09 — Vocational & Technical
Skills for the country that makes things
A four-year school cycle joined to two years of higher technical training, a rewritten curriculum for technical institutes and a proposed new name. The ministry's approach to the routes chosen by more than two in five Italian teenagers.
Why it matters
A manufacturing economy and its skills gap
Italy remains one of Europe's great manufacturing economies, built on dense networks of small and medium-sized firms in machinery, materials, food, fashion and design. That industrial base depends on a supply of technicians — people able to programme a machine, run a laboratory, manage a production line or maintain an energy system. Employers have for years reported difficulty in finding them, while many young people struggle to turn a diploma into stable work.
That mismatch is the starting point of the government's approach to technical and vocational education. Technical institutes (istituti tecnici) and vocational institutes (istituti professionali) have long carried a lower social prestige than the licei, even though they educate a very large share of each cohort and supply the profiles the productive system most needs. The aim of the reforms described on this page is to change both the substance and the perception: a more direct link with companies and with higher technical training, more work-based learning, and a status equal to that of the academic tracks.
When the "4+2" law was approved in August 2024, the ministry presented it with a phrase from Giuseppe Valditara that links the two halves of the argument — young people and the economy.[3]
The model
Four years of school, two of specialisation
Law 8 August 2024 n. 121 adds art. 25-bis to Decree-Law 144/2022, creating the filiera formativa tecnologico-professionale. In force 6 September 2024. Enacted law[1]
4
A four-year technical or vocational course
Experimental four-year courses in technical and vocational institutes, designed with regions and companies. The curriculum is compressed into four years and built for continuity with what follows, with work-based learning as an integral part.
2
Two years of higher technical training
Continuation in an ITS Academy, in regional vocational training (IeFP) or in an IFTS course.
Campus networks
Schools, ITS Academies, training agencies and companies join in "campus" networks that share laboratories, staff and projects across a territory. MIM funding has been announced for 54 campuses at €750,000 each, with €11.67 million going to 14 regions.[17]
Regions and business
Regions, which run vocational training, and businesses take part in the design of the pathways — the feature that distinguishes the model from a simple shortening of the school cycle.[1]
Growth
From 180 to 396 schools in one year
On 22 May 2025 a decree allocated €151 million to upper-secondary schools, focused on technical institutes and the 4+2 pathway.[4]
The speed of adoption is notable for a voluntary, experimental model. In its second year, the number of participating schools more than doubled and the number of pathways almost tripled.[2] Growth of this kind tells us about the interest of schools, regions and companies; it does not yet tell us about outcomes. The first cohorts of the four-year cycle will complete it only from 2028, and their transition into ITS Academies, IeFP or work will be the real test of the reform.
Rapid expansion also carries risks familiar from other reforms: uneven quality between territories, pressure on teachers asked to deliver a compressed curriculum, and dependence on the willingness of local firms. The campus networks are, in part, an answer to these risks — a way of pooling resources where individual schools would struggle.
Enrolment and outcomes
Who chooses which track
Share of students choosing each upper-secondary track at enrolment, and mean PISA 2025 mathematics score by track.[16][10]
| Track | Enrolment 2025/26 | Enrolment 2026/27 | Change (points) | PISA 2025 maths |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Licei | c. 56.0% | 55.88% | c. −0.1 | 501 |
| Technical institutes (istituti tecnici) | 31.3% | 30.84% | −0.46 | 449 |
| Vocational institutes (istituti professionali) | 12.7% | 13.28% | +0.58 | 386 |
Roughly 44% of each cohort chooses a technical or vocational institute — a share that has held broadly steady across the two most recent enrolment rounds, with a slight shift from technical towards vocational institutes for 2026/27.[16]
The PISA results by track are stark. In mathematics, students in licei scored 501, well above the OECD average; students in technical institutes 449; and in vocational institutes 386.[10] Italy as a whole scored 468, above the OECD average of 463.[9]
The gap reflects selection as much as teaching: students with stronger prior attainment and more advantaged backgrounds are more likely to choose a liceo. But it also shows that the tracks that serve the productive economy are those where basic skills are weakest. Raising those skills — in Italian, mathematics and science, as well as in technical subjects — is a precondition for any vocational reform to deliver.
That is the logic of pairing the 4+2 with a reform of the technical institutes' curriculum, and of the ministry's broader emphasis on foundations described in School Reform.
Curriculum and name
Rewriting the technical institute
Technical institutes reform
On the basis of arts. 26 and 26-bis of Decree-Law 144/2022 — a reform included in the PNRR — new curricula and timetables apply from first classes in 2026/27, phased in over five years. Unions and the regional council of Piedmont asked for a delay.[7]
In implementationLicei tecnologici and licei professionali
Technical institutes would be renamed licei tecnologici and vocational institutes licei professionali. The decree-law is in force from 1 October 2026; parliament must convert it, expected by the end of November 2026.[8]
Decree-law · conversion pending4+2 made permanent
The experimental pathway becomes an ordinary part of the system from 2026/27.[5]
Enacted lawThe proposed renaming is the most symbolic of these steps. In Italy the word liceo carries prestige; extending it to technical and vocational schools is an attempt to address the "parity of esteem" problem directly, by signalling that these routes are not a second choice. Whether a change of name shifts family choices is uncertain — and the measure remains subject to parliamentary conversion. Its substance will be judged by the curriculum and the destinations it leads to, not by the label alone.
Pathway map
Where a technical diploma leads
The destinations open to students after a technical or vocational course, and the status of the link in each case.
