Industrial PhDs, research apprenticeships, and on-the-job training: the case of Italy from a comparative and international perspective

This pioneering work provides a first systemic and comparative analysis of work-based training and research in Italy. This is done through an examination of industrial PhDs and apprenticeships for research purposes, which also takes account of the complex relations between businesses, tertiary education, and the labour market. To this end, the paper discusses the relationship between universities and employers, which is usually investigated through a perspective that only considers PhDs' employability. The author tries to move away from this approach, questioning the effects that these new arrangements might have on productivity and the employers' innovation capability in Italy. Cooperative research, and industrial and professional doctorates have been extensively covered in international literature. On the contrary, little interest has been shown towards industrial PhDs in Italy, even following the recent approval of a PhD regulation which for the first time introduces industrial PhD in Italy. Consequently, this analysis sets out to be a first attempt at analyzing industrial PhDs, drawing on a comparison with those countries where they have been in place for a long time. The paper identifies a number of obstacles which act as stumbling blocks to the implementation of on-the-job training in higher education: the absence of an employability logic in the planning of training programmes and little commitment on the part of industrial relations actors. These shortcomings are the same which hamper the diffusion of apprenticeship schemes - including those for research purposes - which are decisive to fill the void between education and the labour market.

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