TIROCINIO, CONTRATTO di. — The contract of t. (or apprenticeship) is generally concluded for manual and technical work, but may also be concluded for clerical work, subject to exclusions established by law or, on debatable legal grounds, by collective agreements. Its purpose is the teaching of a trade to a young person (apprentice) by a shopkeeper or business owner (who, therefore, should be remunerated rather than remunerate).
Today, however, the apprentice is commonly regarded as a subordinate worker, albeit in a special position. In fact, learning the trade remains the principal purpose of the contract (unlike the relationship of « garzonato », in which a worker is assigned the most modest laboring duties without any intention of further qualification), but the apprentice is integrated into the organization and the business, is subject to company discipline, and generally receives, even if modest, remuneration (unlike, as a rule, voluntary trainees in professional offices), because it is assumed that the work performed is of some use to the business. The Civil Code itself treats t. as a species of the genus « subordinate work » and imposes certain obligations: a) that the period of t. may not exceed the limits established by collective sources and customs; b) that remuneration may not be based on piecework, which presupposes an ability the apprentice does not yet possess but tends to acquire through training; c) that the employer must allow the apprentice to attend courses for vocational training (the so-called « pre-apprenticeship »); d) that, upon termination of the relationship, the apprentice must be given a certificate of the t. completed. Special legislation and collective agreements must better adapt t. to the various requirements of different types of industry, places, and periods, in accordance with the most pressing current needs, and enable artisan workshops, as they have been since the era of the medieval guilds of the arts, to serve as schools for skilled workers. In recent times, provision has also been made for establishing courses for the qualification, advanced training, and vocational retraining of unemployed workers, with the aim of rapidly changing or increasing their technical abilities, adapting them to the needs of production, the domestic labor market, and opportunities for emigration, thereby increasing the possibility of the fullest and most productive employment of labor.
As a general principle, tutors and those who teach a trade or an art are liable for damage caused by the unlawful act of their pupil or apprentice during the time in which he is under their supervision, unless they prove that they were unable to prevent the act.
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