- 01ITS Academy — Higher technical institutesTwo-year, post-diploma programmes run with companies in specific technology areas. The main continuation envisaged by the 4+2 model, and the channel the law links most closely to the four-year cycle.Linked by L. 121/2024
- 02IeFP — Regional vocational education and trainingIstruzione e formazione professionale, managed by the regions: qualifications and diplomas tied to local labour markets. One of the three tertiary-level or regional continuations named in the law.Linked by L. 121/2024
- 03IFTS — Higher technical education and trainingIstruzione e formazione tecnica superiore: one-year specialisation courses that bridge school and employment.Linked by L. 121/2024
- 04Work — Direct entry into employmentFor students who leave after the school cycle, the work-based learning embedded in the pathway — formazione scuola-lavoro — is meant to make the first job less of a leap.Formazione scuola-lavoro
- 05University — Continued academic studyAccess to university is governed by the general rules on the upper-secondary diploma. The reform's distinctive contribution is the structured link to the two-year technical channels, not a change in university access.General rules
European comparison
Italy against the EU average
Recent graduates of upper-secondary vocational education and training, %. European Commission, Education and Training Monitor 2025.[11]
Exposure to work-based learning
Employment rate
The two indicators tell a connected story. Only about a quarter of Italy's recent vocational graduates had experienced work-based learning, against almost two-thirds across the EU; and fewer were in employment — 63.7% against 80.0%.[11] European evidence has long associated strong work-based components with smoother transitions into employment, and the 4+2 model's emphasis on companies and on formazione scuola-lavoro is designed to close exactly this gap.
The tertiary dimension matters too. Only 31.1% of Italians aged 25–34 held a tertiary qualification in 2025, against an EU average of 44.8% and a target of 45%.[18] Two-year ITS Academy programmes offer a short, professionally oriented tertiary route; channelling more technical-school graduates into them is one way the reform could contribute to that figure.
International cooperation
An Italian model abroad
Technical and vocational training has become a recurring theme of the minister's international agenda. At the G7 education meeting in Japan in May 2023, cooperation on ITS higher technical education was discussed with minister Keiko Nagaoka.[15]
On 3 December 2024 Italy and Algeria signed two agreements, one on education and one on vocational training.[12] On 27 October 2025, during the G20 education meeting at Skukuza, Italy and South Africa signed two memoranda, including one on technical and vocational education and training.[13]
In September 2026, during a mission to Argentina, the 4+2 technical-professional model was on the agenda of meetings that included President Javier Milei and minister Sandra Pettovello.[14]
The pattern suggests that the ministry sees its vocational reform not only as domestic policy but as an exportable approach, consistent with the cooperation with Africa promoted at the G7 in Trieste. The wider diplomatic record is set out under Europe & International.
Territories
Vocational education and regional development
Vocational education in Italy is, by design, a shared responsibility. The State runs technical and vocational institutes; the regions run vocational training and play a central role in ITS Academies; companies supply placements, equipment and know-how. The 4+2 law builds on that division rather than replacing it, asking each actor to design pathways together.[1]
This makes the reform sensitive to geography. Territories with dense industrial districts and established ITS Academies can offer students well-defined destinations; areas with a thinner productive fabric — many of them in the South — have fewer companies to partner with and higher rates of young people out of work and education. The campus networks and the distribution of funds across regions are partly an attempt to address this imbalance.[17]
The connection with the government's other territorial programmes is direct. Agenda Sud and Agenda Nord target basic skills and dropout in fragile schools; the vocational reform targets the transition from those schools to work. Read together — as on the Education & Merit page, where talent is presented as something to be found in every student — they describe an ambition to make technical education a route to opportunity rather than a residual choice.
The test will come in the data: in employment rates and work-based-learning exposure measured by the European Commission, in PISA and INVALSI scores by track, and in the number of young people who move from a four-year course into an ITS Academy. Those figures, rather than enrolment growth alone, will show whether the reform has changed Italian education in the way its authors intend.
Sources & references (18)
- Legge 8 agosto 2024, n. 121 — filiera tecnologico-professionale (consolidated text) — Normattiva
- Orizzonte Scuola — 4+2 reform: authorised institutes rise from 180 to 396
- MIM — "Istruzione tecnica e professionale, la riforma è legge: al via il modello 4+2"
- Wikipedia (IT) — Giuseppe Valditara (decree of 22 May 2025)
- Gazzetta Ufficiale — Legge 30 ottobre 2025, n. 164, converting DL 127/2025
- MIM — "Maturità, la riforma è legge: nuove misure per esame finale, 4+2 …"
- Orizzonte Scuola — Technical institutes reform from 2026/27: timetables and what changes
- Gazzetta Ufficiale — Decreto-legge 30 settembre 2026, n. 170
- OECD — PISA 2025 results press release, September 2026
- INVALSI — PISA 2025, sintesi dei risultati
- European Commission — Education and Training Monitor 2025: Italy
- AGI / MAECI — Italy and Algeria sign cooperation agreements on education and vocational training, 3 December 2024
- AGI / MAECI — Italy and South Africa strengthen cooperation in education and technical training, 27 October 2025
- News Istruzione — Valditara mission to Argentina: the 4+2 model, September 2026
- Tecnica della Scuola — G7 Education: Valditara meets Japanese minister Nagaoka; cooperation on ITS
- Upper-secondary enrolment choices 2025/26 and 2026/27 — ministry data as reported in the specialist press
- MIM press releases — funding for technical-professional campuses (54 campuses; resources to 14 regions)
- Eurostat — Tertiary educational attainment, age 25–34 (edat_lfse_03)
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