The Italian school
The IISS “Ferrari” is a school comprising courses for ICT, mechatronics or electronics technicians, environmental biotechnologies experts and a lycée for applied science. Our school is attended by 1150 students and our courses are closely interwoven with the economy of our area whose industrial estates also host multinational companies. Our school has recently set up a Citadel of Science, Physics and Technology and aims at improving its formative offer by offering courses in Higher education. Students attending the last three years take part in internships organised in cooperation with public and private bodies or firms and with universities. In the last few years several students have been given the chance of taking part in projects carried out in foreign firms abroad or in language summer schools. Our students are encouraged to take part in Olympiads of various subjects and to take part in projects which can enhance their employability, such as VET. We have set the promotion of mobilities as one of the most important objectives of our Formative Offer Plan. Students’ and teachers’ mobilities are being promoted through National and Regional Projects, Erasmusplus, self-financed exchange projects and through Intercultura (a non-profit organization furthering intercultural student exchanges). Moreover, our school has an increasing rate attendance of students from other countries, Albania in particular. For us it is becoming more and more important to integrate them properly and to give all our students the awareness of this need. This is why our school is currently taking part, in partnership with an Education Association, the Regional School Superintendent and other schools of our regions, in a project addressed to immigrants and consisting in a course of Italian, work activities, counselling and guidance to students and to their families. The project will be taken care of by our Headmaster, Mr. Luigi Melpignano, who is personally interested in good practices. He follows with particular interest any initiative which is related to mobilities and to the creation of international links, as shown by his quite recent participation in a job shadowing experience in Limassol (Cyprus). The main work will be done by Francesco del Vescovo and Isabella Fasciano, both teachers of English, and by Vincenco Russo, teacher of ITC. Our participation in EU projects as well as our enthusiasm for a type of partnership which would be funded by the EU for the first time in our school would pose for us a fresh challenge and would certainly push us to be a good team with the utmost willing to cooperate in the exclusive sake of our institution.