Learning to work or working to learn?A university–work transition case study

Cristina Zucchermaglio Æ Francesca Alby

Received: 24 January 2008 / Accepted: 24 May 2009 / Published online: 21 June 2009� Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009

Abstract The paper analyses the case of an innovative project on the transition between

university and work. The project examined sustains two social dimensions of learning:

education as a shared social institution in which university studies and work can be

productively interconnected and alternated in order to enhance learning, and learning as

identity projects and significant participation in situated activities. Working actively at the

boundaries of communities provides relevant learning ‘loci’ for both students participating

in the project and the communities involved (university and firms). Implications for the

design of complex activity systems which take account of the learning value of work are

discussed.

Keywords Situated learning � Work placement � Boundary practices �Identity projects

The relationship between education and work

The relationship between the education system (school and university) and work has been

conceived in two main ways, which can be schematically described as follows.

Position 1 Preparation for work: the education system must provide ‘preparation’ for

work. This preparation is analysed essentially in terms of content and not, as we shall see,

in the more correct terms of participation. Consequently, the school and/or university must

impart knowledge already to some extent professionalized and which are applicable in

work contexts.

C. Zucchermaglio � F. Alby (&)Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, University of Rome ‘‘La Sapienza’’,via dei Marsi, 78, 00185 Rome, Italye-mail: Francesca.Alby@uniroma1.it

C. Zucchermaglioe-mail: Cristina.Zucchermaglio@uniromal.it

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Learn Inq (2009) 3:79–95DOI 10.1007/s11519-009-0041-0

Position 2 Transfer to work: the education system must ‘teach’ general knowledge which

are then ‘transferred, applied and situated’ (in some absolutely non-problematized manner)

in work contexts.

Their differences notwithstanding, both these traditional conceptions of the relationship

between the education system and work treat skills and knowledge as ‘objects’ to be

acquired independently of the social systems of activity in which they are constructed and

used (Gherardi 2006). Predominant in both cases, therefore, is a view of learning as a

cognitive and individual process which takes place independently of the contexts in which

it occurs. Knowledge exists objectively somewhere, and it is only necessary to transfer it to

the head of the learner in ways distant from (position 2), or fictitiously similar to (position

1), the contexts in which such knowledge is produced and used.

Both positions therefore make the following two assumptions:

(a) that knowledge exists independently of the social practices which produce and make

it meaningful;

(b) that learning can be decontextualized and separated from every form of social

involvement in concrete social practices.

These traditional views (especially the one represented by position 2), recently chal-

lenged by many studies (Resnick 1987; Lave and Wenger 1991; Lave 1993) also condition

the forms assumed by most of the work placements and traineeships undertaken by Italian

university students on conclusion of their courses of study, or during them.1 Moreover, the

‘work’ performed by the Italian students is never specifically planned.2 Nor is it integrated

with university activities as regards curricula (for example with the construction of a

relevant skills profile) or as regards the student’s personal concerns, with the work

experience processed by further training.

As Italian students begin their work placements, they are left alone in their transition

between the profoundly different worlds of the university and the workplace. The uni-

versity at most performs a ‘bureaucratic’ function by furnishing a list of companies/bodies

willing to host students, and subsequently by certifying completion of the traineeship/work

placement. Contacts with the host organizations are limited and sporadic. In the majority of

cases, planning of the work experience consists only in identification of a contact person at

the host organization (cfr. on this point, Zucchermaglio 2007). In the worst of cases, this

lack of planning is reflected in a ‘‘non-participation’’ of the placement student, who

remains on the margins of the work system without even peripherally participating in it

(cfr. Lave and Wenger 1991 on this point).

Italian students have always taken longer to graduate than the European average rate,

not least because Italian degree courses used to be longer in duration (lasting 4–5 years

rather than 3 years). Since introduction of the 3-year degree course (in 2001), the average

time taken to graduate has diminished, and so has the drop-out rate, although Italy is still

distant from the European average. The number of matriculants in Italy has reached the

European average (50%), but the drop-out rate is 60%, compared to the OECD average of

30%. The average age of Italian graduates is 27; the duration of transition from university

to employment is considerably higher than the OECD average and more than 45% of the

1 The new system of Italian university education (introduced in 2001) divides into two levels: (a) a three-year first degree course (Laurea) which gives a grounding in general notions and methods and furnishesspecific professional skills; (b) a two-year specialist degree course (Laurea Specialistica) which deliversadvanced training for employment in specific high-skilled occupations.2 In the best of cases, this planning is left to the initiative of the organization hosting the student.

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Italian graduates interviewed said that they worked in jobs unrelated to their training

(Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD 2004).

Transition from university to work cannot be considered a simple process in any cir-

cumstances. For example, specific skills, practices, and behaviours are required of students

undertaking industrial placements, and the organizations concerned do not necessarily and

automatically know how to extract value from students; nor, above all, do they know how

to organize their truly ‘formative’ participation in work activities.

This problematic situation requires a rethinking—also in the light of recent theories on

social and situated learning (Lave and Wenger 1991; Lave 1993; Wenger 2000; Wenger

and Snyder 2000; Engestrom et al. 1999; Contu and Willmott 2003) of the relationship

between the education system, mainly but not solely universities, and work through design

of placement systems which give each greater training permeability.

