Cattolica - through its administrative structures and with the collaboration of professors and researchers - offers itself as an internship site to host students for the Transversal Skills and Orientation Pathways and as a scientific project support.
Co-design. All projects involve constant collaboration between the university guidance office and the school teachers: sharing objectives and tools is a fundamental prerequisite.
Customisation of pathways. The definition of the training project takes into account the student's aptitudes and educational background, which must be a real experience of both cultural and personal growth.
Importance of the educational value. The pathway should not be seen as an interruption of the school activity, but as an opportunity to discover the educational value of a professional experience.
Orientation opportunities. A PCTO at the university allows students to get to know a context that could welcome them once they have completed high school: it is a first meeting with the university world.
Help throughout the process. The guidance office will also be a point of reference for the students, who will be constantly followed and involved in an initial meeting with the objective of getting to know each other, a briefing halfway through the experience and a final report.
The objectives
Taking a Pathway for Transversal Skills and Orientation at Università Cattolica means developing an educational pathway that places the student at the centre and strengthens the collaboration between school and university. The main objective is to help students measure their aptitudes through concrete experiences, in order to develop greater personal awareness of how to plan their professional future.
Each PCTO project has beneficial effects on each of the actors involved
For the student
Students who take a Pathway for Transversal Skills and Orientation at Università Cattolica take advantage of an important opportunity for growth both on an educational and personal level. Their first point of contact at the University is the Orientation Office, which wants to continue to be a point of reference even after the weeks spent on campus: the University does not want to offer students a "fixed-term contract", but the start of a pathway thanks to which they can make conscious choices after their high-school final exam. Students find themselves at the centre of a project which - by integrating knowledge and know-how - will help them approach both the world of university and the world of the professions.
For schools
The schools involved in the Pathways for Transversal Skills and Orientation at Università Cattolica become part of a network which enables them to enhance the opportunities offered to students: having a constant collaborative relationship with the University means creating a common ground (in terms of tools and objectives) in which students can plan their study path. In the case of the PCTOs, the institution will receive full support from the university in defining the project that best fits the school curriculum of each student and in co-designing the actual activities.
For the university
For Università Cattolica, the Pathways for Transversal Skills and Orientation represent not only an innovative didactic methodology that consolidates the relationship with high schools, but also the possibility of involving students and teachers in a relationship that is not limited to the organisational dimension. The orientation value and the training function are the elements on which the University intends to base its commitment in the PCTO activities.