Business, media and organizational communication

WHO ARE CAREER ADVISERS
Career Advisers are key figures in the educational path of the Graduate Programme, they support students in identifying the career paths that best and realistically correspond to their inclinations and talents, they also provide the tools and skills useful for the creation of action plans to achieve their career goals.
The programme carried out with the support of Career Advisers are preparatory to carrying out the curricular internship, but do not guarantee preferential access to internship positions. Internship proposals are reported by Career Advisers through a weekly Newsletter or are found independently by trainees on the recommended platforms.

WHAT CAREER ADVISERS DO
Career Advisers:

• offer advice on on/off line personal branding and behavioural skills;
• support in the construction and development of one's career path;
• provide advice on the different forms of CV writing (resume, video CV,..), on the drafting of cover letters, on the most appropriate ways to face a selection interview (simulation of face-to-face interviews, blind interviews, through online platforms, through the development of projects);
• they support in the placement phases together with the University's Internship & Placement office: they promote meetings with companies (Round Table) and events to orient students to the world of work (Career path, Speed interview, Workshops on employment contracts, entrepreneurship, and the creation of start-ups);
• develop the soft skills necessary to enter the world of professions;
• offer an up-to-date overview of the main trends related to the world of work through the recommendation of specific readings (sector and current affairs articles);
• provide information on open internship positions, through a weekly Newsletter;
• assist in the identification of possible companies.

HOW TO CONTACT CAREER ADVISERS
Communications with Career Advisers take place through 3 channels:

1. Mailing list: students regularly enrolled in the degree programme will receive communications from Career Advisers regarding internship proposals, events and orientation initiatives. Students are kindly requested to read their @icatt inbox regularly.
2. Blackboard: communications, documents, forms necessary for the fulfilment of the various practices, presentations and tools are available on the Blackboard internship page; Students are invited to enrol at the same time as enrolment.
3. Meetings: Career Advisers receive by appointment and the request must be sent by email to stage.cimo@unicatt.it by Friday of the previous week. Remember to indicate in the subject of the email the surname of the Career Adviser you want to talk to.

Unless otherwise communicated, office hours will be active from 1 October of each academic year and will end at the end of July of the same.
Office hours are by appointment and ON LINE.
Business, Media and Organizational Communication Career Advisers are:

• Dr. Alessandra Olietti
• Dr. Deborah Paola Gaudio
• Dr. Giorgia Bresciani

THE TIMING AND RULES OF THE SERVICE
Career Advisers can be reached by email from the beginning of September of each academic year to the end of July of the same at the stage.cimo@unicatt.it email address. In August, the service is silent. Students are requested to send to the Career Advisers communications and documents relating to the recognition of the work activities carried out or to requests for the formalization of internships, taking into account this timeline.
Students are invited to use only the email address indicated above. Communications sent to other addresses will not be processed.
Students are invited to read the Rules and FAQs.

THE CURRICULAR INTERNSHIP AT BUSINESS, MEDIA AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION

The Graduate Programme in Business, Media and Organizational Communication includes 10 ECTS of internship and internship activities. The internship experience is the necessary completion of the teaching and seminar activities of the Graduate Programme, the extension of the simulations and projects developed in the classroom, and the opportunity to measure oneself against the professional challenges that the world of communication poses today. The internship activity has a minimum duration of 270 hours (to be carried out in three months full time or six months part time). In order to be able to send internship applications and activate the curricular internship with ECTS, you must have taken part in the "Self branding and Job positioning" workshop.

TYPES OF CURRICULAR INTERNSHIPS
The 10 ECTS for the curricular internship activities of the Graduate Programme in Business, Media and Organizational Communication can be acquired by students in the following ways:

(A) Internships proposed by companies and available on the step.unicatt.it platform and internships reported to students on a weekly basis by the Career Advisers of the Graduate Programme (proposed internship)

(B) Internships proposed by students (self-proposed internship), based on personal contacts with the company

(C) Recognition of professional activities carried out by students, in areas recognised as valid by Career Advisers

The following will NOT be recognized as valid:

• all those professional activities carried out within companies in which people related to the candidate with any degree of kinship are employed;
• any internship activity that has already produced training ECTS for the purpose of obtaining a Undergraduate Programme and/or a Graduate Programme;
• all internships activated as "curricular with zero ECTS".

