The Initial Training Programmes for teachers (PF) started in 2024, a few years after the conclusion of former initiatives (SSIS, TFA, PAS) for secondary school teaching access at national level. PF represents a serious challenge for Universities to coordinate internal resources with different contributions from schools and local administrations in a short time frame. To set up efficient and useful courses, Universities need to convert the national legal framework for PF, indicating generic training objectives and fixing the exact timing, into actual programmes fleshing out the various planned educational activities with practical details. Besides providing future teachers with the required technical and scientific competences, the training programme should prepare them to view the school as a complex system, where teachers interact within each other as well as with pupils, families, and various public and private organizations in the local area.
This paper aims to present the experience at Pisa University during the first two years of Initial Training Programmes for teachers in chemical sciences (A034). In particular, the motivations for the choice of courses’ content and for work placement are discussed. This brief analysis allows us to identify strengths, weaknesses and main challenges of the chosen approach, and to highlight potential routes for improvement.