First of all the preliminary characteristics of the host company are requested, in Italy, by law they must be able to guarantee:

• structural skills, that is, adequate spaces to allow the activities of alternating school-work to be carried out and, in the case of students with disabilities, the overcoming or removal of any architectural barriers;
• technological skills, that is the availability of suitable equipment for carrying out the activities provided for in the agreement, in compliance with the regulations in force regarding technical verification and testing, such as to guarantee, for each student, adequate and direct experience of the process safe working conditions;
• organizational skills, consisting of adequate professional skills for carrying out the activities; to this end, the presence of a tutor appointed by the host structure must be guaranteed, also external to the same, in support of alternating school-work activities, equipped with professional skills and training support, with charges borne by the host organization.

The company is the third and equally fundamental protagonist in the realization of the alternation, the others are the school and the student. Training in the territory, understood as a relationship with schools, plays a fundamental strategic role. Work is an educational place, a cultural source, because thought is formed in the relationship with reality. Therefore, alternating means for the company to work together with schools on the skills of children to form the human capital of the future, encourage the orientation of young people so that they can contribute to the social and economic life of the country and meet and know the potential of workers of tomorrow. The company is also widely involved, since it simultaneously makes the legal representative, the company tutor, the safety manager, the occupational doctor and all the collaborators who come into contact with the student responsible. When a company, a third sector organization, a public body or any other entity has an interest in receiving students for school-work alternation projects, it must first of all:

• appoint a company tutor as an internal person (employee) or external person (collaborator or consultant) called an external tutor, competent and adequately trained in safety and health in the workplace or who makes use of adequate professionalism in the matter that must manage the training of young people at work, through the assignment of work tasks consistent with learning a job / professional role;

• involve the young apprentice in training activities outside the company, alternating and integrating the learning path that develops within;

• entrust the company tutor with the task of ensuring the necessary link between work-based learning and external training;

• certify the skills acquired by the young person at the end of the apprenticeship / alternation period.

The training offer in the company therefore the role of the company is focused on transmitting to the students the skills and abilities that are:

• more aligned with the current international economic context (innovative trends and knowledge of languages);

• closer to the characteristics of the food and wine and tourism system (sectors with higher growth rates);

• better and faster applicable in the labor market and useful for growing companies (soft skills and competences in various fields).

In the medium-long term the alternation makes it possible to reduce the gap between the skills outgoing from the education system and the skills required by the world of work, thus allowing to save both on research costs and personnel selection and on initial training costs of the newly hired. The skills to be developed will therefore be, for example, problem solving, result orientation, teamwork, interpersonal skills, etc. Activities on specific project work related to company products or work reorganization projects are recommended . The company, summarizing its role, must contribute to bringing the world of education closer to the economic productive reality and to the needs of professionalism and skills expressed by the local labor market; improve relations with the surrounding area, also in terms of return and visibility; increase awareness in terms of corporate social responsibility.

The company therefore has a more important task in training the young student apprentice. On the one hand, it must prepare and follow the activities of the apprentice within the work environment, so that he develops the skills that are required. On the other hand, it must allow the apprentice to participate in training activities aimed at acquiring additional skills and knowledge, useful for performing work tasks and completing the path of personal and professional growth of the young person. Finally, the company must certify the skills acquired by the worker at the end of the apprenticeship / school-work period.