In order to activate the curricular internship with ECTS, it is necessary to:

• have earned at least 24 ECTS in their career (through passing exams or approving seminars);
• have taken part in the workshop of "Self branding and Job positioning".

Information on internship proposals and any training meetings will be sent by email to the Graduate Programme's Career Advisers; It is therefore advisable to regularly consult your e-mail box (personal email @icatt).

ACTIVATION OF THE CURRICULAR INTERNSHIP (with ECTS)
The curricular internship of types A and B (cf. "TYPOLOGIES OF CURRICULAR INTERNSHIP") must be activated on step.unicatt.it as a curricular internship with ECTS. The procedure is explained in detail at the following link

All information on internships (procedures, regulations, etc.) can be found here.

INTERRUPTION OF THE CURRICULAR INTERNSHIP (with ECTS)
Those who need to interrupt the internship must have their company contact the Internship & Placement Office (patrizia.carnelli@unicatt.it) with a copy stage.cimo@unicatt.it , specifying the reasons for the interruption. The Career Advisers of the Graduate Programme will assess whether to recognise a part of the internship ECTS.
Please note that the Curricular Internship Commission may proceed to block the internship activity and cancel the training ECTS in the event of proven non-compliance by students.

EXTENSION OF THE CURRICULAR INTERNSHIP (WITH ZERO ECTS)
It is possible to extend the internship activity in the form of the "zero ECTS curricular" internship. At the end of the training project with ECTS, students must contact the Internship & Placement Office and request the activation of a new training project without ECTS.

RECOGNITION OF CURRICULAR INTERNSHIPS (with ECTS)
TYPE A AND B INTERNSHIPS

For type A and B internships, which provide, as written, for the registration of the company and the internship through the step.unicatt.it portal, the recognition will follow the following path:

• starting from the date of the end of the internship, the company will be invited (by communication from the Internship & Placement Office) to fill in a questionnaire in the form of an online form on page step.unicatt.it to evaluate the internship carried out;
• the company will be able to access the platform using the same credentials provided during registration and used to start the internship;
• In the "Internships and Traineeships" box, the company contact person must click on the "Consult internship history" button, select the name of the intern and click on "Evaluate project";
• The company can fill in the questionnaire from 5 days before the end of the internship to 20 days after the end of the internship;
• Only after a positive evaluation by the company will it be possible to proceed with the recognition of the internship and the related training ECTS;

If, after 20 days from the end of the internship, the company has not completed the questionnaire, the Career Advisers will contact the company contact person indicated in the training project, sending him the evaluation questionnaire in Word format. This questionnaire must then be returned to the Internship & Placement Office, which will upload it manually to the portal.

TYPE C INTERNSHIP

For type C internships, the student must present the employment contract, with the specification of the tasks performed and an identity document. Please note that the work activity must be inherent to the course of study and will be subject to the evaluation of the Technical Committee of the Study Programme. In these cases, the procedure will take longer. Students are kindly requested to take this into account and to complete the procedure well in advance of the end of their studies.

CAREER REGISTRATION

The registration of the ECTS accrued through the type A, B and C internships takes place once the procedures described above have been completed.

To register your internship, you must register for one of the dedicated sessions. The recording of the internship takes place only by registration to the appropriate roll call (similarly to exams).

The exam dates for the registration of internships can be consulted on the following page: https://docenti.unicatt.it/ppd2/it/docenti/73786/deborah-paola-gaudio/didattica and are updated periodically by the offices. The last available exam session will be 15 days before the chosen graduation session.
It is up to students to register on the most suitable date according to their career path. Please note that before registering for the exam, you must ask the company to fill in the evaluation questionnaire on your internship. If the questionnaire has not been filled in with a positive evaluation, it will not be possible to approve the internship.

INTERNSHIPS ABROAD
Business, Media and Organizational Communication encourages students to carry out their internship period abroad. There are two types of internships abroad:

(A) internship proposed within the framework of the agreements activated by the UCSC International network and present on the student portal - experiences abroad

(B) self-proposed internship.

