Academic guidance
In general, the Agreement on permanent guidance of 2012 defines guidance as “a process aimed at facilitating knowledge of oneself, of the educational, occupational, social, cultural and economic context of reference, of the strategies implemented to relate and interact with these realities, in order to favour the maturation and development of the skills necessary to independently define or redefine personal and professional objectives in accordance with the context, to elaborate or rework a life project and to support the relative choices”.
In the school context, guidance falls within the fundamental tasks of schools in general. National guidelines for the curriculum of 2012, underline that schools have a fundamental educative and guiding role by providing pupils with the opportunity to acquire consciousness of their own potentials and resources to plan experiences and to verify the results obtained. The school in general has a guiding role because it prepares pupils for taking decisions; in particular, the first cycle of education guides pupils towards their further studies at upper secondary level.
Upper secondary education assure links with universities and HEIs through specific guiding paths and self-evaluation of competences. Upper secondary schools and HEI sign specific agreements for the planning, the implementation and the evaluation of initiatives, involving also other bodies, associations, enterprises and representatives of the working and professional world.
The reference document for academic guidance are the Guidelines for guidance (Linee guida per l'orientamento) of 2022, which replace those of 2014. The new Guidelines aim at strengthening the connection between lower and upper secondary education, tackle early school leaving and promote access to tertiary education, although underlining that guidance, meant as support to the learning processes, starts in preprimary and primary education.
According to the guidelines, from the 2023/2024 school year, 30 hours of guidance have been introduced in lower and upper secondary schools, organised in modules and managed autonomously by the school. Each orientation module involves personalised learning that is recorded in the student's digital portfolio (E-Portfolio).
Each school identifies class teachers to act as tutors to help students review the key parts of each personal E-Portfolio and to help families in their choice of educational paths and/or career prospects. Beside the tutor teacher, each school has one guiding teacher, acting as a reference figure who, together with families and students, facilitates the choice between continuing their studies or entering the world of work, while at the same time facilitating the match between students' skills and the demand for work.
At the end of lower secondary education, students receive a ‘guidance advice’ on the options offered by the second cycle of education while student in the second cycle receive, together with the final certification, the ‘Student’s curriculum’, which shows competences, knowledge and skills acquired at school and the extra-curricular activities the student has carried out.
Students and families can make use of a digital platform that provides information and data on upper secondary education, on tertiary education and data useful for the transition into the world of work.
Psychological guidance
Psychological guidance and support is not mandatory for schools. However, many schools provide a psychological service.
Career guidance
Career guidance at school aims at providing students with the necessary information on work and professional fields, with the opportunity of participating in laboratories in the technology and sciences sectors, of experiencing university life and new methods of studying and working also through specific initiatives in Italian and European universities. For further details, please refer to the section above on academic guidance.
As for regional education and training courses (IeFP), the principal centres with responsibility for offering guidance to young people and adults in the labour market, also directing them to vocational training courses, are the 'Territorial employment services'. These centres are organised at provincial level and they have many local branches that operate within the framework of active employment policies defined at regional level. The employment services provide information and guidance on the opportunities for training and work in the territory. In fact, they are also responsible for mediating between the demand and supply of jobs. The role of the employment services is particularly important in the case of young people who have not attained the diritto/dovere to education and training: in fact, they also manage the register based on training status of young people and provide information, guidance and tutoring in order to control the phenomenon of dispersion.
In addition to the employment services, within many vocational training agencies there is also a guidance service that helps young people to choose among the course options and helps them to join the job market at the end of the course.
Guidance to the labour market is also included in the curriculum of three-year vocational courses and it is carried out by teachers: throughout the course, an amount of hours is destined to guidance activities in order to detect problems deriving from students' choices, or to prevent drop-outs, etc. in the third year, a specific amount of time is destined to activities which help the student to enter the labour market by providing him/her with competences and skills, for example on how to make a research for a suitable job, how to answer an interview or how to draw up a correct curriculum vitae.
A specific module focusing on orientation to the labour market is often included also in regional post-secondary vocational courses.
Contents revised: May 2025