Work-Based Learning Policies and Numbers: the Italian Case in a Broad context

There has been a worldwide upsurge in all forms of work-based learning since the 2007-8 crisis outbreak. Governments and international bodies consider them as solutions to youth unemployment and precarity. However, the push towards these schemes cannot be considered a novelty. The purpose of this paper is to trace back the origins of contemporary policies in this field by moving from the United States to Europe, to better dwell on the Italian context. This overview – despite the lack of data – also aims at assessing work-based learning impact on employability and precarity, i.e. their primary goals. «Work-based learning» de-notes all forms of learning that take place in a real work environment, meaning that it can be considered a macro-category, or, from a Weberian perspective, an ideal-type. It is precisely in this sense that it has been adopted here.