Social cohesion and inclusion are fundamental values expressed by the common vision that lies behind the so-called “European social model”, and primary objectives of the EU policies. Education and training are crucial factors to help to promote the integration into the labour market of disadvantaged people at risk of marginalization...

1. CASE STUDY
TRIO
by
Davide Calenda
This document is part of the overall European project LINKS-UP - Learning 2.0 for an Inclusive
Knowledge Society – Understanding the Picture. Further case studies and project results can be
downloaded from the project website http://www.linksup.eu.
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2. Social cohesion and inclusion are fundamental values expressed by the common vision
that lies behind the so-called “European social model”, and primary objectives of the EU
policies. Education and training are crucial factors to help to promote the integration
into the labour market of disadvantaged people at risk of marginalization. Furthermore,
the advancements of ICTs changed deeply the basic knowledge and skills to meet the re-
quirements of the labour market, and the way we think about education and training as
well. The EC itself has recently drafted a new strategy for jobs and growth (Europe
2020), going far beyond Lisbon 2010 and focusing on knowledge and innovation. It fol-
lows that learning can no longer be constrained into the boundaries of traditional school
and training rooms. The TRIO project, started twelve years ago, caught the first signs of
these changes and, in a certain sense, anticipated them.
Case profile – TRIO in a nutshell
T.R.I.O.
Tecnologia Ricerca Innovazione Orientamento (Technology Re-
search Innovation Orientation)
Website http://www.progettotrio.it/
Status Active and running (since 1998), in the third phase (since 2009)
Luca Santoni, Regione Toscana (Italy)
Interviewed person
Alessandro Campi, Giunti Labs (Italy)
Funded and promoted by… Regional administration of Tuscany, through the ESF
On-line from home, in learning centres (“tele-training poles”), or
Location of the Learning Activities
at the workplace
Target group(s) Employed/unemployed persons, persons in search of first job
Number of users About 180,000 registered users, 65,000 active users
Educational Sector(s) Adults, public/private organizations
Category of the Learning Activities Formal
Moodle, other tools to be implemented in the next future (i.e.
Web 2.0 technologies used...
podcasts, virtual rooms, video sharing, etc.)
Methods to support inclusion Traditional e-learning courses
Short description and key characteristics
TRIO (Technology Research Innovation Orientation) is the system of distance/web learn-
ing promoted and owned by the Regional administration of Tuscany 1. It is a public portal
giving free access to a wide variety of contents and services, and offering learning op-
1
http://www.regione.toscana.it/.
2

3. portunities to a large and heterogeneous audience at both the regional and national
level2.
The initial aim of the project was to face digital divide allowing citizens to access the
contents provided through the TRIO portal. In the second phase, the project was de-
veloped involving a wide range of users, both individual users and public/private organ-
izations; to the latter, in particular, TRIO gave a support for the development of voca-
tional training and re-qualification programmes. In the third phase, the attention was
drawn to the critical issue of competences certification, regarded as a key factor for suc-
cess in the labour market.
The specific mission of the project is lifelong learning. In the words of the project man-
agers, “we tried to keep the focus on vocational training, which is our specific mission.
Our mission is to connect with the themes of work, both on general knowledge and spe-
cific cross-cutting areas”.
Key characteristics
The TRIO project started in 1998 and entered its third phase in 2009. It is funded
through the European Social Fund by the Regional administration of Tuscany, which is
also the property owner of the web learning system; as such, the Regional administra-
tion of Tuscany defines strategies, draws guidelines, and carries out monitoring activit-
ies. In the course of ten years of activity, the project funds have been progressively re-
duced; this decline should be seen as physiological, since in the first two phases the pro-
ject had to face high implementation costs, related to the set up of infrastructures and
to the definition of the catalogue of courses. Then, the system seems to have reached
an equilibrium between costs, services provided, amount of users.
In the current phase, TRIO is managed by a temporary association of three companies –
i.e. Giunti Labs (head)3, Tecnofor4, and Brain Technologies5 – cooperating with other
companies identified as sub-contractors (mainly high-tech, publishing, and consulting
companies). The budget, in the three years contract period (2009-2011), amounts to a
total of five million Euro.
At the very beginning, also provincial administrations, universities, trade unions, and
private foundations played an important role in the implementation of the project.
TRIO is mainly addressed to adults, either as individuals or as belonging to organiza-
tions. In such a sense, two types of user groups can be identified: i) “individual users”,
who can have free access, although after registration, to the contents and services
provided by the portal, either from home or from access points managed by the provin-
cial administrations, so-called “tele-traning poles” (poli di teleformazione); ii) “web
learning groups” (WLGs), i.e. groups of users belonging to organizations, mostly private
companies. It follows that there are three different locations of the learning activities,
i.e. home, learning centres, and workplaces. The excluded group targeted is very wide,
2
Over 57% of users are from Tuscany, the rest are mostly from other Italian regions, whi-
le only a small part are from other countries – these are mainly Italian citizens resident
abroad – as the portal is in Italian language
3
http://www.giuntilabs.com/
4
http://www.giuntilabs.com/
5
http://www.brain.it/
3

