Lombardia introduces compulsory AI subject across IeFP vocational training network

Regione Lombardia is the first Italian region to embed artificial intelligence as a compulsory subject in its Istruzione e Formazione Professionale (IeFP) vocational training network from the new school year. The IeFP network serves roughly 60,000 students across Lombardia and now requires three new subjects: artificial intelligence, personal skills, and workplace safety. The change is a regional operational mandate binding on IeFP providers funded by the Region. It operates at the subregional level and creates a distinct obligation that does not exist across the Italian school system as a whole, where the national PNRR DM 219 programme remains a funded call for projects rather than a binding curricular mandate. The Lombardia regional guidelines for ethical AI use in upper-secondary schools are provided separately as guidance. No dedicated ethics module within the IeFP AI subject has been separately disclosed, and pre-rollout teacher training arrangements specific to the new compulsory subject have not been published.