A case study of boundary crossing: the PIL project of the university of ferrara

In what follows we describe and analyse a case study of planning of the transition/

alternation between university and the world of work. The PIL (Percorsi di InserimentoLavorativo or Work Entry Paths) project run since 2001 by the University of Ferrara3 (see

Panel 1) provides, in fact, an example of how a ‘third way’ between the two outlined above

can be designed to define the relationship between education and work (Bertelli et al. 2005;

Gandini et al. 1999).

Rather than keeping study and ‘practical’ work separate (position 2), or fictitiously

connected (position 1), the PIL Project involves a long period during which university

studies and work experience alternate and closely interconnect. The aim is to achieve the

work integration of students in firms, public bodies and service companies through 12-

month contracts for full-time, paid employment. The placement is often (but not always)

consistent with the student’s course of studies (Economics, Engineering, Natural Science,

Law, Architecture, Literary studies), and involves a prior period of specific training

(6 months) so that the concluding phase of the university course is integrated with the start

of the first full experience of work (cfr. panel 1). To date there have been seven editions, of

which the first (2000) was the pilot project, with a total of 395 work experience placements

in 162 different work organizations.

It is this feature that differentiates the PIL Project from the work placement schemes

previously described; and, as we shall show, it innovates and enhances the training out-

comes of both university instruction and work experience. Of crucial importance has been

the choice to consider this ‘mixed’ period as one of alternation rather than of simple

transition (typical of position 2 Transfer to work, see above). Alternation with work is

granted truly educative status, as also testified by the award of specific work’s credits

counting towards fulfilment of university graduation requirements. In the structure of PIL

project work settings are therefore not regarded merely as places for the application of

skills acquired elsewhere (as in many internships or field placement programs), but rather

as places in which complex, situated and distributed skills, not otherwise acquirable, are

produced and socially constructed.

It is above all this choice that has made the PIL Project divergent, and more successful

as we shall see, with respect to the culturally conventional views of the relationship

between the education system and work. The project does not concern itself only with

3 For a detailed description of the project, see Gandini (2005).

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training content to be acquired; rather, it seeks, with a significant organizational and

educational effort, to enhance, support and legitimate the complex network of forms of

social and distributed participation of students in work activity systems.

Panel 14: the PIL project

PILs (Percorsi di Inserimento Lavorativo or Work Entry Paths) are schemes included on

the teaching programmes of six Faculties concerned and intended for all the final-year

students.

In the conventional Italian university system, final-year students complete their

examinations at the end of the second semester. They then write their theses and graduate

during the following semester. Over the next 12 months, they begin their search for

employment and may gain their first experience of work. In frequent cases, they approach

employment through work experience placements.5

Under the PIL scheme, by contrast, they acquire their first genuine experience of work

before they graduate, being ‘accompanied’ as they do so by the Faculty. Hence, on

graduation, they have already acquired experience that will facilitate their entry into the

world of work.

The PIL scheme consists of the following three stages:

1. Classroom stage (130 h in 3 months). The student studies topics relative to work entry,

such as labour relations, company organization, quality, safety issues, etc. The

distinctive feature, however, is participation by the companies taking part in the

scheme, which present their organization and work practices and, above all the

occupational profiles of the jobs on offer. This stage concludes with the selection/

matching process, which takes the form of company recruitment interviews at which

the students present themselves as candidates with a clear idea of the jobs available.

2. Targeted training placement (380 h in 3 months). Only matched students take part in

this stage. Each of them undertakes training within the company and in the job for

which s/he will subsequently receive the 12-month contract. This, however, is not a

one-off placement, nor does it serve the purpose of selection. Rather, it is a period of

training prior to (or preparatory for) employment on a contract.

3. Work period (12 months). On a full-time basis with adequate pay, and regulated by a

contract.

Design of this organizational and educational scaffolding has supported participants in

the project, while at the same time it has contributed to recasting as formative the

boundaries between work and the university system.

Of crucial importance is the granting of value and a specific ‘space’ to the design of a

training system which consists in the alternation of study and work, so that university

studies and the work experience are both value-enhanced.

The purpose of this distributed scaffolding (to use metaphorically the well-known

construct proposed by Wood et al. 1976) is to design an environment which supports the

novice during his/her first steps in the acquisition of new practices. This support then

gradually diminishes as the novice grows more competent and confident.

4 The panel is taken from Gandini (2005).5 The figures on employment among Italian graduates show that work placements do not significantly aidlabour-market entry: only 4.5% of graduates report that work placements helped them find their first jobs.Percorsi di studio e di lavoro dei laureati, ISTAT (1999).

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Method

We will analyze the project in two fundamental social dimensions:

(a) an organizational one, comprising the design and joint management of the process,

the instruments, the mediation roles and all the activities that take place, before,

during and after the 18 months of the study/work alternation project;

(b) a participative one focused on forms of participation in learning/work activities and

the development of identity projects in PIL students.