4. hence it could be further divided in two sub-groups: i) employed or unemployed per-
sons; ii) persons in search of first job.
In the period from 2002, July 1 to 2010, March 15, the number of “registered” users has
been 167,917, out of which 65,198 are “active” users, who have attended at least a
course in last 24 months.
Dimension of learning and inclusion
The main aim of TRIO is to increase the employability and enhance the basic knowledge
and skills of persons excluded or at risk of exclusion from the labour market. Thus, the
intended learning outcome is re-qualification. To pursue this aim, the project is focusing
more and more on the issue of “certification” of learning activities and competences.
Another important concern for TRIO is the so-called “digital citizenship”. In particular,
there is a high demand for ICT and language courses. Most of accesses of individual
users to the portal are for participating in these kinds of courses. For this reason, TRIO is
working on the certification of ICT and language skills as well. The users belonging to or-
ganizations, instead, are interested in a wider range of courses and services.
Until today, TRIO has provided about 450 courses, organized in 13 different thematic
areas. The catalogue has been recently improved through the creation of “didactic
series” (collane didattiche) and “learning pathways” (percorsi di apprendimento). The
contents are assorted and diversified. The 13 thematic areas are further subdivided in
topics that gather together a range of specific didactic modules. From this point of view,
the system is developing along three axes, through the implementation respectively of:
i) an “infoteque” (infoteca), dedicated to institutional information; ii) a “didateque” (did-
ateca), a Moodle-based environment devoted to e-learning; iii) a “mediateque” (medi-
ateca), for the collection of pre-recorded virtual room events, podcasts, and video re-
sources on the model of YouTube.
It could be affirmed that TRIO is going beyond the borders of traditional learning, al-
though the courses – which are still the core learning outputs – will continue to be de-
livered through traditional e-learning tools, such as e-books, html texts, Java and Flash
applications, etc. In effect, the users are not involved in the production of contents, and
the courses are part of a publishing plan, defined year by year on the basis of the
guidelines drawn by the Regional administration of Tuscany. Hence, the provision of
learning contents is a top-down process, and the learning approach that lies behind
TRIO should be seen mainly as “transmissive”.
From an operative point of view, individual users are involved directly, with no interme-
diation, in learning processes, whereas the users belonging to organizations are suppor-
ted by tutors. The TRIO project staff itself includes: i) “tutors” that support the users
both online – through the portal – and off-line; ii) “trainers”, involved in the pro-
grammed events of virtual rooms.
Very important, TRIO has been recently integrated in the “income support fund” pro-
gramme (cassa integrazione guadagni) as a means for the re-qualification of workers at
high risk of unemployment, what can be seen as a case of effective combination of pass-
ive and active labour market policies.
4

