Vocational Education and Training as an opportunity for personal and cultural growth of students
Giuseppe Tacconi, Giuseppina Messetti
Starting from conceptual and empirical research the paper explores how the Italian Vocational Education and Training (VET) system with all its specific characteristics can be a path which also contributes to the personal development of its students. Observing that their students learn better if what they are learning doesn’t serve only to be learnt, VET teachers are fighting against the process of devitalization of the content knowledge taking place in the parallel paths of general education. The cooperation and mutual contamination between companies and VET institutions is the essential condition for the creation of that good — and slow — work that can generate continuous learning opportunities. The intensive work-experience, the enhancement of an intelligent operability and the use of specific instructional tools to stimulate reflection on action facilitate the development of awareness and critical thinking through vocational education.
Keywords
Vocational education and training, culture of work, education, didactics.