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Over the last few years, specific actions have been undertaken in different training and educational (school and university) services and have been targeted according to the user’s needs.

In Italy the guidance functions are divided between the School Districts (educational guidance) and Regions (professional guidance). The presence of particular user targets has also created the necessity for ad hoc information centres (for women, immigrants, etc…). In Italy, the two main bodies that operate in the guidance development are:

• The Educational System, which mainly refers to the MIUR – Ministry of Education, University and Research ;

• The Vocational Training and Labour System, which refers in part to the Ministry of Labour, but mainly to the Regions and the local authorities.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Policies is committed in developing a general policy regulation in order to allow the creation of an organic national guidance system that would take into account the different users’ targets and that would guarantee a quality service. At the moment, though, there is no national regulation to refer to.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Policies is also committed in a project (PON – Ob.3) on a national level, whose aim is to bring high quality standards to all the services and guidance activities and to distribute them equally on the territory. This project is intended to promote and define an actual guidance policy, a methodology and intervention area, in accordance with the national and community policies in matter of education, vocational training and work. The actions of intervention have been designed as follows:

• Creation of a permanent observatory on guidance

• Development and promotion of models and tools

• Itinerant projects aimed at weak targets

• Analysis and promotion of high-standard activities

• Network consolidation