Project-work approach in initial career guidance: a case study in Italian high school education to improve sustainable skills

In Italian secondary schools education for sustainable development is mainly included in civic education courses and also in the PCTO programs (pathways for transversal skills for guidance purpose). These programs are based on action learning and situated learning, necessary to guide students towards future jobs. They involve public and private institutions to increase the connection between schools and labor market, not to prepare students for specific professional profiles, yet to develop a reflective approach towards work, necessary to help students through their life path, facing uncertainties and future challenges. Today, humans are called to be sustainable in all their activities, including their profession, in terms of decent work and the expected international outlook for future jobs such as green jobs, care jobs, and green services. Secondary education can play a key role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Indeed, PCTO guidelines include targets of the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development, namely target 4.4 and target 8.5. The PCTO offered by the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage (DFBC) of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice is focused on problem-based learning using the project work approach, according to PCTO guidelines and the European skills frameworks, such as GreenComp, LifeComp, and EntreComp. This aims to integrate both the promotion of the new ecological paradigm, based on the integral well-being of human beings and the provision of concrete tools to reach value in terms of innovation and sustainability. Both are central aspects to be integrated with personal orientation to create alternative future scenarios. Ca’ Foscari’s PCTO involved 38 students between 16 and 18 years old from five high schools. They were divided into eight teams of 4-5 students, each developing a different project. PCTO was designed in three phases: problem definition, planning, and project presentation. Each phase included several activities presented in online classes and completed by each group on their own, according to AAR cycle in OECD learning compass and the "Episodes of Situated Learning" method (EAS in Italian). We evaluated skills acquisition through self-assessment questionnaires of initial and final competencies and observations by tutors who helped the students during the course. Results showed that using the project work approach in PCTO can facilitate students' acquisition of co-agency and transversal and technical skills useful to achieve alternative life paths. In conclusion, using the project work approach seemed to enhance vocational orientation in line with double transition (digital and green) and responsibly aware actions necessary to contribute to sustainable development in daily life. Hence, in future research, it would be helpful to increase qualitative and quantitative international studies regarding project work practices.