5. Access to courses
Figure 1: The TRIO home page
Course description
Figure 2: A list of courses
5

6. Innovative elements and key success factors
The case is innovative in the national context. Innovativeness has to do more with polit-
ical and institutional aspects rather than with technological aspects. Indeed, TRIO was
one of the first attempts in Italy to make a public policy on web learning on a large scale.
In the words of one of the project managers, “at the very beginning, thinking that a pub-
lic body could have been a provider of free web learning contents and services was itself
innovative”. At present, TRIO is a key component of lifelong learning, and of labour mar-
ket policies on the whole, at the regional and provincial level. This pushes on the institu-
tionalization of technology-based innovations in the field of e-learning. In such a sense,
public ownership and the mobilization of the main institutional, economic, and social
forces in the territory should be seen as added values.
Institutional innovation is of primary importance to promote inclusion in the labour
market. To do this, TRIO is now working on the issue of certification. As pointed out
again by a project manager, TRIO is now moving “from a system based on qualifications
to a system based on skills. […] a system to certify skills and all other key components of
professional life, not only formal and institutional learning paths. […] a system that facil-
itates communication between different pathways, through which the professional life
of people can be easily reconstructed starting from small bricks”. Moreover, this recogni-
tion system should represent a motivational factor for the users: “they make sense of
staying in front of a screen”.
Another innovative aspect of TRIO concerns the choice of planning and investing in
learning activities at the workplace, through the development of dedicated environ-
ments. The WLGs benefit from the customization of the portal according to the needs
and characteristics of the organization that is going to use it.
From the point of view of technology, TRIO was initially designed as a web learning plat-
form based on a proprietary software (SABA). In 2010, it has moved to a new platform,
based on an open-source software (Moodle). This choice was made by the Regional ad-
ministration of Tuscany for ethical, economic, and organizational reasons, since an open-
source software is low-cost and requires no licence fees, is easily customizable 6, and al-
lows the project staff to have flexibility and autonomy in the management and further
development of the system.
This is also coherent with the idea of developing TRIO maintaining “accessibility” as one
of its basic features. In fact, no specific ICT skills, but only basic e-skills – such as brows-
ing, e-mailing, etc. – are required to use the platform. In particular, to access the courses
the users have only to register and log in, either from home or from any other place.
The TRIO system includes forums and chat rooms, and is now implementing Web 2.0
tools – such as podcasts, virtual rooms, video resources, and “wiki” tools, which will al-
low the users to produce own contents – thus moving a step towards a more “collabor-
ative” understanding of learning, even though the contents produced by the users will
remain in the context of a social-networking environment, not being regarded properly
as “learning” contents.
6
The software has been partially re-adapted to meet the specific needs of the project.
6

7. Problems encountered and lessons learned
In general, no negative or unforeseen impacts have been identified from the point of
view of learning and inclusion. The major concern is for the high “school mortality”.
Nevertheless, the project managers have pointed out that, from 2002 to 2010, about
84% of active users have attended a second course and that, in 2010, TRIO has provided
an average of about 28,000 training hours per month. Another critical aspect is that the
collaborative tools – e.g. forums – are not frequently used. According to a local tutor,
most of users are not skilled or motivated or, more simply, do not need to use this kind
of tools. In such a sense, the role of a human tutor/facilitator remains central. Con-
versely, the forum for practitioners – e.g. tutors – is more and more used.
The problems faced by TRIO were mainly ordinary, related to the definition of the cata-
logue, the design of courses, and the creation of learning support services. In the cur-
rent phase, the key issue is the development of a certification system.
7

8. Collaborating institutions in LINKS-UP
Institute for Innovation in Learning, Friedrich-Alex-
ander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen,
Germany
www.fim.uni-erlangen.de
Arcola Research LLP, London, United Kingdom
www.arcola-research.co.uk
eSociety Institute, The Hague University of Applied
Sciences, The Hague, The Netherlands
www.esocietyinstituut.nl
Servizi Didattici e Scientifici per l’Università di Firen-
ze, Prato, Italy
www.pin.unifi.it
Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft, Salzburg,
Austria
www.salzburgresearch.at
European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN),
Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
www.eden-online.org
8