Between the recovery of abandoned children and vocational training: the Italian training-ships between the Nineteenth and Twentieth century

This essay aims to reconstruct the history of training-ships, educational institutions for abandoned children appeared in Italy between the second-half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. Once introduced in Italy, following the English model, the training-ships received little consideration from the Italian political world so that they continued to exist only thanks to the support of philanthropists and individuals. Later, training-ships started to have also other aims such as the professional training for sailors and fishermen and in particular, the military training during the Fascist regime.