In both cases, the internship must be formalized as follows:

• the company must register (if not already done) on the http://step.unicatt.it/ portal ;
• students must activate the internship by following the "Student Access" path on the http://step.unicatt.it/ portal ;

Upon activation of the internship by the students, the company will receive a notification inviting them to confirm the activation of the internship, again on the portal http://step.unicatt.it/;

The start of the internship is subject to the approval of the Career Advisers of the Graduate Programme;

Once the procedures illustrated in points 1-4 have been completed, the trainees will receive two documents (the Trilateral Agreement and the Indemnity) by email, which must be signed and anticipated by email to the following address: wea@unicatt.it. The trainees will take care to deliver the originals of the two documents to the International Relations Office (via Carducci, 28/30 in Milan) upon their return from the mobility.

How can I access internship proposals related to my degree programme?
Internship proposals can be viewed on the step.unicatt.it portal. Career Advisers will also be able to send proposals directly to your email inbox @icatt through a weekly newsletter.

How does the procedure for activating the curricular internship with ECTS (24 ECTS obtained) take place?
The internship must be activated through the http://step.unicatt.it/ portal. If the company does not have an agreement, it must proceed with the registration phase through the portal indicated and follow the instructions that will be sent by email from time to time. Only once the agreement has been activated will the company be able to activate the training project, which must be approved by the student and the Career Adviser, indicated during the activation phase. The complete procedure for activating curricular internships with ECTS can be viewed here.

I did not attend the meetings of the "Self branding and Job positioning" workshop, can I still activate the internship (curricular with ECTS)?
No, it is not possible to activate the curricular internship with ECTS if you have not taken part in the "Self branding and Job positioning" workshop.

How to obtain the recognition of ECTS?
The recording of the internship takes place only by registration to the appropriate roll call (similarly to exams). There is only one session per session and it is up to students to register on the most suitable date according to their career path. Before registering for the exam, trainees must ask the company to fill in the evaluation questionnaire on their internship. If the questionnaire has not been filled in with a positive evaluation, it will not be possible to approve the internship.
The last available exam session will be 15 days before the chosen graduation session.
The exam dates for the registration of internships can be consulted on this page and are updated by the offices periodically.

What is the process that the company providing the internship must follow to approve my activity?
The company can fill in the internship evaluation questionnaire from 5 days before the end of the internship to 20 days after the end of the internship.  Only when the questionnaire has been completed will the Career Advisers be able (in the event of a positive evaluation) to approve it.

The steps to proceed as a company:

• Sign in to the step.unicatt.it portal with your corporate credentials
• In the INTERNSHIPS box, click on "CONSULT INTERNSHIP HISTORY"
• In the list you will have to find the name of the trainee and click on "EVALUATE INTERNSHIP"

How do I go about getting a business approved?
In the case of professional activity (STAGE C), as indicated in the Regulations, the student must present the employment contract to the Career Advisers, complete with the dates of performance and the tasks performed. The deadlines for submitting the documentation are communicated by the Career Advisers at the beginning of the year by email. The recognition of ECTS in the career takes place, in any case, always through registration in the appropriate session.

What is the average duration of a curricular internship with ECTS?
A curricular internship with ECTS lasts, on average, three months in a full-time option or six months in a part-time option. Students are invited to carefully check the duration of the internship indicated in the proposal sent by the Career Advisers and, if selected by the company, to check the hourly conditions during the interview. In any case, at least 270 hours of internship must be carried out in order for ECTS to be recognized.

Is it possible to suspend an internship if it does not meet our expectations?
The suspension of an internship and the consequent cancellation of the training project must take place with the authorization of the Career Adviser who has the duty to verify the reasons that led to the interruption of the internship period with all parties involved. If the company positively evaluates the activity carried out by the trainee resource, the internship hours actually carried out can be recognised and an additional activity can be agreed with the Career Adviser to cover the missing hours. The request for suspension must be sent by the company to the Internship & Placement Office (patrizia.carnelli@unicatt.it)

If I liked the curricular internship with ECTS, can I extend it?
Once the curricular internship with ECTS has been completed, it can be extended as a curricular internship to ZERO ECTS by following the procedures indicated on http://step.unicatt.it/ . Please contact the Internship & Placement Office directly. Career Advisers are referrals for curricular internships with ECTS ONLY.

If I have already obtained ECTS for curricular internship activities, can I still take advantage of the Business, Media and Organizational Communication internship tutoring service?
The service is aimed at first- and second-year students who owe the curricular internship with ECTS. Students who have already carried out this activity can refer to the University Internship & Placement Service.

