Starting from 2010, in agreement with the Managing Authority of the National Operational Programme (NOP) “Education” 2007-2013, INDIRE has carried out investigations into school and work-related learning interventions financed by the C5 Objective-Action plan – NOP Internships and Apprenticeships “Skills for Development” (ESF). The main goal of the research is to observe the effects of internships on the training of students, both in terms of improving curricular learning and transversal skills, and in terms of personal growth.

The research is carried out in two phases:

• During the first exploratory phase, analyses are made of data on the participation of schools, the organisation and destination of internships (in Italy or abroad), and those regarding students’ curricular grades. The youngsters were given a questionnaire to understand their perception of the educational offer. In addition, before beginning the internship and after it ended, interviews took place with a selection of class teachers and industry tutors. In this way, it was possible to acquire useful information to define which sphere to concentrate on next.
• Building on this, in the second phase, which began in 2011 and is still running, INDIRE has developed its detection tools. Acquisition of the data from the first phase of the project has been accompanied by a search for further information: within the system to manage NOP Education activities, the documentation requested from schools concerning the internships was expanded. In addition, new tools were put together for students, to monitor changes in perspective, aptitude and readiness to enter the job market following an internship experience.