Learn Inq (2009) 3:7995

DOI 10.1007/s11519-009-0041-0

Learning to work or working to learn?

A universitywork transition case study
Cristina Zucchermaglio 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, Italy
e-mail: Francesca.Alby@uniroma1.it
C. Zucchermaglio
e-mail: Cristina.Zucchermaglio@uniromal.it

123

80

Learn Inq (2009) 3:7995

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 challenged 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 students 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 university 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 45 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 threeyear first degree course (Laurea) which gives a grounding in general notions and methods and furnishes
specific professional skills; (b) a two-year specialist degree course (Laurea Specialistica) which delivers
advanced training for employment in specific high-skilled occupations.

In the best of cases, this planning is left to the initiative of the organization hosting the student.

123

Learn Inq (2009) 3:7995

81

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 circumstances. 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 rethinkingalso 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 Inserimento
Lavorativo 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 12month contracts for full-time, paid employment. The placement is often (but not always)
consistent with the students 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 outcomes 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 works 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).

123

82

Learn Inq (2009) 3:7995

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).

The figures on employment among Italian graduates show that work placements do not significantly aid
labour-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).

123

Learn Inq (2009) 3:7995

83

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: projects annual reports, meetings reports among
projects participants, written artifacts (guidelines, portfolio, procedures, and so on),
interviews with projects 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 participatory 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 networkalso for boundary transactions (Wenger 2000) concerning matters other than management of the project: all the six Faculty involved (Economics, 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 Management 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

123

84

Learn Inq (2009) 3:7995

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 facilitated 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 codesign of the processes and to styles of participative management. This programs local
feature could also work as a limitation to the PILs 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 project. 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

123

Learn Inq (2009) 3:7995

85

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 occupational communities, as well as knowledge and the ability to communicate with multiple
social and organizational realitieswhat 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 universitys intentions, they examined the projects 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 expectations. 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 representatives 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 allassolvimento di mansioni che, a prescindere
dalla 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 di
attivita` anche di routine, consentendo un alleggerimento del [loro] caricoe favorendo la
propensione 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 lightenedand they are encouraged to
undertake refresher and specialization activities.

123

86

Learn Inq (2009) 3:7995

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 traditionally performed in the case of work experience placements and traineeships. By contrast, 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 resourcefor
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 su
servizi 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 unattivita` aggiuntiva consistente nelladozione di una
contabilita` analitica finalizzata [allintroduzione 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] linserimento del PIL per potenziare un servizio
al 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 community. 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). Interactions 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 prevented 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 di
competenze (Selvatici and DAngelo 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

123

Learn Inq (2009) 3:7995

87

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 e
sulla mia stessa personalita` che hanno avuto riflesso anche nel momento in cui ho espresso
le 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 prima
non mi erano note.
I had an opportunity to discover and strengthen predispositions and aptitudes previously 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 laffrontare i colloqui aziendali. La possibilita` pressoche unica di sostenere un cos` elevato numero di
colloqui in breve tempo mi ha permesso di comprendere sempre piu` velocemente le esigenze delle diverse organizzazioni in cui mi proponevo e di adattare, di conseguenza, il
mio registro o le mie capacita` comunicative, per ottenere di volta in volta il miglior
matching.
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 perception 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
projects 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 statusas
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 students
who took part in the PIL Project.

123

88

Learn Inq (2009) 3:7995

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 universitarioma e`
altrettanto vero che anticipa i tempi di ingresso nel mondo del lavoro.
It is true that it prolongs the time you spend at universitybut 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 del
lavoro, ce` un graduale passaggio da studente a lavoratore, uno si ritrova una prima
esperienza 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, theres 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 20012004) 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

123

Learn Inq (2009) 3:7995

89

Fig. 1 Employability after graduation of PIL project students

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 discussed 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 usefulness 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 ho
studiato le sto vedendo applicate; facendo la tesi vedevo delle pratiche che richiedevano
una riteorizzazione, mi sono venute idee che non mi sarebbero venute solo guardando i
libri, quindi obiettivamente mi hanno dato molto.
Ill graduate in a months time. I like the work because I can see the things Ive 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 studentelavoratore sia difficile da portare avanti, ma il
progetto consente il completamento degli studi ed in alcuni casi favorisceun interesse
verso alcune materie.
I believe that the double student/worker role is a difficult one to perform, but the
projectrounds out your studies and in some cases increasesyour 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

