches se concentrent sur les régions et qui s'occupent du concept de complexe d'industries, dans la théorie de Perroux sur le pôle de développement, dans la définition de Dahmen du bloc de développement, et dans la vision du développement proposée par Hirschman. Quoiqu'elles caractérisent depuis des décennies les politiques de dé-veloppement de beaucoup de pays, les notions de complexe d'industries et de pôle de déve-loppement semblent moins efficaces que la notion de district industriel. Cette notion, qui émerge dans les années quatre-vingts dans l'analyse du développement de certaines régions d'Italie, s'impose de plus en plus à l'attention dans la littérature anglo-américaine sur les politi-ques de croissance et dans les études sur des formes hybrides d'organisation qui ne sont coor-données ni selon le marché ni selon une hiérarchie. Mettant la notion du complexe d'industries en comparaison avec celle du pôle de dévelop-pement, cet article propose de donner un aperçu des conditions dans lesquelles la notion de district industriel peut devenir un outil efficace pour l'analyse et la formulation des politiques de développement

Interventi normativi per l’emergenza: perché serve una legge nazionale

Molti dei problemi che si pongono all’indomani di una calamità sono i medesimi e la risposta del legislatore (prima) e della gestione commissariale (poi) non sempre riesce a essere adeguata. Dall'analisi svolta sulle ordinanze emanate nel caso del sisma in Emilia del 2012 è possibile tracciare quali siano gli ambiti rilevanti per l'intervento normativo. Si analizzano inoltre alcuni esempi di effetti economici con-seguenti a un terremoto che colpiscono le famiglie anche nella vita quotidiana, come per i mutui, le polizze assicurative o i contratti per servizi relativi a beni perduti a seguito del sisma. Gli Autori propongono l’adozione di una legge generale che individui preventivamente una serie di misure che il Governo possa direttamente attivare in modo immediato all’indomani di disastri naturali, con l'obiettivo di mettere in atto risposte pronte ed efficaci che riducano gli effetti negativi dell'incertezza nel-le decisioni delle famigli