HIGHER EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL EDUCATORS IN ITALY: THE IMPACT OF THE INITIAL TRAINING EXPERIENCE ON COMPETENCIES DEVELOPMENT

The world of educational professions is re-reading and reforming skills effectively and functionally to solve increasingly complex educational and training problems and respond to targeted quality interventions. Today, education has a fundamental and powerful meaning since it directly responds to resolving social issues through educational action. In the European community scenario, education professionals are necessary to promote individuals' well-being and harmonious development. In Italy, with L. 205/2017 and L. 55/2024 recognizing the profession and establishing a professional order, it shed light on training professionals to deal with educational practice. The reflection on the design of training provision to develop the competencies of professional educators within initial training paths is a crucial topic that requires careful discussion. What is the real impact of university training experience for professional educators serving in the national territory? This question is the base for the project which plans to investigate how much initial training courses contribute to forming competent and effective professional social educators. The final research object is to explore mixed survey processes that provide for administering a questionnaire to professional social educators serving in the national territory. The contribution aims to provide an overview of the results obtained from the survey conducted and to bring out the opinions and perspectives of educators.