Articoli su invito / Invited articles
Competences and validation of competences: what are the challenges for career services in Italy?
[:it]Competences and validation of competences: what are the challenges for career services in Italy?[:]
Annamaria Di Fabio
Responsabile del Laboratorio internazionale di Ricerca e Intervento in Psicologia per l’orientamento professionale, il career counseling e i Talenti (LabOProCCareer&T) e del Laboratorio internazionale di ricerca e intervento in Psicologia Positiva, Prevenzione e Sostenibilità (PosPsychP&S), Dipartimento di Scienze della Formazione e Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, http://www.scifopsi.unifi.it/vp-30-laboratori.html
Tommaso Cumbo
Responsabile Linea Università, Programma FIXO Scuola e Università, Italia Lavoro S.p.A, Roma
Sommario
This paper describes the concept of competence, tracing its historical evolution and outlining the principal models. It subsequently focuses on the process of Validation of acquisitions from experience (Validation des Acquis de l’Experience, VAE) as a paradigmatic experience introduced in France in 2002. The paper goes on to offer some stimuli regarding professionals and interventions in the 21st century and ends with a reflection on the challenges for career services in relation to competences.
Parole chiave
competences; validation of competences; professionals; intervention for the 21st century; career services.
Competences
The term competence originates from the Latin word “competentia”, which means, “is authorized to judge” or “have the right to speech” (Caupin et al., 2006). Etymologically the term in language refers to specific knowledge and experience in terms of expertise. In the legal field it concerns the eligibility to issue certain legal acts by indicating the ambit within which such eligibility is valid, extensively it tends to be related to the task or function, while when used in the plural, competences also mean honorary or expectancy. Finally, in the grammatical field, it expresses the individual’s innate knowledge of the rules of their own language (Treccani, 2017).
The construct of competency is characterized by a great evolution in the past 40 years, becoming all over the world an adaptive point of reference in relation to selection, assessment and development of talent of individuals in organizations (Boyatzis, Goleman, & Rhee, 2000; Boyatzis, 2008, 2009; Boyatzis & Ratti, 2009). The application of competencies to concrete matters is growing intensively in current global organizations on the one hand, on the other hand a need for strong research is increasing to safeguard the validity and usefulness of these concepts throughout different cultures and work roles (Emmerling & Boyatzis, 2012).
A brief historical excursus on the concept of competency in the psychological field starts with David McClelland, who in 1973 introduces the competence construct as a significant predictor of the performance and success of workers. It defines competence as a personal trait or a set of habits capable of leading to a more effective or superior performance.
Subsequently Boyatzis (1982) defines competence as an underlying characteristic that allows an individual to obtain effective performance in the workplace. This author expands the definition of competence considering it as an underlying characteristic that could include a motive, a trait, an ability, an aspect of self-image, a social role or a set of knowledge. Boyatzis (1982) identifies 19 competences that successful managers must posses, identifying five clusters: goal and action management; leadership; human resource management; directing subordinates and a focus on others.
In an attempt to advance the definition of competence Spencer and Spencer (1993) renew the definition of competence as an underlying characteristic of an individual linked to a higher performance in a particular job or situation. They, however, contribute to broadening the definition of competence, distinguishing between threshold competences and differentiating competences. Threshold competencies are the essential characteristics that every individual needs to acquire in order to be effective to a minimum but do not allow us to differentiate between individuals with superior performance and individuals with an average performance. Differentiating competences are those factors that distinguish individuals with higher performance and individuals achieving average performance.
In 1997, Spector, in defining competence at the workplace, focuses attention on: knowledge, skills and abilities. Knowledge is what the person knows that is relevant to the job. Skill is what a person can do at the workplace. Ability (mental, physical and psychomotor) is the ability to learn a skill. Hoffmann (1999) speaks about competences referring to competences that permit a minimum of performance.
