Promoting Citizenship Competence in Italian Vocational Education and Training through Assessment

European VET is becoming increasingly important in promoting inclusiveness, social justice, and democratic citizenship. “Citizenship competence”, which has been recently introduced in Italian initial VET (iVET), can contribute to the pursuit of these objectives. Based on the assumption that assessment can be formative and thus can help to improve learning processes, this research aims to develop an ad hoc assessment tool for Citizenship competence in Italian iVET inspired by formative assessment principles. The research methodology adopts a mixed methods perspective. The first qualitative phase aimed at understanding iVET institution’s characteristics, needs, and objectives and teaching strategies related to Citizenship competence. Next, based on these data, the quantitative phase aimed to develop and validate a set of standardized assessment instruments. Despite data from the quantitative instruments still being analyzed, the exploratory phase provided meaningful data on how iVET teachers are promoting Citizenship competence and the role of citizenship education in Italian iVET.