In order to analyze these dimensions two types of data have been used:

(a) for the organisational one: project’s annual reports, meetings’ reports among

project’s participants, written artifacts (guidelines, portfolio, procedures, and so on),

interviews with project’s leaders;

(b) for the participative one: interviews with 92 student participating in the PIL

programme in 2001, 2002 and 2003 at different points in time: after classroom stage,

in the middle and at the end of targeted training placement, during (3 and 9 months)

and at the end of work period (12 months). All interviews were fully transcribed and

data have been qualitatively analyzed.

Education as a shared social institution

Networks and local cultures

One of the most important organizational choices taken has been the adoption of a par-

ticipatory management model whereby the PIL scheme would be designed and run jointly

by all the organizational actors involved. Besides members of the university (professors,

but also administrative resources), also actively involved in the Steering Committee

(specially created for the project), with differing functions in the various phases (design,

training, work, assessment and certification), are representatives of the trade unions,

individual companies, employers’ associations, the public authorities, the professional

orders, the Chamber of Commerce and other minor bodies.

It has thus been possible to construct a ‘network’ of institutional actors who give

‘substance’ and ‘life’ to the project beyond formal agreements. Although the university is

the strategic node of the network (in that it shoulders most of the responsibility for

promotion, implementation and coordination), all the organizational actors have benefited

from membership of the network—also for ‘boundary’ transactions (Wenger 2000) con-

cerning matters other than management of the project: all the six Faculty involved (Eco-

nomics, Engineering, Natural Science, Law, Architecture, Literary studies), have received

valuable feedback for the planning of advanced teaching activities while the firms have

benefited from processes of technological transfer. The complexity of this network is well

described by the number of organizations involved in the project: 162 different work

organizations, offering 12 months work periods quite equally distributed among Man-

agement Area (administration, marketing and human resources) (48.5% of total work

periods) and Technical Area (Projecting, Production, Information Systems) (51.5% of total

work periods). There is a strong (even though not complete) coherence between student

coming from humanities and work periods in the Management Area on one hand and

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students coming from professionally oriented fields and work periods in the Technical Area

on the other hand.

Constructing a meaningful community of actors from so different organizational and

disciplinary backgrounds has required (and at the same time helped develop) a capacity to

speak different languages, to understand organizational cultures and interpret their points

of view, to negotiate alliances, and to construct formal and informal relations. Serving this

purpose, in fact (and it cannot always be taken for granted), are an interest and an activity

perceived as important, and on which there is the intent to interact; a shared commitment

which accepts diversity as the point of departure; the ability to see the competences of the

other community in its own terms (suspending value judgements); forms of ‘translation’

among repertoires of practices (also linguistic) which make interaction possible. In other

words, this comes about when individual communities do not close themselves off but are

instead willing to devote specific energies to interaction with other and different

communities.

In the case of the PIL Project, construction of this community was undoubtedly facil-

itated by the local presence of a consolidated ‘‘political’’ culture of concertation, by virtue

of which the actors were already predisposed to networking and accustomed to the co-

design of the processes and to styles of participative management. This program’s local

feature could also work as a limitation to the PIL’s dissemination in other Italian academic

contexts.

Construction of the network has also matched the needs of local society in that the skills

acquired during the project (and within the organizations participating to the network) are

locally ‘spendable.’

Boundary objects and organizational mediators

This social and organizational network has also produced a series of specific instruments

and artefacts (whose use and structure are shared) which support management of the

project: selection criteria, certification procedures, monitoring reports, definition of job

profiles, the compiling of portfolios, guidelines for the tutors, skills repertoires, etc.

These artefacts mediate both transition among the various stages of the project and

communication among the various contact persons in the network who perform the

important function of incorporating and consolidating the practices used to govern the

process, making them updatable, and transferable. These objects have the distinctive

property of crossing boundaries (Wenger 2000; Star and Griesemer 1989 and thus perform

the crucial function of mediating in space among the various communities involved in the

project, and in time among the members of a particular community. As this ‘movement’

has taken place, ‘inscribed’ (Latour 1986) in these artefacts have been the philosophy of

the project, the practices with which to accomplish it, and the products of its various phases

(for a detailed presentation of these artefacts and instruments, cfr. Gandini (2005).

Besides the construction of these artefacts, the project has also led to the creation and

activation, both within the firms and the university, of new mediators whose distinctive

feature is an ability to ‘translate’ among worlds with very different social, discursive and

organizational practices.

The university professors involved in the project have been required to undertake the

‘unusual’ work of designing, organizing and accompanying the study/work training pro-

ject. For example, they conduct motivational interviews, hold meetings with companies,

designed and deliver training for selection interviews, create instruments, negotiate

agreements with institutions, firms and associations, and organize monitoring and tutoring

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activities. This is a set of organizational and training activities ‘‘beyond the classroom’’

(see Zucchermaglio 1999) which require the deployment of new social and professional

skills.

For example, the meetings with firms (when the latter presented themselves to the

students) and the selection interviews take place, in the first years of PIL project, in the

presence of a ‘translator’ (an university professor with a long previous experience in

human resources area of different work organizations) with a twofold competence (towards

the university and towards the world of work) who helps the companies to ‘say’ what was

professionally distinctive about themselves, while at the same time helping the students to

‘formulate’ the right questions to orient themselves in the world of work, This role of

translating and mediating between different discursive worlds is anything but easy, and

those able to perform it are rarely found in the traditional Italian academic community.

