The third survey on vocational training supply (OFP survey) in Italy for the training year 2019/20, conducted from July to December 2020 by the National Institute for the Analysis of Public Policies (INAPP), provided significant data, highlighting evolutionary dynamics that include in particular:
- an increased use of private funds in addition to public ones;
- higher investment in innovative digital technological competences and soft skills;
- the structural characteristics of the training centres that become more autonomous.
Some 29.6% of the training centres accredited by regions and autonomous provinces participated in the survey, allowing an analysis of all VET training pathways: from IVET to higher technical training, from apprenticeship to the dual system, from CVET to adult learning. The volume of the public and private training supply reported by the training centres participating in the survey equals to 76 191 courses, for a total number of 7 681 974 training hours offered and 874 412 learners involved (with an average of 11.5 learners and 100.8 hours per course).
More than half of the training centres (59.5%) used European, national and regional public funds. The remaining institutions used interprofessional funds or contractual/sectoral funds (e.g. Cassa Edile).
Among the public training activities, services to individuals/citizens, entrepreneurial, administrative, commercial activities and ICT were the most covered subjects/areas. Some 56.3% of the interviewed training centres considered it important to orient the training context towards the development of innovative digital skills, and 38.2% towards the development of soft skills. Consequently, the planning of the future training supply relates mainly to problem-solving, and personal and citizenship skills. The data demonstrated that training centres invested primarily on analysis, management and problem-solving (51.1% of the training centres), relationships management (50.8%), followed by the planning of activities and the use of resources and the management of technical aspects, with respectively 46.1% and 35.8%. Some 78.5% of the accredited training centres, whose courses started in 2019, are fully integrated in the training market and complement funded activities that are often discontinued – due to the unpredictable timing of the notice publication and rankings – with other proposals/alternatives (e.g. payment of tuition or registration fees by learners, or funding by private or public resources). In this case, the training supply focuses on (a) courses authorised and/or recognised by the Region/Province (59.6% of the training centres), to which training or other courses with mixed users are also added (financed with vouchers or similar measures and/or a fee (15.9% of the training centres), and (b) training activities for enterprises not financed by interprofessional funds (46.6%).
The survey results will be published by the end of July 2021 on the INAPP website.