Italian teachers traineeship (TFA)
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Tirocinio Formativo Attivo (meaning Active - Formative - Traineeship) or T.F.A. for short, is a post graduate course in order to be acknowledged as a public teacher of secondary education by the Italian state.
It was introduced by decree n. 249 of 10 September 2010, enacted by the law n. 244 of 24 December 2007,[1] and further modified by MIUR's (Ministry of Education) n. 81 of 25 March 2013, as to replace the old SISS (schools of specialization for secondary education teachers). T.F.A. was, by the words of former Minister Mariastella Gelmini under whose government T.F.A took their start, "the harshest and most professionalizing way to license teachers". In fact, as Gelmini stated, only 11.000 teachers made it to the end, in spite of 150.000 candidates attempting the competition.[2]
Commonly, TFA licensed teachers go by the name of "tieffini".[3][4]
Ministry decrete 249/2010 establishes traineeships to become secondary school teachers to be configured as " a two-years master degree plus a following year of T.F.A." T.F.A. courses may be set up by any university department or by other high education institutions of artistic, musical, or choral subjects, under the condition of them being administrative headquarters.[5]
As a matter of facts T.F.A is a one-year course to train teachers to be, held by universities, which confers, according to the result of the final exam, a teaching license among Italian public secondary school system. T.F.A is started for each subject (or group) depending on the need of teachers.