In the 21st century the following definition of competence emerged; a set of behaviours that are instrumental to the realization of results or of desired results (Kurz & Bartram, 2002); the knowledge, skills and other characteristics which an individual needs to deliver an effective job performance (Jackson & Schuler, 2003).
In the organizational field, Dubois e Rothwell (2004) underline knowledge, skills and other characteristics which an individual needs to deliver an effective job performance. They highlighted how training and human resources professionals use model of competence to clarify organization-specific competences that allow people to combine individual skills with core organizational skills.
In 2012 Gaspar affirmed that the selection method based on competences proved to be healthy, structured and comprehensive. Candidates are evaluated on the basis of the competences that they must demonstrate when they are inserted within organizations.
In relation to the definition of competence in literature, a debate emerges in relation to the difference between competency and competence. Competency seems to refer to the behaviours that workers must have or acquire to deal with a given situation to achieve high levels of performance. These aspects, commonly referred to as soft skills, are related for example to communication and problem solving. Instead the term competence seems to better refer to a system of minimum standards or proven performance and outputs which are commonly called hard skills and are specific to a particular job or a particular situation. In the eighties and nineties, a distinction was made between these two terms, whereas more recently sometimes we see these terms being used in an interchangeable way.
Another reflection on psychological models relative to competency is offered by the classification presented by Di Fabio (2002), distinguishing between the unidimensional model of competences and the multidimensional model of competences. The unidimensional model of competences includes: the aptitudinal model, declarative model, procedural model and relational model. The multidimensional model of competences includes: the psychosocial model, evaluative model, cognitivistic model and meta-cognitive model. In the aptitudinal model there is a confusive overlapping between the concepts of capacity, aptitude and competence. Capacity is considered as “the possibility of success in the execution of a task or job performance” and it is assimilated to the concept of competence and it is seen only as acting on such aptitudes (the base of capacity). In the declarative model competence is based on knowledge and it is identified with knowledge being put into effect. The procedural model is focused on know-how as a visible, operational, and measurable expression of competence. The relational model of competence considers knowledge and know-how but adds in particular “knowing how to be”. There is a shift on the social dynamic of competence for its recognition. Passing to the description of multidimensional models, the psychosocial model affirms that competence is composed of knowledge and know-how but above all of individual dispositions, in other words the deeper and more stable personal characteristics (motivations, interests, values, attitudes and self-image) that permit us to effectively mobilize resources. In the evolutive model, competence is seen as a general ability that has its origin and then develops in a specific context as the mobilization of resources with the aim to respond to specific environmental requests (learning and effective interaction with the environment to master it). In the cognitivist model, competences are schemas or cognitive processes, which are transversal or basic, are involved in an implicit manner in determining each type of activity and in the resolution of each type of professional problem. The meta-cognitive model enriches the previous model introducing the meta-cognitive dimension, in terms of awareness on how cognitive processes are articulated and implemented. In the humanistic model, competence is considered a subjective attribute that includes not only what the individual can do but also what they could do. There is a shift of attention onto the human potential even if it is not yet operative. Finally there is an attempt to realize an integrated model of competence. Pellerey (1983) refers to competence as a structured set of knowledge, abilities and attitudes necessary for the effective execution of a work task. In this definition it is thus possible to identify the integration of different model of competence: declarative, procedural, relational and also psychosocial.
Another useful focus on competences is relative to the narrative plural square of competences (Di Fabio, 2002, 2014b) in terms of aware competences, unaware competences, aware incompetence and unaware incompetence. Aware competences are the competences that a person has and knows they have. Unaware competences are the competences that the person has but which they are not conscious of having and therefore are important to track and can mature their evidence of possession, otherwise all this actually owned richness can not become completely operational in the knowledge of the person and their intentions. Aware incompetences are the competences that the person knows they do not have and it is for this reason that they do not constitute an insidious problem, as they are critical areas the person is aware of having and so can face them. Unaware incompetences are instead the competences that the person is not aware of not having and therefore in this plan of unconsciousness the real project is at risk, since the intentionality of the person is not elicited to act on addressing them and coping with them. It is therefore important to reflect on different aspects of awareness in relation to the constellation of one’s own competences/incompetences.