The above-described construction of a network comprising the various organizational

partners also required a typically expert ability to cross the boundaries of different occu-

pational communities, as well as knowledge and the ability to communicate with multiple

social and organizational realities—what has been called ‘‘polycontextuality’’ (Engestrom

et al. 1995). The university contacted the potential host organizations (private firms, public

bodies, service companies, professional offices, etc.) and these joined the project when,

having been informed of the university’s intentions, they examined the project’s potential

with a view to possible involvement. Analysis of company demand was a delicate and

complex undertaking whose outcomes were often very different from the initial expecta-

tions. To give an idea of the complexity of this activity, for to 2004 PIL Project, for

example, around 1700 companies (both in the Ferrara area and other provinces) were

contacted and informed about the project, and of these more than 190 expressed interest in

the project. This phase required the university referent (a professional, with educational

background, dedicated to this crucial aspects of PIL project) to display an ability to handle

detailed talks between company and university so that the conditions of the students’

placements could be specified: areas of activity, development projects, job profiles, tasks to

be performed, modes of cooperation, etc.

Thus organized, participation has also been an opportunity for the company represen-

tatives to reflect on corporate processes and on emergent needs in terms of new job profiles

or new organizational forms, for example. Because of this permeability and traversing of

other practical and discursive worlds, the project has enabled the firms involved to acquire

value added through, for example, the creation of new services, or the enhancement of

already-existing ones, or the delegation of routine tasks (though interesting and ‘novel’ to

the newcomer) (see Fragment 1).

Fragment 1 ‘‘…il PIL e sempre stato considerato [nella nostra azienda] come una‘risorsa strutturale’ e quindi funzionale all’assolvimento di mansioni che, a prescinderedalla quantita e qualita, sono dedicate unicamente a quella risorsa’’;

‘‘…the PIL student has always been considered [by our company] to be a ‘structural

resource’ and therefore as functional to the performance of tasks which, regardless of

quantity and quality, are dedicated solely to that resource’’;

‘‘…le risorse interne sono state supportate dai [giovani in] PIL nello svolgimento diattivita anche di routine, consentendo un alleggerimento del [loro] carico…e favorendo lapropensione di queste verso attivita di autoaggiornamento e specializzazione’’;

‘‘…internal resources have been supported by [PIL project students] in the performance

of even routine tasks, so that their workload is lightened…and they are encouraged to

undertake refresher and specialization activities.’’

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Hence, also the company representatives had to assume a very different mediatory role;

one more central and active than that of the simple ‘host’, more or less active, as tradi-

tionally performed in the case of work experience placements and traineeships. By con-

trast, because recognition was given to the training and skilling value of their activity, they

were involved in the network and in decisions concerning the design, management and

certification of the work period. Legitimated in their role as trainers, the companies learned

to set value on work entry schemes and used them as a organizational resource—for

example, to ‘test’ new entrants or to shift to other activities expert personnel made

available by the temporary presence of PIL placement students (see Fragment 2).

Fragment 2 ‘‘…quasi tutti i PIL sono stati utilizzati in nuove attivita o comunque suservizi completamente riprogettati e con nuove forme organizzative’’;

‘‘…almost all the PIL students have been used in new activities or at any rate for

completely redesigned services with new organizational forms’’;

‘‘…il PIL si e occupato di un’attivita aggiuntiva consistente nell’adozione di unacontabilita analitica finalizzata [all’introduzione del] controllo di gestione’’;

‘‘the PIL student worked on an additional activity consisting in the adoption of an

analytical accounting system targeted [on the introduction] of management control’’;

‘‘…e stato necessario [nel nostro caso] l’inserimento del PIL per potenziare un servizioal quale sarebbero passate gradualmente diverse competenze gestite [fino a quel

momento] da un servizio diverso’’.

‘‘it was necessary [in our case] to take on the PIL student in order to develop a service

that would gradually take over various competences managed [hitherto] by a different

service’’.

Once again highlighted is the importance for the development of PIL project of

mediators (both from university and firms) able to act effectively on the boundaries among

communities, rather than at the centre of the practices characteristic of only one com-

munity. By ‘moving’, these mediators create linkages, transfer knowledge, establish

relations, and explore new territories: ‘‘Brokering knowledge is delicate. It requires enough

legitimacy to be listened to and enough distance to bring something really new’’ (Wenger

2000, p. 236). Mediators therefore perform a task which is essential for development but

not always easy to accomplish if they belong to communities which fear openness and

reward only the ‘narrow’ and ‘internal’ allegiances of their members.

Formal and informal boundary practices

A key role in the organizational scaffolding is also performed by the construction of shared

and innovative working and training practices (at the university and in the firm). Inter-

actions with the firms have enabled the university to design a project that is not static but

dynamically updatable, as well as catering to the needs of the market and local society.