123

90

Learn Inq (2009) 3:7995

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 Unesperienza di questo tipo lascia ben poco tempo allo studio per chi deve
concludere, ma puo` senzaltro facilitare la preparazione di certi esami specifici come ad
esempio Organizzazione Aziendale e la preparazione delle tesi di laureaLesperienza
sul campo, lapplicazione pratica di cio` che studi sui libri, poi, aiuta e stimola il completamento degli studianche 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 thesisExperience in the field, the practical
application of what you study in books then helps and stimulates you to complete your
studiesdespite the limited time available.
Il lavoro infatti e` un impegno molto gravoso, soprattutto nel caso di lavoro full-time, e
toglie moltissimo tempo allo studio. Ragionando ex-post a mente fredda ho comunque
potuto notare come anche il lavoro sia una forma di apprendimento e posso affermare con
sicurezza che molte cose apprese durante il periodo di inserimento in azienda mi serviranno, non solamente per i miei futuri impegni lavorativi, ma anche per la conclusione dei
miei studi.
The work is a very heavy commitment, in fact, especially if its 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 allinizio dello stage: lesperienza nuova, i
colleghi, lapprendimento, il prendere contatto con un ambiente molto diverso dalluniversita`. Piccoli problemi come la difficolta` della sveglia mattutina, la routine del tutti i
giorni, lobbligo delle otto ore, sono stati in parte superati con lentusiasmo di
apprendere.

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

123

Learn Inq (2009) 3:7995

91

I encountered my first difficulties at the beginning of the placement: the new experience, 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 consegna
delle cose da fare, il rapporto con i colleghi, il lavoro di gruppo, quindi per le dinamiche
del 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 concernedits an important
credit.
Lesperienza serve, e` spendibile; uno si da` un metodo di lavoro, impara ad organizzarsi 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 alternating 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 unorganizzazione e partecipare attivamente ai meccanismi e` un valore aggiunto che va ben oltre
il grado di competenze tecniche acquisite.
above all, Im 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 lavorocomporta imparare molte cose che vanno al di la` delle singole
competenze lavorativeavere 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 and
firms. This is a completely new work practice for Italian University Professor.

123

92

Learn Inq (2009) 3:7995

quali rendere contoinsomma e` una vita diversa da quella di semplice studente. Non e`
facile conciliare queste due vite. Questi sacrifici hanno come contropartita il fatto che ci
viene data la possibilita` di uscire dalluniversita` con in mano non solo una laurea, ma
anche un anno di esperienza lavorativa, requisito fondamentale per ogni colloquio di
lavoro.
A year of workrequires you to learn a great many things besides individual work
skillshaving work hours to respect and tasks to perform, being accountable to superiorsin short, its a life different from that of a simple student. Its not easy to reconcile
these two livesBut 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 systems impact on the identities of its participants, changing
the ways in which they experience and undertake their university studies (as workerstudents 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 communities 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 construction 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 modifies a plurality of identities through participation in the life, practices, actions, rituals,
decisions, tasks, solutions, assumptions, emotionsin other words the entire range of
practicesof 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,

123

Learn Inq (2009) 3:7995

93

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
individuals 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 community (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 outcomemore than the other results describedseems to construct indispensable
life-skills, among which of especial importance are the ability to give meaning to ones
experiences, to make choices, to construct time horizons, to develop an active sense of
responsibility for ones future, and to create ones 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 significant 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 acknowledgement of the complexity of learning in work contexts. The participation in such contexts 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, connections, discourses and opportunities, but also the people, places, instruments, technologies 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 distributed 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

123

94

Learn Inq (2009) 3:7995

communities (which the literaturesee Wenger 1998identifies 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 communities 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 a
turnover 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.

