Co-designing Pathways for Transversal Skills and Orientation (PCTO) to be the main players of their own future A study on secondary school students

Abstract

The paper explores the guidance and empowerment value of the Pathways for Transversal Skills and Orientation (PCTO) and presents the perspectives of 16 of the 125 secondary school students who participated in the training on the topic of 'Lifecomp and new learning strategies for life design'. After completing a questionnaire on school and Lifecomp together with their peers, they took part in three focus groups aimed at understanding their expectations, goals achieved, critical issues and the meaning of PCTOs within their own training.

The textual data were processed through a reflexive theme-based analysis procedure. Some students see the PCTOs as an introduction to the labour market, others as a way to understand their professional interests and others as a formative aspect for personal growth. The findings show the significance of PCTOs, which are seen as essential to develop of a sense of responsibility, inclusion, adaptability, listening skills, empathy, initiative, awareness, self-esteem, autonomy and critical thinking abilities.

Among the critical aspects, the participants highlighted some inadequate expertise of reference staff, the occasional lack of interest or superficial behaviour of the company tutors and, in certain cases, inconsistencies between the experience and their own studies. They remarked that PCTOs should not rely on pre-established templates: rather, they should be co-designed proposals which see them as designers and interpreters of their own pathways, so that they can have an experience that goes beyond their mere school knowledge and can feel supported in making choices to build their own life project.