Analysis of the projects conducted to date (since 2001) has led, for example, to the

revision of certain practices and instruments according to their efficacy. It has also pre-

vented a split from forming between formal procedures and informal practices that might

in the long period become counterproductive. An example of such a split is the function of

assessing, orienting and developing self-awareness initially attributed to the ‘‘bilancio dicompetenze’’ (Selvatici and D’Angelo 1999; Alby and Mora 2004) or ‘‘skills audit’’ but in

fact performed by the selection interview. In actual practice, the skills audit had a

screening function prior to the selection interview when the students met the firms for the

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first time. And these interviews seemed to acquire high learning value merely from the fact

that they were performed (see Fragment 3).

Fragment 36 ‘‘Grazie al PIL ho avuto la possibilita di pormi domande sui miei interessi esulla mia stessa personalita che hanno avuto riflesso anche nel momento in cui ho espressole preferenze verso le aziende…’’

‘‘The PIL gave me an opportunity to ask myself questions about my interests and my

personality which had consequences when I expressed my preferences for companies…’’

‘‘Ho avuto occasione di scoprire e rafforzare predisposizioni ed attitudini che primanon mi erano note’’.

‘‘I had an opportunity to discover and strengthen predispositions and aptitudes previ-

ously unknown to me.’’

It was in this discursive context (at least in the majority of cases where it was their first

job interview) that the student realized for the first time the ‘spendability’ of his or her

university curriculum. Moreover, on the occasion of the interviews, the students had to

make realistic appraisal of their skills and interests, and they were also required to put their

personal characteristics to the test (see Fragment 4).

Fragment 4 ‘‘Credo che una delle esperienze piu formative sia stata l’affrontare i col-loqui aziendali. La possibilita pressoche unica di sostenere un cosı elevato numero dicolloqui in breve tempo mi ha permesso di comprendere sempre piu velocemente le esi-genze delle diverse organizzazioni in cui mi proponevo e di adattare, di conseguenza, ilmio registro o le mie capacita comunicative, per ottenere di volta in volta il migliormatching’’.

‘‘I think that one of the most formative experiences was the company interview. The

almost unique opportunity to attend such a large number of interviews in a short space of

time enabled me to understand the needs of the organizations increasingly rapidly, and

consequently to adapt my register or my communication skills to obtain the best match’’.

The selection interview was therefore of considerable value because it induced a per-

ception of self-efficacy more ‘adult’ and ‘critical’ than that typical of the student who

conducts self-assessment in order to pass a university examination. It became, that is, a

new practice, one different from both a university oral examination and a job interview.

This demonstrates that working at the boundaries, in a collaborative manner, enables the

discovery, construction and valorization of new practices, and that this negotiative and

reflexive stance enables formal and informal practices to evolve and improve during the

project’s development over time.

Learning as legitimate and situated participation

The learning value of work

The design choice to treat the period of work integration as a period of alternation between

study and work, rather than one of simple transition, has been of particular importance.

Under the alternating system of the project, work acquires genuine formative status—as

testified by fact that it is awarded credits for the fulfilment of university graduation

6 These and the following fragments are extracted from the interviews and report the ‘voices’ of the studentswho took part in the PIL Project.

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requirements (specifically, 4 credits for the placement/classroom phase, and 7 credits for

the 12-month work experience). Besides the credits gained from participation in the project

(which are mainly of value within the university system because they count towards a

degree), of equally significant value (also in terms of employability, as we shall see) is the

‘work credit’ more directly connected with the work experience undertaken, the skills

acquired therefrom, and the prestige of the companies involved. Because credits are

awarded for the work experience, the project has quantitatively and qualitatively affected

the structure and curricular contents of the university system. Even more importantly, this

twofold ‘role’ of credits has altered the perception of training in both the university and the

firms involved in the project, so that the credits awarded do not simply certify the

acquisition of ‘content’ but also testify to engagement in practices and participation in

complex systems of work activities. That is to say, the credits certify fulfilment of the work

experience, whose formative value is recognized for the purposes of both graduation and

labour-market entry (see Fragment 5).

Fragment 5 ‘‘E’ vero che posticipa i tempi di permanenza nel mondo universitario…ma ealtrettanto vero che anticipa i tempi di ingresso nel mondo del lavoro’’.

‘‘It is true that it prolongs the time you spend at university…but it also brings forward

the moment when you enter the world of work.’’

‘‘Iniziare a lavorare prima della laurea e un vantaggio, uno gia entra nel mondo dellavoro, c’e un graduale passaggio da studente a lavoratore, uno si ritrova una primaesperienza che e tanto richiesta nel momento in cui ci si laurea e si cerca lavoro’’.

‘‘Starting to work before you graduate is an advantage. You enter the world of work

earlier, there’s a gradual changeover from being a student to being a worker, you gain

experience which is in demand when you graduate and start looking for a job’’.

The project therefore concerns itself not with training contents or practical application

of skills already acquired, rather, with enhancing and legitimating social and distributed

participation in systems of work activity which enrich the skills acquired at university. A

crucial factor in regard to this enhancement and legitimation is that the work undertaken by

the PIL students is real work, even if it initially involves ‘accompaniment’. Although it is

fixed-term work (12 months), the students are paid, and they are granted full status as

workers (as one student put it: ‘‘earning a wage changes the way you work’’), not the status

of placement students, of ‘bogus’ workers, or ones ‘suspended’ in the sense that they are

unpaid and/or not legitimated. Given the importance attributed by many models of situated

learning to the ‘legitimation’ of the novice (Lave and Wenger 1991), this choice in design

of the PIL project made a major contribution to the formative value of the study/work

alternation system. Indeed, after the 12-month period of work (still part of the training

path), students on the project have achieved labour-market entry at rates much higher than

those of other graduates (see Fig. 1).