References
Alby, F., & Mora, F. (2004). Il bilancio di competenze Conoscere se stessi e capire le organizzazioni. Roma:
Carocci.
Bertelli, C., Gandini, A., & Tacchi Venturi, C. (2005). Il nuovo Master: lavorare apprendendo. Milano:
Franco Angeli.
Contu, A., & Willmott, H. (2003). Re-embedding situatedness: the importance of power relations in learning
theory. Organization Science, 14(3). doi:10.1287/orsc.14.3.283.15167.
Engestrom, Y., Engestrom, R., & Karkkainen, M. (1995). Polycontextuality and boundary crossing in expert
cognition: Learning and problem solving in complex work activities. Learning and Instruction: An
International Journal, 5, 319336. doi:10.1016/0959-4752(95)00021-6.
Engestrom, Y., Miettinen, R., & Punamaki, R. (1999). Perspectives on activity theory. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Fasulo, A., & Zucchermaglio, C. (2008). Narratives in the workplace: Facts, fiction and canonicity. Text and
Talk, 28(3), 3361. Special Issue.
Gandini, A. (Ed.). (2005). I Percorsi di Inserimento Lavorativo dellUniversita` di Ferrara. Research report,
Feb. 2005 (available at www.provincia.fe.it or www.ilcds.org).
Gandini, A., Foschi, P., & Flammini, R. (1999). Apprendere lavorando. Reggio Emilia: Diabasis.
Gherardi, S. (2006). Organizational knowledge: The texture of workplace learning Malden. USA: Blackwell
Publishing.
Goodwin, C. (1997). The blackness of black: Color categories as situated practice. In L. Resnick,
C. Pontecorvo, & R. Saljo (Eds.), Discourse, tools and reasoning: Essays on situated cognition.
New York: Springer Verlag.
Hutchins, E. (1993). Learning to navigate. In S. Chaiklin & J. Lave (Eds.), Understanding practice.
Perspectives on activity and context (pp. 3563). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hutchins, E. (1995). Cognition in the wild. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
ISTAT. (1999). Percorsi di studio e di lavoro dei laureati. ISTAT research report.

123

Learn Inq (2009) 3:7995

95

Latour, B. (1986). Visualization and cognition thinking with eyes and hands, knowledge and society (Vol. 6).
London: Jai Press Inc.
Lave, J. (1993). The practice of learning. In S. Chaiklin & J. Lave (Eds.), Understanding practice: Perspectives on activity and context (pp. 334). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning. Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, MA:
University Press.
Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind self and society. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
OECD. (2004). Education at glance. OECD Indicators, E-book. OECD Publishing.
Perret-Clermont, A. N., Pontecorvo, C., Resnick, L., Zittoun, T., & Burge, B. (2004). Joining society. Social
interaction and learning in adolescence and youth. Cambridge (UK): Cambrigdge University Press.
Pragma. (2003). Le rappresentazioni che i giovani hanno del lavoro. Research report, Provincia di Ferrara.
Resnick, L. B. (1987). Learning in school and out. Educational Researcher, 6(9), 1320.
Scabini, E. (2003). Famiglia, identita` e transizioni. In G. Mantovani (Ed.), Manuale di Psicologia Sociale.
Giunti: Firenze.
Selvatici, A., & DAngelo, M. G. (1999). Il bilancio di competenze. Angeli: Milano.
Star, S. L., & Griesemer, J. R. (1989). Institutional ecology, translation and boundary objects: Amateurs
and professionals in Berkeleys museum of vertebrate zoology. Social Studies of Science, 19, 387420.
Wenger, E. C. (1998). Communities of practice. Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Wenger, E. C. (2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization, 7(2), 246267.
doi:10.1177/135050840072002.
Wenger, E. C., & Snyder, W. M. (2000). Communities of practice: The organizational frontier. Harvard
Business Review, JanFeb, 139145.
Widdicombe, S. (1998). Identity as an analysts and a participants resource. In C. Antaki & S. Widdicombe
(Eds.), Identities in talk (pp. 5270). London: Sage.
Wood, D., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 17, 89100. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.1976.
tb00381.x.
Zucchermaglio, C. (1999). Le pratiche dellinsegnare e lapprendimento degli insegnanti. In Clotilde.
Pontecorvo (Ed.), Manuale di Psicologia dellEducazione. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Zucchermaglio, C. (2002). Psicologia culturale dei gruppi. Roma: Carocci.
Zucchermaglio, C. (2007). Il tirocinio in psicologia: la costruzione di interazioni ai confini. Rivista di
Psicologia Sociale, 3, 441444.

123