ITS Academy
About this good practice
ITSs are the expression of a strategy based on linking education, training and labour policies with industrial ones.
ITS Academies are stable alliances (foundations) between different organizations which must necessarily include enterprises, schools, universities, and training bodies. Their goal is to update workers' skills and to offer courses for highly specialized qualifications and for the training of managers and entrepreneurs.
ITS training courses are part of the non-academic vocational tertiary training offer. They are addressed to young people between 18 and 35 years old, and last 2 years. The training activity is divided between classroom and internship (or apprenticeship) within enterprises.
To date, 9 ITS Academies are operational in the following sectors:
Digital technologies, Lifesciences, Mechanic, Textile and Fashion, Nautic, Agrifood, Building, Tourism, Energy Efficiency.
The regional ITS system is the lever of a strategy based on linking education, training, and labour policies with industrial ones. As such, the GP addresses several needs relevant to SKYLA partners and is linked to several policy measures within the Tuscan ROP ESF 2021-2027.
Resources needed
The Ministry of Education and Merit allocates an ordinary ITS fund of around € 48 million per year to accredit ITS academy foundations with at least one active ITS pathway + a co-financing from the Regions + some Academies charge students an enrollment fee of between € 500 and €1,000 per year
Evidence of success
The ITS Academies represent the only non-university training channel in Italy that is immediately professionalised. Since their inception, they have recorded an average employment rate of 81.8% and a consistency of over 90% between theoretical-practical training and the activity performed.
Potential for learning or transfer
The high degree of transferability emerges from the flexibility that ITS has as a prerogative. In fact, it is privileged experiential didactics where learning is achieved through action and experimentation of situations, tasks, and roles faced in situations of uncertainty and complexity, similar to everyday working reality, in a regional work context that requires students with such skills. For this reason, the ITS model can be adopted and modified according to the individual working needs highlighted by regional business realities.
The biggest challenges facing the ITS system to date are: ITS are still too little known (by high schools, students, and families alike). ITS are still often considered a second-class option compared to university education. There is little clarity in the process of converting university credits.
Further information
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