DESCI was aimed at developing a methodological pattern for Alternating Training (AT) in secondary schools:- improving connections between school, research, enterprise and territory- creating a participatory methodology centred on schools developing students’key competences mainly required by the world of work: digital competences, personal, social, citizenship, entrepreneurial and learning competences, and creativity (with reference to the EU Rec. on Key Competences 2006/2018). Moreover, fostering teachers’, student’ and tutors’ engagement and connecting networks of stakeholders actively involved in the improvement, testing and validation of the educational tools provided, DESCI aimed to help the school to become an incubator of innovation and creativity where the students develop deliveries of social utility under the mentorship of research bodies, associations and enterprises.PARTNERS INVOLVEDCNR IRPPS(project coordinator)and UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS (NKUA),have a strong experience in participatory methodologies for the science-society relationship. POLIBIENESTAR has a long and enduring experience in the evaluation of the impact of social policies. FORMASCIENZA and SCIENCE WIEW have experience in designing innovative didactics and practices and in developing training materials. ASSOKNOWLEDGE: is the Italian Association of Confindustria for Training and represented the entrepreneurial and industrial component. 1st EXPERIMENTAL SCHOOL OF ATHENS, ITS E. FERMI and CENTRO DE FORMACION SOMORROSTRO contributed to the design of the toolkits and to organize and implement the testing of the toolkits.ACTIVITIESThe central methodology and the main learning environment adopted within the DESCI project was the Living Lab that was firstly introduced at MIT to develop and test new technologies. DESCI apply the LL to an educational context, in which schools can design, implement and evaluate the DESCI AT paths, through the sharing of ideas and collaboration between the stakeholders involved. The DESCI AT participatory approach is described in 3 different toolkits targeted to Teachers Students and Evaluation. Each toolkit provides the basic elements and tools for planning AT at school and pursue a modular approach showing sets of activities and methodologies that can be adapted to the specific school environment.In order to implement the above mentioned issues, a Comparative analysis of european alternating training systems was realized to systematize a common working framework on AT in the European area. On the basis of this study the DESCI AT approach and the 3 toolkits were realized:Teachers’ and students’ toolkits showing sets of activities and methodologies that teachers, tutors and students can adapt to the specific school environment Evaluation toolkit, developing a system for evaluating the competences acquired by students during the paths of AT (transversal and professional) by means of rubrics, questionnaires and focus groups, integrating the evaluation of the student’s performances and learning process (endogenous evaluation) with the evaluation of the deliveries generated by students during the working process (exogenous evaluation). The testing of the tentative educational toolkits has been designed as a participatory complex process encompassing:•the involvement of schools with societal actors in participative tables during the DESCI 9 OCs intended at the same time as an occasion of: inquiry on methodologies and competences, implementing toolkits and scenarios, building networks to disseminate DESCI;•the testing of the tentative Toolkits in the partner schools (2 testing phases);•the constitution of DESCI NABs in which various social actors from the world of school, business, policy making contributed with comments on the toolkits and the testing process.Polibienestar was the partner in charge of the evaluation of the testing. The evaluation reports gave indications to implement and validate the toolkits.RESULTSThe testing phase demonstrated that DESCIcan improve the connection between school, research, enterprise and territory enhancing the capability of secondary school to become an innovation hub for the local community. In the testing phases the enterprises and the communities came into the school and collaborated with students teachers and tutors in the AT processPERCENTAGE OF REDUCTION OF DROPOUT RATES:the inclusive and participatory approach promoted by DESCI demonstrated to influence positively the school rates of drop out (the rate of drop out detected in the schools before the DESCI testing phase was 3,5% c.ca; after the testing phase the dropout rate in classes involved in DESCI activities was to a 0%)GENERAL IMPROVEMENT OF TRANSVERSAL SKILLS ON DIRECT TARGET:as emerged from the school reports, the DESCI approach to AT helped the students in reinforcing transversal skills classified in DESCI with reference to the EU Commission recommendation on Key competences 2006,revised in 2018