As part of the work foreseen by the U-START Project, the transnational partnership has analyzed and put in place a process of adaptation of a best practice recognized in the Italian context, related to a digital platform created specifically to support school-work alternation training/WHL pathways realized according to the Simulated Training Enterprise approach.

The Simulated Training Enterprise is a pathway realized according to the work-based learning principles that:

• connects the single class/group of students or trainees with the specific tutor enterprise/company (for each STE corresponds a real enterprise acting as tutor of the process);
• It involves the whole class council or board of teachers/trainers;
• It promotes the passage of students from laboratory experience  to real company simulation.

The Simulated Training Enterprise  allows students to work in the school’s simulation laboratory as if they were in the company:

• The Simulated Training Enterprise  meets its legal obligations and tax and accounting deadlines;
• The Simulated Training Enterprise life is punctuated by the commitments of that of real companies.

Students work in a very stimulating learning environment that fosters in young people the decision-making autonomy and the ability to work for targets. The project is centered around the student’s education:

• the activities are intended to promote the interest and motivation of the young students;
• the application phase precedes the cognitive to promote critical reflection and the acquisition of knowledge;
• the doing becomes a tool for learning.