["Alternanza scuola lavoro": an observational study of the experience in Italy in upper secondary school in the years 2016-2018.]

Summary: Objectives. To assess the results of the national survey published by skuola.net addressed to students involved in the "Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro"(ASL) project in the years 2016-2018. Methods. An anonymous online survey was employed to gather information on students' experiences during the ASL project. Chi-squared test was performed for the univariate analysis. Results. A total of 8695 questionnaires were included in the analysis. The results of the descriptive and univariate analysis showed that a large number of students, especially those living in Northern Italy, performed more than 15 days of ASL during the year. In addition, students belonging to technical and professional institutes spent more hours compared to classical and scientific high schools ones. Employment in private companies was greater in the North than in the Center and South (54.9% vs 47.7% vs 47.7%, p minor than 0.001). In classical and scientific institutes, on the other hand, there were more students who replied that they had received a theoretical training at work (23% vs. 19.7 p minor than 0.001) or that they had carried out "outline tasks such as making photocopies, cleaning etc.". (19.6 vs 11.5, p mionr than 0.001). Another aspect investigated what kind of training they had had about safety at the workplace before starting the experience in the company: among the students resident in the South and in the Islands there was the highest number of negative responses, in fact 30.8% answered "No, by no one", compared to 15.2% in the North and 17.6% in the Center (p minor than 0.001). Conclusions. The ASL represented a concrete attempt to overcome the distinction between the world of education and the world of work within the Italian educational system. There were also some critical issues in its implementation, such as the lower involvement of classical and scientific high school students in projects consistent with their studies and their future prospects, compared to those of technical and commercial institutes. There was also a lack of homogeneity in the quality of the experiences lived between geographical macro areas, which reflects the diversity of employment opportunities present on the national territory.