Conference Agenda

One of the consequences of postwar industrial reconstruction in Italy, (at a time when new tools were needed to carry out vocational training mass campaigns), was the development of the Italian modern “industrial” educational audiovisuals.

In this paper we will study in particular the circumstances of the birth of a specific format of documentaries for vocational training: the so-called “work grammars” (grammatiche del lavoro), which were first developed in the mid-1950s, and are still used today, although they are referred to by other names, and have undergone the formal and structural transformations recently brought about by the digital revolution. Work grammars are, in their basic version, documentary films for vocational training, organised in a serial format in which each instalment covers a different aspect of the profession/technique being taught.

In the days of their birth, these new educational tools were “torn” between conflicting stylistic and didactic possibilities: on the one hand, the model of the previous Italian documentary film production, which was, however, deeply marked and compromised by the propaganda rhetoric of fascism (e.g. the documentaries by the State film corporation: the Istituto Luce), within which it had developed. On the other hand, various new influences from the international context, ranging from the British 'documentary film movement' to the American 'Coronet' films and the educational films by the USIS.

In this paper, we would like to attempt a clarification of how these circumstances have contributed to shaping a new educational discourse in the Italian audiovisuals for vocational training.

The research work will proceed on four levels:

1) The study of VET audiovisual policies and production in Italy, in the days when the “work grammars” were first issued.

2) The refinement of a system of formal (aesthetical, didactical, etc.) categories useful to develop a map, a reasoned inventory of the most relevant Italian VET audiovisuals in the 1950s/1960s, which is also useful for understanding the context in which the “work grammars” were launched, and to better define them.

3) The attempt to analyse the cinematic discourse of these films, through the study of the theories on educational and didactic cinema available in Italy at the time when the phenomenon of the “work grammars” was beginning.

4) The study of biografical elements of the main pioneering authors of this film genre.

Recognition of prior learning (RPL) is since years high on the agenda of European policies (cp. for example CEDEFOP 2019a, b, c) as well as of research in vocational training and education (VET) (cp. for example Velten, Herdin 2016). It is seen not only as a measure to reduce skills mismatch (cp. for example Eichhorst et al. 2019), but also, even more important, to offer career opportunities to people who, for what reasons ever, had no access to a fully recognized qualification (cp. Birke, Hanft 2016). Accordingly, the main target groups of RPL are unskilled or semi-skilled workers (cp. for example Matthes, Severing 2017; Flake et al. 2017) and most studies on RPL focus on European qualification framework (EQF) levels 2-4. In Portugal, RPL has been even restricted by law to these levels; only since 2022, RPL on higher levels is allowed due to an update of the respective law (cp. Portaria 2022). Thus, few experiences with RPL in continuous vocational education and training (CVET) are published (cp. CEDEFOP 2019a, b, c).

Against this background, one of the challenges tackled in the recent research and development project “Developing Innovative and Attractive CVET programmes in industrial shoe production” (DIA-CVET) is the question, whether an opportunity to apply RPL on higher levels in this sector exists. In a transnational comparative design, researchers from Romania, Portugal and Germany are working on the following three research questions:

* What are the measures of RPL that could be or are applied in CVET?

* How can these measures be classified?

* Which of these measures could support RPL in CVET in industrial shoe production in Germany, Romania and Portugal?

Given the rapid pace of technological and economic change, lifelong learning has become increasingly important. Recognition of prior learning (RPL) refers to the fact that a person develops knowledge and competences over the course of his or her life that can be recognised, accredited, and assessed (Bohlinger, 2017). RPL is desired by education policy (Schmid 2019); through it, social and economic integration should be facilitated and opportunities for further educational careers and mobility should be made possible (European Commission, 2001, 2009). The education system has the task of facilitating access to study programmes or shortening them, especially in vocational education and training and tertiary education (Andersson et al., 2013).

Both formally and non-formally as well as informally acquired competences are to be considered. Although the legal basis for RPL is in place in Switzerland, the crediting of non-formal and informal learning in particular is not yet implemented throughout the education system. At the level of professional education institutions (PEI), individual education providers have a great deal of room for manoeuvre, with RPL practices varying from study programme to study programme. Since these have not yet been systematically surveyed, the actual possibilities for RPL at PEIs are not very transparent (Authors, 2022).

This study examines how the state guidelines and regulations on RPL at PEIs are interpreted and implemented in Switzerland. Particular attention is paid to the question of the role played by non-formal (e.g., continuing education) and informal learning (e.g., work experience, family work and volunteer work), as these are more difficult to validate than formal learning. In addition, it will be shown which framework conditions in the educational environment and on the labour market have a beneficial or impeding effect on the crediting of educational achievements to PEIs.

Based on the current state of research (Cooper & Harris, 2013; Cooper et al., 2017; Harris & Wihak, 2017; Maurer, 2019; Pitman & Vidovich, 2013), we assume that RPL at PEIs takes place in different organisational structures shaped by national guidelines, professional associations and the labour market. Within this environment, educational institutions have room to create their own organisational policies and cultures, which can either promote or hinder RPL, depending on whether an organisation tends to stick to maintaining existing cultures or is open to new developments (Damm 2018).