WORK-RELATED LEARNING: A SURVEY ON TEACHING AND LEARNING METHODS IN THE ITALIAN HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM

Within the process of modernization of Europe’s Higher Education System, the European documents have been asking the EU Countries to encourage the University-Business Dialogue and to strengthen partnerships between Higher Education (HE), business and the research sector. This connection between HE and employers, companies and labor market institutions concerns what is discussed in North American literature as Work-Related Learning and in Australian literature as Work-Integrated Learning . A literature review, which is still in progress, will be presented in order to highlight these specific terms, the research designs, and practices they refer to. Precisely, in this paper we focus on Work-Related teaching and learning methods which are designed to foster connections between formal education and work. The second part of the paper will be dedicated to a wider research project led by the University of Padua with the aim to modernize and to innovate teaching and learning methods in HE Italian System. The first findings gathered by a questionnaire administrated to 50,000 students, belonging to four Italian universities (Florence, Naples Parthenope,Padua and Siena), will be described in the paper. Considerations on how to foster work-related teaching and learning methods in the Italian Higher Education System will be provided.