The validation of competences
Another important aspect in relation to competence is the validation of competences. In this regards it is particularly significant to introduce the Validation of acquisitions from experience (Validation des Acquis de l’Experience, VAE), a paradigmatic experience in the French context that could give important suggestions also for our country. In France, VAE is an individual right since 2002. As underlined by Preterre Dashayes (2012, 2013), any person during their own active life has the right to validate the competences acquired through their experience, especially in the professional field, for the purpose of obtaining a diploma, a professional title or a qualification certificate listed in a list drawn up by a national equalization committee for work registered in the National repertoire of professional certifications. All people independently of age and obtained level of study can valorise their acquired experiences both at a professional and extra-professional level. Thus, when the acquired competences are linked to a certification or a diploma, they can be officially recognized and acquire the same value as those obtained through a traditional training path. Therefore, what is recognized and validated by the VAE instrument is the formative role of experience (professional, extra-professional and/or voluntary). The VAE permits the person to go beyond personal recognition of competences, obtaining an institutional recognition through certification. The VAE procedure can facilitate access to certification even for people who are less likely to undergo training, who find themselves more comfortable following a validation path of acquired competences in the field. The VAE process is articulated in three phases (Preterre Dashayes, 2012, 2013): information about VAE, counseling in VAE and accompaniment to VAE. Information about VAE regards different informative levels: information about the existence of the VAE and information about the procedure applied by the validator. Information about the existence of the device is the first level and allows the person to find out about the existence of a new way of obtaining a qualification established by a law that offers the opportunity to obtain a diploma, validating the acquired professional or voluntary experience, that must be of at least three years and be commensurate with the specific certification that the person wants to obtain. The second informational level regards the procedure applied by the validator within the institution responsible for giving certification. While general laws provide a framework common to all certifications, the procedures developed by the various validators are governed by circulars and decrees that identify the specific requirements, criteria and modalities for obtaining a certain certification. So, for example, a specific certification has specific needs in terms of years of experience, hours worked, training etc. Each validator applies their own procedure and it is important for the candidate to receive accurate, timely and up-to-date information about these aspects. Furthermore the validator furnishes all the details concerning the compilation and presentation of the administrative practice that will enable admittance to the validation procedure (livret de recevabilité), evaluation procedures and the evaluation committee.
The second phase of the VAE process, counseling on VAE, is realized with the aim of developing the VAE process. The interview lasts from one hour to an hour and a half and can be followed by other meetings when the decision becomes complicated. The counselor listens to an individual whose VAE project is part of a more comprehensive project. During the counseling session, the candidate and the counselor study the relevance of the validation programme. At first the counselor specifies their field of intervention, adopts a neutral position and specifies the nature of their mission. The counselor must assume a position of help in decision-making and not an expert position. They have to act as mediators, facilitating the adoption of the decision by the person, facilitating an optimal representation of experiences to be validated. Counseling on VAE considers the project of the person and therefore also their desires, uneasiness, commitment and ability to preserve motivation for the duration of the VAE path, which includes various stages. Furthermore, counseling on VAE is at the same time an action that is located in a specific path but also a more global path regarding personal and professional lives.
The third phase of the VAE, accompaniment to VAE, starts after that the candidate has decided to engage in the VAE process and after they been accepted by an administrative authority that has verified the possession of the three years of experience necessary for certification. At this point of the process the candidate is required to engage in elaborating and presenting their experience to an evaluation jury. This is to demonstrate that through their experience they have developed competences that are in line with those of the reference system of the chosen certification. This third phase of accompaniment to VAE is possible but not mandatory. It is not free but needs to be paid for. The aim of accompaniment is to help the candidate to prepare the documentation to be evaluated by the jury on the basis of the criterion of the acquired competences, deriving from experience. It offers help in the work that the candidate has to do to obtain evaluation by the jury, in other words the preparation of all the documentation for the interview or for the contextualization (practice test).
