LA FORMAZIONE PROFESSIONALE IN ITALIA IN PROSPETTIVA STORICO - ISTITUZIONALE, 1945 - 1978

This thesis investigates the processes that culminated in the institutional arrangement of the Italian vocational education and training (VET) system during the critical period of path formation 1945-1978. Among other industrial economies Italy represents an historical example of long disequilibrium of the educational and economic system. The VET system is no exception. A tenuous relationship with businesses and the labor market, limited state investment, and the ambiguous division between the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Education favored the academic drift of VET courses, earlier and more pronounced than in other countries. The long debate around necessary reform didn’t result in the introduction of significant changes in a system that was artificially split, redundant yet inadequate, more diversion than safety net. Outcome-explaining use of causal process tracing shows that the proposed mechanisms account for reform trajectories and incremental change processes in the 1945-1978 period better than explanations based on class, ideology, and path-dependent feedback. The thesis upholds that the role of timing in the development of connected institutional domains played the main role. The development of state investment in the VET system was late in relation to both the technological and political cycle and was met by educational backwardness. With the post-war “boom” economic development somewhat prevented educational expansion. Following the critical juncture of the postwar years the action of vested interest hindered possible reform and brought on processes of gradual institutional change.