Abstract

Drawing on an ongoing empirical qualitative research, this essay focuses on the implementation of a work-based learning device (the former Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro/PCTO). The research field is placed in a mountain subregion of Sardinia with the goal to sort out how orientation practices are conditioned by structural constraints related to the characteristics of the school field (because of the limited range of tracks) and of the economic space in a peripherical region. Within the observed sub-region, school projects of orientation and training at work may clashes with the structural characteristic of the economic sector, characterized by a prevalence of small sized, often family-run, enterprises, mainly active in the agro-pastoral sector, trade and personal services. Data collected made it possible to highlight various critical issues such as the mismatch between school calendar and company’s production cycle, the lack of organizational and human resources for a real supervision of students, a paternalistic professional culture centered on hierarchical and moral order rather than the transmission of soft skills.