The lack of educational opportunities generates long-term inequalities in the lives of young people. How and where can we intervene to facilitate access to university for young men and women from low- and middle-income families? A new idea of intervention, based on encouraging family savings, has made its way in the United States. And so-called asset building is also proving effective in Italy.

Italy has few graduates. Only 26.9% of people aged 30-34 have a university degree, well behind Lithuania (58.7% of graduates), Luxembourg (54.6%), Cyprus (53.4%) and Ireland following closely. The European average is 39.9%.This lack of educational opportunities engenders long-term inequalities in the life of young people, but low-income families still find it hard to bear the cost of university education for their children. What is to be done, and how? An experience: Percorsi.

Fewer than a quarter of Italian babies between the ages of zero and two have a place in a public facility for infants. Coverage is uneven across the country: in Valle d'Aosta, four tots out of ten go to nursery; in the Campania region, the number is just 6 out of 100. To increase the number of available places, over the last decade the Italian state has spent some €1.15 billion. The "Buona Scuola" Reform now adds over €200 million per year to the pot, starting from 2017. What's the outlook?

In 2008 a reform occurred in Italy in the formation of selection committees for qualifying to university professorship. Prior to the reform members of the committees were elected by their peers, then they have been randomly drawn. This policy was intended to increase the equality of opportunities of candidates via a reduction of the role played by connection to commissioners. Results show that candidates internalised the changed environment and adapted their strategy of application. However the reform did not necessarily raise the impact of scientific quality of candidates on the outcome of competitions.