Is it possible to acquire internship ECTS in foreign companies or companies?
Yes, you can. The procedures for activating the internship abroad are described in the Regulations. Please note that the Internship & Placement Office provides forms in English for non-Italian-speaking institutional subjects.

Where can I find internship offers abroad?
Internship proposals abroad can be searched on the step.unicatt.it portal or on the UCSC International website .

Does the Internship & Placement portal also offer internship positions abroad?
Yes. To find internship positions abroad more quickly, it is advisable to scroll through the online internship notice board, then click on "search foreign advertisement". Attention: before leaving for any destination, do not forget to check the Farnesina website http://www.viaggiaresicuri.it/.

Where can I find internship offers abroad on the UCSC International website?
To get all the information about the internship abroad you can visit this website: https://studenticattolica.unicatt.it/stage-e-tesi-all-estero-stage-all-estero

Do foreign companies also have to register on the http://step.unicatt.it/ portal?
Yes, all companies with which you have an internship agreement must register on the step.unicatt.it portal. This procedure must also be carried out in the case of companies already listed on the UCSC International portal. The company carries out the registration procedure, entering its data and the student's training project, following the "Curricular Internship with ECTS" path. Registration on the step.unicatt.it portal is essential for the internship to be recognized for curricular purposes (i.e. it produces ECTS). It is necessary to complete the entire procedure before departure.

How can I get my internship ECTS acquired abroad recognised?
As described in the Regulations, the recognition of internship ECTS provides for the same procedure in use for curricular internships with ECTS in Italian companies. In the face of the company's positive evaluation (by means of a questionnaire to be uploaded on the step.unicatt.it portal), the registration of the internship takes place only through registration for the appropriate roll call (similarly to exams). There is only one session per session and it is the responsibility of students to register on the most suitable date according to their career path. The last available exam session will be 15 days before the chosen graduation session. The exam dates for the registration of internships can be consulted on this page and are updated by the offices periodically.

Is there financial support for curricular internships abroad?
Students doing their internship abroad can apply for a scholarship. Once the agreement has been activated (see the Regulations), it is possible to contact UCSC International to acquire the documentation necessary for the request for financial support. Please note that the request for financial support can only be considered on condition that the registration procedures on the http://step.unicatt.it/ portal have been completed.

How long will it take for me to obtain the training ECTS after the submission of the required documentation?
Internship recognition takes place only through registration for the appropriate session (similarly to exams). The ECTS of the internship activity will be uploaded automatically after the closing of the exam, according to the administrative timing not dependent on the Career Advisers.

Through the Self Branding and Job Positioning workshop, participants are trained and facilitated to become more aware of their abilities and clarify their professional goals; It is a course divided into modules with a highly practical slant, a fundamental moment for the students in order to learn concepts and tools to better face their entry into the world of work.

For this reason, it is developed to put participants in a position to train and facilitate a better awareness of their skills at the level of hard and soft skills, in collaboration with business professionals.

The aim of the course is also to guide participants to clarify their professional goals in a conscious way.

To facilitate active participation, there are 2 editions that will run in parallel. For this reason, the students will be divided into two groups, at the beginning of the year, following an alphabetical division. All information will be provided by the teachers at the beginning of the year.

N.B. All students who intend to carry out the internship must take part in the workshop.

The workshop is structured in 5 modules, specifically:

• Module 1: Context analysis and development of self-branding, with practical exercises to become more aware of one's skills and clarify professional objectives;
• Module 2: Emotional intelligence and modalities for managing stress and performance anxieties in the professional field;
• Module 3: How to write a CV in Resume format, how to create your own video CV (self tape), how to open your LinkedIn page.
  At the end of the form, participants will be asked to upload their CVs (complete with link to their LinkedIn profile) on the dedicated Blackboard page. This work will be evaluated for the approval of the workshop itself;
•  Module 4: activities with business professionals dedicated to providing practical guidance on placement and how to best perform during an interview (online and face-to-face);
•  Module 5: practical information will be shared on where to look for internships/jobs, with practical information on the activation of the internship; There will be an in-depth study of the professional roles and employment opportunities of the course of study.
  

Throughout the year, opportunities are created with partner companies that allow students to put into practice the skills learned during teaching. For more info on the Smart Goal project click here