These preliminary results (on period 2001–2004) show that 24 months after graduation

the employment rate among PIL project students was significantly higher (85%) than the

average rate among Ferrara University graduates (65%).

Learning to participate

These results on employability ‘after’ the project are significant. But even more important

are those achieved by the students ‘during’ the project, at the end of the accompaniment

phase and therefore before they have entered employment real and proper. The most

striking finding, also because it was unexpected, concerns the increased interest shown by

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the students in their university studies, their understanding of the subjects studied, and the

way in which they extract value from their ‘alternate’ time. These aspects are now dis-

cussed in detail.

(a) Why are certain subjects studied at university? The project aids the students’

understanding of why certain subjects are studied at university (and therefore the useful-

ness of university study) by giving them a meaningful context of situated use (and vice

versa). In the following (see Fragment 6) two pieces of the interviews from a student

enrolled in the Economics Faculty after his work period:

Fragment 6 ‘‘Mi laureo fra un mese. Il lavoro mi piace anche perche le cose che hostudiato le sto vedendo applicate; facendo la tesi vedevo delle pratiche che richiedevanouna riteorizzazione, mi sono venute idee che non mi sarebbero venute solo guardando ilibri, quindi obiettivamente mi hanno dato molto’’.

‘‘I’ll graduate in a month’s time. I like the work because I can see the things I’ve studied

being applied. When writing my thesis I saw practices that required re-theorization. Ideas

came to me that I would only have got from reading books, so objectively it has given me a

great deal.’’

‘‘Ritengo che il doppio ruolo ‘‘studente–lavoratore’’ sia difficile da portare avanti, ma ilprogetto …consente il completamento degli studi ed in alcuni casi favorisce…un interesseverso alcune materie’’.

‘‘I believe that the double ‘student/worker’ role is a difficult one to perform, but the

project…rounds out your studies and in some cases increases…your interest in some

subjects’’.

Participation in the project furnishes a shared ‘‘framework for intelligibility’’ (Goodwin

1997) in which also university studies acquire a less episodic and more situated sense in

Fig. 1 Employability after graduation of PIL project students

Learn Inq (2009) 3:79–95 89

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specific forms of participation in the activities of specific communities of professional

practices.

(b) How to study at university? The project improves the students’ capacity to study

efficiently, so to say, to ‘‘work to learn’’ better. Testifying to this improvement is the fact

the PIL project students graduate earlier than foreseen, despite their work commitments

(see Fragment 7).

Fragment 7 ‘‘Un’esperienza di questo tipo lascia ben poco tempo allo studio per chi deveconcludere, ma puo senz’altro facilitare la preparazione di certi esami specifici come adesempio Organizzazione Aziendale e la preparazione delle tesi di laurea……L’esperienzasul campo, l’applicazione pratica di cio che studi sui libri, poi, aiuta e stimola il com-pletamento degli studi…anche se il tempo e ristretto’’.

‘‘An experience of this kind leaves you very little time for the studies you have to

complete, but it undoubtedly helps you when preparing for certain specific exams like

Business Organization and when writing your thesis…Experience in the field, the practical

application of what you study in books then helps and stimulates you to complete your

studies…despite the limited time available.’’

‘‘Il lavoro infatti e un impegno molto gravoso, soprattutto nel caso di lavoro full-time, etoglie moltissimo tempo allo studio. Ragionando ex-post a mente fredda ho comunquepotuto notare come anche il lavoro sia una forma di apprendimento e posso affermare consicurezza che molte cose apprese durante il periodo di inserimento in azienda mi servir-anno, non solamente per i miei futuri impegni lavorativi, ma anche per la conclusione deimiei studi’’.

‘‘The work is a very heavy commitment, in fact, especially if it’s full-time, and it takes a

lot of time away from study. With hindsight, I realize that also the work was a form of

training, and I can confidently say that many of the things I learnt during the in-company

placement were useful for me, not only as regards my future work commitments but also

conclusion of my studies.’’

Hence, besides accelerating labour-market entry after graduation, the project also

considerably reduces the time taken to graduate.7 On average, the PIL students graduate at

the same as other students (after 2 years ‘fuori corso’, i.e., still attending university beyond

the official duration of their courses). But they have already undertaken a year of paid and

contractually regulated work. By contrast, students who graduate in the traditional way

must add a period of search (often lasting more than a year) before they find employment,

and above all they must conduct the search on their own. Not surprisingly, this phase is the

most critical one in the biographies of the majority of Italian students (Pragma 2003).

(c) Time management. The project enables the participants to organize their studies

‘better’ by teaching them to comply with the rules, commitments, and schedules of

workplaces (see Fragment 8).

