IIS P. Sraffa Secondary School is a large vocational and technical institute in the town of Crema in the north of Italy. Attended  by nearly 1000 students, it includes programmes of study to get vocational qualifications and practical or technical diplomas in eight different areas:- Culinary Arts and Hospitality- Health and  Social Care- Commerce- Optics- Dental Care- Tourism (technical course)- Mechanics- FashionThe school focuses on professional skills and in each course school lessons alternate with periods of vocational training in local facilities to enable students to acquire methodological and operative skills to be used in promotional, organisational and managerial activities.The institute is a great resource for the area since it caters for the most vulnerable section of learners, the ones more at risk of early school leaving due to learning difficulties but above all family problems, disruptive behaviour, lack of motivation or challenges migrants’ children (about 30% of the total learners) face to integrate with other students.These students are from different backgrounds but they have in common the fact of preferring doing practical activities but anyway besides focusing on abilities and professional skills the school has the mission of providing competences in the fields of the humanities and sciences with the aim of endowing its learners with 21st century skills to enable them to face the requirements of the current knowledge society.