Thus the VAE process is very significant because it allows people to convert competences acquired through concrete experience in an official certification, realizing a shift from individual recognizing to institutional recognizing and constituting a precious active policy for the support and promotion of the resources of individuals, organizations and the community (Di Fabio, 2016a).
Professionals for the XXI century in services
Following these reflections on competences, another important focus is on the characteristics of professionals and interventions in the XXI century in services. In the post-modern era, professionals are not longer experts that give suggestions or make diagnoses, but agents of change (Di Fabio, 2016a). They have the task of promoting reflexivity (Di Fabio, 2014b, 2015, 2016c; Guichard, 2004, 2005, 2013; Maree, 2012, 2013) and the positive narratives of clients (Di Fabio, 2016c) to generate and sustain change and success.
The concept of reflexivity represents the fundamental element of dialogue life construction interventions and two different forms emerged in constant tension between each other (Guichard, 2004, 2005): dual reflexivity and ternary reflexivity. The process of dual reflexivity refers to identification processes that involve the construction of the individual in the image of others and the attempt to become like this model (or not become like this model as a specific counter-model).
The process of ternary reflexivity instead provides a dialogue with the Self in which the individual occupies three possible positions: the “I” that assumes a certain position, the “you” that responds and the “he/she” with a third-person point of view. Individuals have the possibility to elaborate alternative interpretations of their own experiences to put distance between them and their immediate meaning to define future objectives and construct in this way one’s own future Self (Guichard, 2004; Guichard & Di Fabio, 2010; Guichard, Pouyaud, & Dumora, 2011). Through reflexivity, the dialogue counselor aims to facilitate clients’ reflections to enable the discovery of their complexity and plurality. It is necessary to effect a fundamental distinction between the concept of reflection and the concept of reflexivity (Finlay & Gough, 2003; Maree, 2013). For reflection during the career counseling process we refer to thinking about something after an event (Finlay & Gough, 2003); for reflexivity, we consider the more immediate, dynamic and continuous self-awareness process (Finlay & Gough, 2003; Maree, 2013). Meta-reflection, therefore, includes three different levels of reflection (Maree, 2013): reflection-in-action, on certain matters during the action or while acting; reflection-on-action, retrospective thinking or thinking after the action or event; reflection-for-action, reflection prior to a particular action. Meta-reflection regards therefore “reflections on clients’ own reflections and the reflections of counselors to enable clients to not only choose a career but, more importantly, to design a life” (Guichard, 2013; Maree, 2013, p. 4; Savickas, 2011).
Post-modern interventions are focused on narrative identity (Savickas, 2011), which is based on the concepts of Self as story and narratability (Savickas, 2011). Through the stories to themselves of their different life experiences and their future projects individuals unify themselves and give meaning to their lives, developing their own identity and their own Self and giving intentionality to their existence (Savickas, 2011). In this narratability process, professionals can facilitate the emergence of positive narratives, transforming negative stories regarding client’s self in stories that permit the client to construct new ways to build their future and new positive possibilities for their future lives.
Professionals in the 21st century in services aim to facilitate the construction of the next chapter of a successful life in terms of the personal success formula of Savickas (2011), which underlines a success that is not hetero-directed but that it is in line with the authentic self of the client (Di Fabio, 2014b). This process of construction calls for a search for meaning considering the real zone of close and proximal development of clients anchored to their personal meaning (Di Fabio, 2016c).
Furthermore in the 21st century this process is linked to the development of a fundamental concept, purposeful identitarian awareness (Di Fabio, 2014b). Through two new meta-competencies, adaptability (Savickas, 2001; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012) and identity (Guichard, 2004, 2010), namely reflection on narrative identity, adaptability and intentionality (Savickas, 2001) on the one hand, and plural identities (which are continuously changing) and the Subjective Identity Forms System (SIFS) (Guichard, 2008, 2010, 2013) on the other hand, the new construct of purposeful identitarian awareness (Di Fabio, 2014b) is the key for success in the career transitions typical of the 21st century. The construct is founded on the Authentic Self focuses on Self-attunement (Di Fabio, 2014b), and includes the identification of meaningful goals based on a personal success formula (Savickas, 2011).
