The 1973-founded National Institute for Public Policies Analysis (INAPP) is a public body entrusted with research functions. The Institute was initially identified as ISFOL, an acronym standing for Institute for Professional Training. The original denomination was kept for over forty years, namely until the governmental enforcement of work policies enacted within the Jobs Act framework.
It therefore took on the role of an institutional mediator between the local and central administrative boards, which soon turned it into the leading entity with respect to tasks of data collection, research, analysis, information and assessment on the matter of concrete enactments of Italian traineeship policies. It was for this reason that it soon became a decades-long point of reference for both stakeholders and the central and local administrative boards. After being placed under the supervision of the Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, ISFOL came to be recognised as a Public Body of high prominence in 1979, and was subsequently listed among the officially recognized Public Bodies of Research in 1989. In this context, it performed and promoted functions of study, research, experimentation, data collection, information provision, counselling and technical assistance. In 1990, it became part of the National Statistical System.
When EU planning was enforced, ISFOL went through a phase of expansion in step with the process of administrative decentralisation occurring within the framework of the amendment of Article V of the Italian Constitution.
In the domain of education and training policies and systems, research was especially focused on the attainment of clear-cut policies and offers available in the realm of initial, lifelong and continuing training; on systems of registration and quality maintenance of human and structural resources of training systems, on learning methods aimed at defining standards and tools of measurement to certify and ascertain competences, on tools and policies aimed at supporting life-long learning policies.
As for technical assistance, ever since the second half of the 1980’s Isfol has been supporting the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies on the matter of EU policies aimed at the enhancement of human resources. Particularly, it has supported the systemic actions taken by the European Social Fund by launching methods, instruments and testing initiatives designed to facilitate the planning, monitoring and diffusion of co-funded actions. ISFOL has been a beneficiary body of the European Social Fund, while serving as a Centre of Technical Assistance in a variety of EU initiatives and programmes. It has also been a Eurodesk decentralised local office, a national EQF point, a national Europass centre as well as a national resources orientation centre for the local office of Benevento.
During this phase, the interest reach of ISFOL came to include social and labour policies, as is fully and officially reflected in the Statutes drafted in 2003.
Furthermore, ever since the launch of the Vocational Education and Training (VET) programme, a.k.a. Leonardo da Vinci programme, in 1994, ISFOL has extended its contribution to the enactment of all programming cycles of this EU system. Its commitment to education and training was extended to encompass Programme Erasmus +, for which the Institute is presently a National Agency, with duties in the domain of vocational education and training.
Starting May 31st, 2010, ISFOL was entrusted with fulfilling all research functions and tasks in support of the development of social policies that had been formerly performed by the newly-abolished IAS (the Italian Institute for Social Affairs), previously named IIMS (Italian Institute of Social Medicine).
On December 1st, 2016, ISFOL was renamed INAPP (National Institute for Public Policies Analysis), whose strategic role in the new governance system of social and labour policies in Italy is sanctioned by legislative decree no.150/2015.
The office of Benevento opened on March, 17th, 2022. Its purpose is to promote activities of technical and scientific assistance and research specifically tailored to meet the needs of Southern Italy, and to offer a point of reference for effective communication between trainers and the local administration departments, with an eye turned to favouring the integration between labour policies and territorial development policies.