Coopcamp Project. A Blended Integrated Training Path for Education to the Cooperative Model

The Coopcamp project, started in March 2020, aims to propose a training course in high schools that will improve knowledge and values of the cooperative model (democracy, mutuality, participation) and related competencies, with particular attention to scientific and technical schools. This model is rarely the first choice for young people, although it is particularly well suited to this specific target group, as it focuses on personal skills rather than the availability of capital. Students should be enabled to understand the peculiarities of the model and to understand how to create and manage a cooperative. A preliminary questionnaire was submitted in some partner schools of the project. The intention was to highlight the gaps in local educational programmes with respect both to training courses on cooperative organizational forms and to the use of cooperative methodologies in the curricular offer. The analysis of the results contributed to the design and implementation of a training package, based on three main pillars: 1. a narrative framework on cooperative values in line with young people’s imagination; 2. the use of a gamified logic that would allow greater stimulation of interest in some contents and training activities; 3. the design of a series of experiential learning activities based on problem-solving, challenges and simulations, to be carried out either face-to-face or online. All this will be used through a digital tool created specifically for the project, with the function of providing teaching materials, guiding student groups and teachers in the meetings planned and keeping track of the training process. Its primary function is that of a dashboard to which to refer in order to conclude the route. After an introduction on the objectives of the project and the description of the results gathered in the preliminary analysis, the paper describes the structure of the training path, its pedagogical and methodological premises, the logic that holds together narrative, gamification and learning activities, to conclude with the first feedback of the pilot test