Abstract

The article aims to analyze the skills acquired by young people between 15 and 29 years of age within ‘no contract’ experiences. By these we mean work and non-work experiences that are placed outside the institutionalized labor market and that do not provide a work contract. The research focuses in particular on non-curricular internships, curricular internships, voluntary work and irregular work, proposing a taxonomy based on the levels of extra-contractual regulation and the level of intentionality of training aim. In doing this, the article is based on the paradigm of transitional labor markets, focusing not only on the transition between school and work but on the labor transitions of young people, which often also occur during the training period. The theme is explored through an empirical survey in three Italian regions with different socio-economic characteristics (Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Sicily). It emerges that ‘no contract’ experiences are very widespread in the sample and the share of skills that young people perceive to learn grows together with the level of regulation of the experience and its training intentionality, with lower positive responses (especially in terms of technical skills acquired) in the case of irregular work and higher in the case of curricular and especially non-curricular internships