A purposeful identitarian awareness (Di Fabio, 2014b) is also fundamental for the promotion of proactivity (Grant & Ashford, 2008) for individuals with agency able to anticipate their action and oriented to the future. Purposeful identitarian awareness (Di Fabio, 2014b) and proactivity call for self-efficacy (Grant & Ashford, 2008), experiences in the contexts (Di Fabio, 2016a), and above all for the new career and life construct of Intrapreneurial Self-Capital (ISC, Di Fabio, 2014a). The ISC is “a higher order construct containing seven sub-constructs: 1) core self-evaluation as positive judgment of oneself in terms of self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control, and absence of pessimism (Judge, Erez, Bono, & Thoresen, 2003); 2) hardiness as resistance with its three dimensions: commitment, control, and challenge (Maddi, 1990); 3) creative self-efficacy as one’s perception of one’s ability to solve problems creatively (Tierney & Farmer, 2002); 4) resilience as the perceived ability to cope with adversity adaptively and to use adaptive strategies to deal with discomfort and adversity (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004); 5) goal mastery as the perceived ability to continuously develop one’s own skills (Midgley et al., 2000); 6) decisiveness as the perceived ability to make decisions timeously in any life context (Frost & Shows, 1993); and 7) vigilance as the careful searching for relevant information (Mann, Burnett, Radford, & Ford, 1997)” (Di Fabio, 2014a, pp. 100-102). Thus the ISC represent a core of individual intrapreneurial resources that be considered as an asset for individuals in the 21st century, helping them to create innovative solutions when they are faced with constraints and challenges.
This perspective of actions can be placed in the primary prevention perspective asking for interventions as early as possible.
Regarding interventions of the professionals of career services in the 21st century, Di Fabio (2017) underlines the client’s key passage from a role of actor (actoriality) to a role of author (authorship), paying careful attention to the importance that the clients can have the energy to engage in it and to realize it (Di Fabio, 2017). The term energy in personality literature traditionally implies dynamism (energetic and dynamic behaviours, activities, ease of speech, sociability, and enthusiasm) and dominance (ability to impose oneself and to assert one’s own influence) (Caprara, Barbaranelli, & Borgogni, 1993). Considering the keywords (Di Fabio, 2017) for success in the 21st century in terms of talents and their development (Di Fabio, 2016b), meaning and the search for it (Di Fabio & Blustein, 2016) on the one hand, and on the other hand we have energy as the keyword to being able to engage themselves in processes to construct and to realize successful career transitions. So, support for clients’ energy by career services in the XXI century emerges as the new current coordinate for professionals and career services (Di Fabio, 2017). But how can we help the client gain and recover energy? This is the key question in this framework. We can try to offer some general coordinates: the first one is that professionals could facilitate contact points with successful experiences (Di Fabio, 2016a) of the client, corroborating their self-esteem and self-efficacy, both generalized (transversal to the various fields of activity) and field-specific (related to a specific field of activity). The process asks for enabling individuals to read themselves and construct/re-construct the Self image (Di Fabio, 2017): it derives from the tradition of competence assessment (Di Fabio, 2002) through the translation of experiences into competences (Di Fabio, Lemoine, & Bernaud, 2008).
The connection of individuals with success experiences (Di Fabio, 2016a) is particularly useful in order to facilitate positive narratives of individuals to let them discover/re-discover their talents, and successes of events and activities in everyday life and in their life story (Di Fabio, 2017). This process also facilitates the passage from the dimension of talent/talents in my identity (Di Fabio, 2016b) to the meaning of my talent (Di Fabio, 2016b). So positive narratives can be facilitated (Di Fabio, 2016c) on the basis of reflexivity (Di Fabio, 2014b, 2015, 2016c; Guichard, 2004, 2005, 2013; Maree, 2012, 2013), leading to formal, informal and non-formal success awareness for constructing and recovering energy (Di Fabio, 2017).
