CASE STUDY SUMMARY: ITALY
Number CS1+2 SUMMARY SECTOR
HE cross ref to WBL CS 1 involving work-based learning and HE credits: the CS originates from a European project DEWBLAM aiming at valorising professional and technical competences acquired at work by employees of the Southern Italian public administration. The aims are described as enabling employees to have their competences recognised through being able to obtain a max of 6 ECTS credits out of the 12 needed for the GIS module), in the context of individual professional development, and thanks to an interagency partnership between an Inter University consortium and the national training agency for public administration workers. The CS describes the path taken by one individual and analyses the processes and the methodology involved, with particular emphasis on self-evaluation and selfreflection, and rigorous verification of competences against LOs defined by the module. CS 2 involving professional development in HE (HET) for working adult learners from public administrations and professional organisations: this CS is presented as an example of bad practice, involving public and private universities, taking advantage of legislation enabling employees to receive educational credits for competences acquired at work. The thrust of the presentation is that important European developments in LLL and access to HET have been perverted into a system highly privileging a category of workers (public administration mainly) to obtain validation of prior learning on the grounds of their employer’s certified statement about their hierarchical status within the organisation, without proper academic verification of those competences being accredited. This system is described as financially highly profitable to universities, able to enrol thousands of part-time students, for one year instead of 3 year programmes. The CS gives figures on the number of degrees thus gained by named universities, and goes on to give one individual example of these practices, adding, however, that some constraints on the system have been put in place for the most blatant examples of malpractice.
