The present planning system - as it has been outlined so far - certainly responds to some needs, which are now obsolete, of a social system based on industrial production, on big organizations and big projects, on a kind of job policy addressed to beneficiary sectors and groups. This planning system does not correspond to one particular kind of society any longer, for in contemporary society the production of intangible goods has replaced the production of tangible goods. Moreover, in current society, development policies are increasingly focused on single projects which create new jobs, but not on large-scale policies. Multivalence took over specializations, the number of people working in the service sector increases, but not the number of people working in industries; relational abilities must be integrated into - sometimes they replace - technical qualification. The historical rigidity of the relation between life time and working time is also changing. Therefore, today an increasing continuity between home environment and working environment, as well as a new time management and a conciliation with the territory are being created. Substantially, there was a passage from the industrial model to a new model (i.e. post-industrial and post-modern civilization, information society, global village, globalization, etc.). But, at the same time, not all social intervention tools have been re-planned or re-designed.
The main focus of the ADAPT project is on the opportunities offered by the enhancement of local contexts and in designing training actions which are very much faithful to these contexts. The following points are the basic points:

• The usefulness of granting a privilege to local context to promote sustainable development. In our opinion, the basic feature of this idea is the effort done in planning development strategies with new patterns, enhancing cultural contributions from the populations involved and changing the elements of their environmental context into useful resources. Adopting this vision means promoting a kind of development which ought to be endogenous, which can count on its own capabilities, which starts from the logic of needs, which promotes the symbiosis between man and nature and which remains open to institutional changes.
• Local development is considered the motor for the creation of new jobs through the enlargement of innovatory productive base, the enhancement of local resources and the creation of new functions in the labour market.

The analysis of local economical development in Europe shows the existence of strong endogenous factors which explain the ability of local systems to grow, with the same structural conditions. The assumption behind this idea is that an area has some resources, the economical enhancement of which can contribute to the creation of new jobs. It seems that the tool represented by labour agreements is becoming more and more a distinctive element of this process.

• The variation in progress in the labour market and the change of jobs are the main subjects involved in the idea of labour flexibility. One of the interesting aspects for the creation of new jobs consists of the promotion of new forms of labour market flexibility: flexibility in the organization, salary, time and working time (part-time, definite time, temporary work, differentiated working times, etc.).
• The features of the new job-creating sectors: the areas where new jobs are created often coincide with the contexts where the various forms of no-profit and service offer appear (third sector).
• The most recent debate about the flexibility of competencies and role played by vocational training.

The continuous evolution in the organizations has led to a redefinition of professional functions. Professional qualification is no longer technical competency, but it takes many other aspects of social and working life into account, such as relationship systems, values, experiences and various kinds of knowledge. This is flexibility of competencies, i.e. a set of abilities and types of knowledge enabling to deeply understand changes in progress, more than giving stereotype answers. Competencies involve various aspects of different kinds, from the capability to face complex problems, to the ability to evaluate, choose and act even in some fields which are close to one’s own field of competency, up to the ability to establish relationships with other people. For all these reasons, the knowledge needed for competency is not limited to scholastic or academic knowledge. While in the past professional qualification was based on a theoretical approach founded on the analysis of tasks, today it is necessary to prepare people for specific activities, providing them with capabilities which should be able to evolve in the time and change according to the context. At this point, the traditional approach towards vocational training, meant at building up profiles defined once and for all, certainly appears very limited. On the contrary, it seems that today competency needs a set of general knowledge including several fields of knowledge; moreover, it seems that competency is a training object recurring in working context and in other contexts (continuous training).

Note 1 (institutional changes)
See Sachs, I nuovi campi della pianificazione, Edizioni Lavoro, Roma, 1984.
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