In this scenario it is critical that professionals of the new career services in the XXI century are trained in the new theories on the one hand (Bernaud et al., 2016; Blustein, 2006, 2011; Di Fabio, 2014b; Di Fabio & Bernaud, 2014; Di Fabio & Kenny, 2016; Di Fabio & Maree, 2013; Guichard, 2005, 2013; Maree & Di Fabio, 2015; Savickas, 2011), being familiar with the new available interventions such as life design, life meaning, constructing my future purposeful life and also new modalities for evaluating the effectiveness of the new interventions (Di Fabio, 2016c). But on the other hand professionals of the new career services in the XXI century must also follow training for being able “to energize” their targets (Di Fabio, 2016a, 2017). In the 21st century professionals are no longer considered experts capable of producing diagnosis and profiles of the clients but as agents of change (Di Fabio, 2017) for the life of their clients, relying on reflexivity (Di Fabio, 2014b, 2015, 2016c; Guichard, 2004, 2005, 2013; Maree, 2012, 2013) for supporting and generating positive narratives (Di Fabio, 2016c).
So, Di Fabio (2016a) proposes careful reflection on the structure of career services in the XXI century, designing interventions in the framework of change, facilitating acceptance of change and constructing and recovering energy in clients. It requires a new form of client accompaniment and a structure of services which is more flexible and with more frequent access, exit and return, for a real accompaniment during transitions. It may require particular accolades, amongst the first a new configuration of service timing and training of operators for the efficiency and efficiency of processes with a system of circularity and diacronicity of interventions (Di Fabio, 2017) for realizing career services with a new accompaniment suitable to the current turbulent times. At the centre there is the energy (Di Fabio, 2017) and reflexivity (Di Fabio, 2014b, 2015, 2016c; Guichard, 2004, 2005, 2013; Maree, 2012, 2013) that acts in a double direction on the activation of new behaviours (Di Fabio, 2016c).
In relation to intervention, the economic crisis framework of the 21st century also calls for accountability in terms of both effectiveness and efficiency (Di Fabio, 2014b; Sexton, Schofield, & Whiston, 1997; Whiston, 2001). It is thus essential to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions (Di Fabio, Bernaud, & Kenny, 2013) and also promote efficiency with an attention to the cost of services using new methods, as for example the power of the audience (Di Fabio & Maree, 2012), which allows more clients to be reached in an effective manner, reducing intervention costs. The power of the audience is an innovative methodology. Group members are considered as participants in an individual intervention, interacting individually in turns with the professional but at the same time they have the opportunity also to constitute the audience, who listen to the other participants without directly intervening. The intervention is divided into moments in which participants complete individually written exercises and moments in which participants interact in turn but always individually with the professional for the process of facilitation, whereas the other participants listen as an audience. Interventions that use the methodology of the power of the audience can be considered individual interventions in a group setting thus allowing more people to be reached in an effective way and with a restraint of costs. Specific training is necessary to perform the function of facilitator applying the methodology of the power of the audience. The effectiveness of this methodology was empirically verified in many studies (Di Fabio, 2012; Di Fabio & Maree, 2012, 2013; Rehfuss & Di Fabio, 2012). With the introduction of this modality of intervention there is an enhancement of the diffusion of interventions that also maintain an individual configuration, with significant cost reduction for greater effectiveness and efficiency in line with accountability principles (Di Fabio, 2016c).
In this framework of accountability it is also important to stress the relevance of best practices supported by research (Di Fabio, 2016c).
