Innovations in the Vocational Institutes

In Italy, vocational education is available in one-year courses (depending on the chosen occupation) in istituti professionali (vocational institutes), which are state schools, i.e., maintained by the national government. (There are also some municipal schools of this type, called scuole professionali.) Admission to vocational education takes place after completion of the eight years of compulsory schooling—in other words, after completing the scuola media. At this point, a small percentage of children enter academic upper-secondary schools (ginnasio-liceo or scuole magistrali, which prepare for elementary teaching), and a somewhat larger percentage enter the technical institutes (istituti tecnici) Graduation from all these schools gives access to university studies.