Fragment 8 ‘‘Le prime difficolta le ho sentite all’inizio dello stage: l’esperienza nuova, icolleghi, l’apprendimento, il prendere contatto con un ambiente molto diverso dall’uni-versita. Piccoli problemi come la difficolta della sveglia mattutina, la routine del ‘‘tutti igiorni’’, l’obbligo delle otto ore, sono stati in parte superati con l’entusiasmo diapprendere…’’.

7 The University of Ferrara has values that do not significantly differ (slightly better) from those for Italy asa whole.

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‘‘I encountered my first difficulties at the beginning of the placement: the new expe-

rience, my colleagues, learning things, familiarizing myself with an environment very

different from university. Small problems like getting up in the morning, everyday routine,

the obligation of working e hours, were in part overcome by my keenness to learn …’’

‘‘Sicuramente si cresce dal punto di vista della responsabilita, nella puntuale consegnadelle cose da fare, il rapporto con i colleghi, il lavoro di gruppo, quindi per le dinamichedel lavoro….e un credito importante’’

‘‘You certainly grow from the point of view of responsibility, meeting deadlines,

relations with colleagues, teamwork. So as far as work is concerned…it’s an important

credit.’’

‘‘L’esperienza serve, e spendibile; uno si da un metodo di lavoro, impara ad organiz-zarsi autonomamente’’

‘‘The experience is useful, it has a practical pay-off; you acquire a work method, you

learn how to organize yourself.’’

Because the students have less time, they are paradoxically able to use it better in

organizing and planning their daily and weekly activities also when they must meet

deadlines, which has always been the main difficulty of university students.

(d) Autonomy and confidence. Participation in the project also gives the students greater

autonomy and confidence in their management of interpersonal relationships different from

those to which they are accustomed (typical of every kind of secondary socialization, of

which work socialization is one). This has helped them to move out of the state of eternal

adolescence typical of the Mediterranean model of education/work transition (Scabini

2003). In this regard, also the classroom stage at the beginning of PIL project (see Panel 1)

has made a major contribution to accomplishment of the alternation scheme as a whole. Its

purpose is not just to teach contents, but also to provide a space for shared reflexivity so

that meaning and continuity are given to the experience of participating in the project, and

the development of autonomous and consistent life-projects is encouraged. Furthermore,

the collaboration between the principal actors in the process (especially the academic

tutors8) is a valuable resource in ensuring that participation is meaningful and durable

(84% of the students involved in the PIL project ended it).

Forms of participation and identity projects

It is evident from the foregoing discussion that the learning value of the system of alter-

nating study and work resides, not in the acquisition of specific ‘contents’ or of ‘skills’

(cross-skills or otherwise), but in the opportunities afforded to participate in professional

work systems (see Fragment 9).

Fragment 9 ‘‘…soprattutto sono sicura che il fatto di entrare a far parte di un’orga-nizzazione e partecipare attivamente ai meccanismi e un valore aggiunto che va ben oltreil grado di competenze tecniche acquisite’’.

‘‘…above all, I’m certain that joining an organization and actively participating in its

mechanisms is a value added which extends well beyond the level of technical skills that

you acquire.’’

‘‘Un anno di lavoro…comporta imparare molte cose che vanno al di la delle singolecompetenze lavorative…avere orari da rispettare, compiti da dover svolgere, superiori ai

8 The tutors are university professors, which aim is to assist and support the exchange between students andfirms. This is a completely new work practice for Italian University Professor.

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quali rendere conto…insomma e una vita diversa da quella di semplice studente. Non efacile conciliare queste due vite…. Questi sacrifici hanno come contropartita il fatto che civiene data la possibilita di uscire dall’universita con in mano non solo una laurea, maanche un anno di esperienza lavorativa, requisito fondamentale per ogni colloquio dilavoro’’.

‘‘A year of work…requires you to learn a great many things besides individual work

skills…having work hours to respect and tasks to perform, being accountable to superi-

ors…in short, it’s a life different from that of a simple student. It’s not easy to reconcile

these two lives…But the reward for these sacrifices is that you can leave university armed

not only with a degree but also with a year of work experience, which is a key requirement

for any job interview’’.

In order to account for the innovativeness of the project, especially as regards its results

for the students, it is therefore necessary to adopt a new unit of training measurement

which regards formative experience as also learning how to take part in complex work

systems and to understand their rituals and histories, their mechanisms, and their temporal

features.

Reasoning in terms of participation (rather than of contents or skills) also enables

account to be take of the PIL system’s impact on the identities of its participants, changing

the ways in which they experience and undertake their university studies (as worker-

students more than student-workers).

To be stressed is that this identity change is due to participation in work systems, and in

specific communities of practices. It is participation in the practices of different commu-

nities that makes the definition of a personal and social identity possible (Wenger 1998).

By ‘participation’ is meant the strictly social experience of living in the world as the

member of a community and therefore as actively involved (with actions, thoughts and

discourses) in firms characterized by the presence of other social actors.

The distinctive feature of such participation is the mutual recognizability by means of

which our participation relations foster the development of an identity. Being a legitimate

member of a community and participating in its activities contributes both to the con-

struction of our identities and to development of our ability to change communities and

their practices.

From this perspective, therefore, identity is ‘‘something that people do which is

embedded in some other social activity, and not something they are’’ (Widdicombe 1998,

p. 191).

