Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « Transizione università-lavoro »

L'università pubblica italiana è stata coinvolta nel 2010, con la legge n. 240, in un processo di riforma ispirato al New Public Management che, tra i suoi aspetti rilevanti, ha visto un mutamento della governance, ovvero degli assetti decisionali di Ateneo e di Dipartimento. Obiettivo del presente lavoro è quello di rilevare le percezioni dei Direttori di dipartimento sugli assetti decisionali nei Dipartimenti nel post-riforma e le valutazioni che dei Direttori sul proprio ruolo, prestando inoltre attenzione alla presenza di eventuali differenze di genere. Come suggerito dalla letteratura, le percezioni dei soggetti coinvolti sono meglio in grado di dare conto, rispetto alle regole formali scritte, delle relazioni di potere che caratterizzano gli as-setti di governance. In particolare, oltre alle percezioni complessive sui mutati as-setti decisionali, ci interessa verificare se vi siano anche differenze di genere per quanto riguarda la percezione della governance nei Dipartimenti e la percezione del proprio ruolo a seconda che a dirigere i il Dipartimento sia un uomo o una don-na. A tal fine si utilizzeranno i dati di una ricerca nazionale effettuata nel 2015 in-viando un questionario a tutti i Direttori di dipartimento delle università italiane. In generale gli assetti decisionali nel post-riforma non sembrano implementare, alme-no per i Dipartimenti, un modello puro di New Public Management, dato che la verticalizzazione appare contenuta e che consistenti sono i bilanciamenti al potere del Direttore negli assetti decisionali. Per quanto riguarda le differenze di genere, esse risultano contenute per quanto riguarda le percezioni di Direttori e Direttrici sull'influenza delle diverse figure accademiche nella governance. Questo apre ad un'interpretazione più in linea con l'esistenza di una pluralità di modelli di gover-nance sia tra gli uomini che tra le donne rispetto ad un'idea di stili di governo ‘ma-schili' e ‘femminili'. Infine, contrariamente a quanto rilevato per i modelli di go-vernance, vi sono differenze di genere abbastanza significative nelle valutazioni dei Direttori e delle Direttrici sul proprio ruolo e sulla rappresentanza del Diparti-mento negli organi di Ateneo. Rispetto ai loro colleghi, infatti, le donne tendono ad essere più autocritiche su entrambi gli aspetti. Questa risultanza appare in linea con il c.d. self-assessment bias, ovvero alla minor propensione femminile a riconoscere - e quindi valorizzare- il proprio ruolo -e conseguentemente, le proprie capacità e competenze. Questo potrebbe ripercuotersi negativamente sul proprio contesto la-vorativo e, in particolare, sulla capacità non solo di contrattare migliori condizioni retributive, ma anche di accedere alle posizioni apicali, accentuando, così, lo spe-cifico svantaggio femminile determinato in primo luogo dalla necessità di concilia-re ruoli professionali e ruoli familiari, ma anche, in non pochi casi, dallo stesso as-setto decisionale in cui si trovano ad operare.

In recent years, two main reforms have occurred in Italy, changing the general context where youth transition processes take place. First of all, there has been a deep labour market deregulation. This has increased the amount of unstable job positions, especially among cohorts looking for their first job after 1997. Secondly, but no less importantly, there has been an increase in the enrolment rate to tertiary education and the Bologna process introduced relevant innovation to the Italian University system. The graduate population is then, not only an increasing part of the overall youth population of the country, but also the subgroup which has been doubly affected by the reforms. For this reason, I decided to investigate this subgroup of young people more deeply, analysing how the transition from university to work has changed over time. I used the last five waves of the ISTAT Survey on the transition to work of University graduates (1995 to 2007) and an AlmaLaurea database to investigate the graduates labour market condition five years after the degree. I use mainly multinomial logistic regression models and I adopted the marginal effects approach to compare models over time and between groups. I also used propensity score matching. I observed that there has been a de-standardization process: the typical “from university to work” description is no longer a good representation of the concrete processes taking place after the graduation. In fact there has been an increase in participation in the labour market before graduation (anticipation in the transition process) and to post-tertiary enrolment (delay). Moreover, there has been in recent years an increase in the unstable job position of graduates three years after graduation. This de-standardization process does not imply individualization: social origins and gender continue to shape the graduates transition into labour market. It seems that two main pathways are emerging: the first, more frequent for children coming from higher social origins, is based on fast transition through University with a high performance that leads to post-tertiary enrolment; the second, more frequent among lower origins students is, instead a mix of work and study during university which leads more frequently to a stable occupation after the degree, but paying the price of higher over-education. This suggests that, in a context of expansion of higher education, the returns to it could differ among social classes.

Over recent years, international higher education policy initiatives have emphasized the benefits to be gained when labour market institutions (LMIs) play an active role in shaping and enhancing learning experiences (Neave, 1996). Interest in the idea of university business cooperation has proliferated only seldom touching important issues, such as graduates’ transitions to the labour market. A lack of information on the potentials of partnerships in this area, push us to deepen the understanding of the role of LMIs as partners in curriculum design and delivery. This study develops the concept of Participatory Learning Community integrating the theoretical perspectives of communities of practice (Wenger 1998) and the methodological perspective of public participation (Mannarini 2009, Bobbio 2004) in order to describe LMIs partnership in a pedagogical perspective. In consideration of the diversity of educational partnerships that can be developed, this project aims to address the following question: What kind of conceptualization can support the development of partnership between HEIs and LMIs to enhance graduates’ transitions in/to the labour market? This question assumes a high relevance under the light of the political and pedagogical reflection started by the issue of the Ministerial Decree Decreto Ministeriale 12 Dicembre 2016 n. 987. Since the University schools have some important tasks with respect to study courses, job placement, and relationships with the steering committee, this research intends to analyze the perspectives of those operating within them. In particular, the activity of the Schools will provide the context for assessing the capacity of the concept of Community participatory learning to identify: the characteristics of interactions between universities and labour market, the significant antecedents for the development of shared planning experiences, the obstacles to partnerships development, and the possible actions that strengthen the presence of communities of practice and learning within the Italian Higher Education context. In order (1) to provide useful information to develop and embed partnership throughout the Italian university system and (2) to produced resources and guidance for academics and professionals who want to promote effective engagement in the development of curriculum for transitions, this study commits itself in a research process carried on under this methodological framework: Research Methodology: Qualitative Research Paradigm: Complexity Research Philosophy: Critical and Transformative Research Method: Explorative Research Strategy: Case studies Research Technique(s): Interviews From an operational point of view, this research project wants to: 1. Select some study cases that allow to explore different models of LMIs partnership in higher education through the construct of participatory learning community; 2. Focus the processes of curriculum design and delivery; 3. Identify core elements and factors which can ease or impede the joint development of curriculum for the transitions. The collected results allow to hypothesize the transferability of some elements according to the concept of policy institutional learning and transfer (Federighi, Abreu, Nuissl von Rein, 2007).