Interventions for the 21st century can be located in the framework by Guichard (2013), which distinguishes three principal forms of interventions: information, guidance and dialogue. Information aims to enable individuals to find significant and reliable information in relation to the world of work. Guidance aims to develop clients’ employability in order to promote the construction of adaptable vocational self-concepts. Dialogue aims to help individuals construct their own authentic personal meanings, facilitating them in the construction of their lives. Dialogue interventions aim to help clients identify the principal future perspectives that currently make their lives meaningful. They seek to assist clients in reflecting on what they want to accomplish in various contexts of their lives, what their past goals were and what they want to achieve in the future (Guichard, 2013). In dialogue interventions, individuals construct their lives through narration and are considered fully responsible for the future direction of their lives. New career services for the XXI century can recover these coordinates and mixing them creatively for new forms of career services and a new accompanying of clients (Di Fabio, 2017).
These three types of differentiated interventions form a continuum but do not exclude each other. So, this framework calls for a new accompaniment that considers circularity, diachronicity, synchronicity and plurality (Di Fabio, 2016a) anchored to meaning (Di Fabio & Blustein, 2016) and Self-attunement (Di Fabio, 2014b) for the production of new energy, new behaviours and a sustainable career/life project and success of the client. New training and specific interventions for professionals of career services in the 21st century are required.
Competences: what challenges are there for career services in Italy
“The regulatory and institutional framework for the certification of competences in Italy and the role of universities”
In recent years Italy has defined a national Strategy of Lifelong Learning, in accordance with EU guidelines, which, with the Recommendation of 20th December 2012, invited member states to “Establish, by 2015, the modalities for the validation of non-formal and informal learning that allows people to:
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a) obtain the validation of knowledge, skills and competences acquired through non-formal and informal learning;
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b) obtain a full qualification based on the validation of non-formal and informal learning experiences”.
Recent regulatory measures have laid the foundations for the development of a national certification of competences system.
Law n. 92 of 28th June 2012 (article 4, paragraphs 58 and 68, National certification system) re-launches lifelong learning policies, provides for the establishment of a citizen service system for the reconstruction and promotion of formal, non-formal and informal learning, identifies procedures for the validation of non-formal and informal learning and certification of competences, and establishes the National repertory of qualifications.
A subsequent regulatory measure has determined in detail the regulatory and procedural framework for the implementation of the competence certification system[1].
Those competences developed by the person in formal contexts (such as school attendance, university, etc.), non-formal contexts (such as work in enterprises) or informal contexts (such as leisure activities), whose possession can be proved by means of feedback and technical evidence, are objects of validation and certification.
The aim of the law is to promote "lifelong learning", i.e. the activities undertaken by a person at various stages of life in order to improve knowledge, skills and competences, in a perspective of the continuous growth of the individual and "expendability" in the labour market.
In the same Decree the subjects authorized to provide the services of identification, validation and certification of competences are identified and defined, namely the so-called “Titled Entities”, in other words, subjects, public or private, who are authorized or accredited by titular public entities (public administration, both central and regional). Among these titled subjects are also educational institutions, universities and institutions of higher education in art, music and dance. The Titled Entity can identify and certify people's skills, referring to a public Repository at a national or regional level, where all possible competencies will be coded according to the European Qualifications Framework reference framework (Brunetti, 2016). The Repository is a dynamic tool that will be updated periodically, accepting changes, integrations and additions on the basis of new evidence emerging from the labour market, in terms of professional figures and required skills.
Since the Italian institutional set-up gives a fundamental role to the Regions in the definition of professional qualifications, a major step towards the establishment of a national system is the Decree of the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Education and Research[2] that recognizes the agreement signed by the State/Regions Conference on January 22nd, 2015.
The Decree defines the national framework according to which qualifications granted at a regional level are recognized and expendable throughout the country, and references that represent the methodological basis common at a national level in light of which the autonomous Regions and Provinces organize services of identification, validation and certification of acquired skills in a formal, informal and informal context.
The regulatory framework summarised above gives an important role to Universities, as institutions that can recognize, promote and certify the learning acquired by their graduates (but also students) in contexts which are different from formal ones.