Consequently, each of us develops in the course of our lives by participating in different

communities. Having a repertoire of identities and multiple memberships is not an

exception, therefore, but rather a defining characteristic of adult life. Not all the identities

in this repertoire are equally ‘heavy’; however, we identify more with some communities

than with others, and according to this priority, we decide what is important and what

is not, what is new and what is not, what we need to know and what we do not

(Zucchermaglio 2002. Fasulo and Zucchermaglio 2008). Each of us constructs and mod-

ifies a plurality of identities through participation in the life, practices, actions, rituals,

decisions, tasks, solutions, assumptions, emotions—in other words the entire range of

practices—of different communities operating within a broader cultural scenario.

We therefore define our identities in terms of both what we are and what we are not, in

terms of both the communities to which we belong and those to which we do not.

Moreover, any discourse on identity must consider the temporal variable. Identities come

about in time: they are identity projects; they are trajectories along which we move,

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modifying them as we do so; and they have a history (communities to which we have

belonged) and a future (communities to which we would like to belong) that depend on the

individual’s ambitions and aspirations.

There also peripheral forms of participation: for instance, the initial phase of the PIL

project, when limited and guided participation is a learning opportunity, a necessary part of

a trajectory leading to active and full involvement in the meaningful practices of a com-

munity (Wenger 1998). Hence, if identity is the precipitate of diverse experiences of

participation, the opportunities for guided participation afforded to its students by the PIL

Project must inevitably make a substantial contribution to construction of a robust and

varied repertoire of identities with a close bearing on the students’ likelihood of enjoying

diversified and rich social and work lives.

This outcome—more than the other results described—seems to construct indispensable

life-skills, among which of especial importance are the ability to give meaning to one’s

experiences, to make choices, to construct time horizons, to develop an active sense of

responsibility for one’s future, and to create one’s own identity trajectory. The PIL Project

is thus a meaningful framework in which the students can acquire such life skills, doing so

by trial and error but nevertheless with constant support and ‘in safety’.

If, as has been amply demonstrated, young people develop their social and cognitive

capacities and their self-understanding through a personal history of encountering ‘sig-

nificant others’ (Mead 1934) within substantial forms of participation, then the project

furnishes a meaningful framework in which the students can experience such encounters,

while also providing them with the ‘‘social spaces of thought, discourse and reflection’’

(Perret-Clermont et al. 2004), about their experiences that are also essential for planning

those of their future.

Conclusions

The distinctive feature of the project described is its theoretically grounded acknowl-

edgement of the complexity of learning in work contexts. The participation in such con-

texts does not come about automatically; rather, it must be supported and accompanied by

specific organizational, managerial and discursive resources which furnish the participant

with a meaningful ‘‘horizon of observation’’ on the work setting (Hutchins 1993, 1995).

The project plans, organizes and manages effective participation by the students in

communities of work practices, providing them with the access to the information, con-

nections, discourses and opportunities, but also the people, places, instruments, technol-

ogies and activities, which they need to become non-peripheral participants in those

communities.

The training value of these complex forms of participation is entirely unrelated to the

acquisition of specific contents and skills, which are the units conventionally used to

measure training. The results of the project suggest that a new criterion should be adopted

when assessing training outcomes (‘‘participation in systems of situated activity and dis-

tributed cognition’’ rather than the ‘‘learning of decontextualized contents’’) both in design

of the training scheme and its accreditation.

The PIL project (his structure, his temporal organization, the human resources involved)

therefore furnishes appropriate and essential ‘translation’ resources. That is to say, it

connects two discursive worlds (university and work) together and enables work in

socialization, learning and identity construction to proceed on the boundaries between

those different communities. The choice to work actively on the boundaries of

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communities (which the literature—see Wenger 1998—identifies as the ‘loci’ of greatest

personal and also organizational innovation) accounts for the success of the project in

providing a ‘locus’ where encounters, contacts and cross-fertilizations between commu-

nities provide important occasions for the acquisition and development of skills, both for

the participants in the project and the communities involved (university system and work

system). The project achieves this result by furnishing energies, resources, time, and the

modalities of ‘translation’ among different repertoires necessary for the occurrence of

‘boundary interactions’ (Wenger 2000) or opportunities for interaction which bring the

members of different communities into contact. It is for precisely this reason that the

project is able to impact importantly on the structure and quality of the university system,

and on the structure and functioning of the firms’ system.

As regards the university, the project has required (but also produced) changes in the

overall organization of degree courses (for example in terms of the awarding of credits), in

organizational structure (the Steering Committee), in the relationship between 3-year and

specialist degree courses, and in teaching programmes (in disciplinary terms but also in

those of study methods). In the case of the firms involved in the project, the boundary

interactions have required changes in their labour demand, selection methods (much more

‘situated’), and their attitudes towards the innovation brought by the performance of those

exchanges (as one of the company representatives said: ‘‘the companies were guaranteed aturnover of personnel which could only bring ‘freshness’ and new stimuli within the firm’’).

Both communities have therefore been required to develop new resources, repertoires and

forms of communication in order to interact meaningfully with each other and, as a result

of their boundary interactions, begin a trajectory of organizational and educational

innovation.

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