This function can enrich, with a new function, the services the Universities carry out in order to facilitate their graduates’ entry into the world of work, Career Services, providing support for the qualification of graduates, but also for the re-qualification of adults in a learning system which can provide opportunities for acquiring and updating competences throughout the various transition stages of professional careers.
Challenges for Italian Career Services
In the previous pages the importance of new paradigms for counseling and Career Services has been highlighted, on the basis of the need to think and deal with the transition as a frequently turbulent path, due to the rapidity of changes that invest the labour market and determine through technological innovation the sudden obsolescence of many professional figures and the emergence of new ones.
There are also those who outline scenarios in which automation will lead to a context in which work and people will count less and less in the production of the material wealth we can enjoy (Kaplan, 2016), opening the field to an inevitable redefinition and re-articulation of the relationship between free time and productive activity.
Certainly in the coming years it will be increasingly difficult to imagine the linear careers and the traditional sequence between the stages of study, job search and employment that we have known in the past decades.
All this urges universities to develop a strategy that can cope with changes and new social needs and to provide services that can help people develop intrapreneurial skills (Intrapreneurial Self-Capital) and the sensitivity they need to interpret themselves within the wider social environment in which they find themselves, and to find the solutions that are as far as possible in accordance with the most profound and specific characteristics: what was previously defined as the authentic self.
To achieve these goals, Career Services should, on the one hand, become more and more rooted in the university structures network (particularly by establishing systematic relationships with departments, study courses, etc.) and, on the other hand, to consolidate the external network (companies, trade associations, work services, etc.), in order to offer an integrated set of services that we can group into three key areas:
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Orientation, counseling (in the various declarations that have been previously reviewed), starting from the early years of university;
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Integrated study and work paths: curricular training, high-level apprenticeship of high-training and research, cross-skills training, etc.;
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Placement activities at the end of the path of studies, with a strong link to the work services network.
What matters is not so much to find any job but the body of knowledge on one’s own professional project that one has been able to build at the end of the course, thanks to the use of these services.
This awareness, in fact, is the fundamental resource for dealing with the turbulence of the labour market and the traumatic phases that one might encounter along the way.
Of course, all this requires that Career Services have appropriate staff and that the operators have the skills and the qualities required to carry out their task effectively.
From this point of view it should be emphasized that our Universities still pay insufficient attention to Career Services, in spite of their strategic importance and how a quantitative and qualitative increasing of the staff of these structures is necessary.
The new Agency for Active Labour Policy (ANPAL) can play an important role in enhancing the positive experiences realized up to now by so many universities and in contributing to making the action of Career Services stable and systematic by improving the skills of operators and the exchange and dissemination of practices within a national professional community of services[3].
References
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[1] Legislative Decree no. 13 of 16 January 2013 - Definition of general rules and essential levels of performance for the identification and validation of non-formal and informal learning and minimum standards of service of the national certification of competences system (pursuant to Article 4, paragraphs 58 and 68 of Law No 92 of 28 June 2012.
[2] DECREE 30 June 2015 - Definition of an operational framework for the recognition at a national level of regional qualifications and related competences, within the National Repository of education and training titles and professional qualifications with reference to art. 8 of Legislative Decree no. 13 of January 16th, 2013.
[3] In this regard, the process of establishing an association of Italian Career Service referents is being completed, which will have institutional recognition from the governance of universities and could provide an important contribution to the growth of these services in the Italian context.
Autore per la corrispondenza
A. Di Fabio Fax +39 055 2756134. Tel. +39 055 2755013
Indirizzo e-mail: adifabio@psico.unifi.it
Dipartimento di Scienze della Formazione e Psicologia (Sezione di Psicologia), Università degli Studi di Firenze, via di San Salvi 12 – Complesso di San Salvi, Padiglione 26, 50135, Firenze, Italia.
Note
1 A
© 2017 Edizioni Centro Studi Erickson S.p.A.
ISSN 2421-2202. Counseling.
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