Innovation and Technology Management

The Internship is an alternative to the second year Field Project. Internships offer students the chance to access the world of work in order to experience and apply the concepts learned in university and to evaluate their real motivation when stepping into a professional role.
An internship represents an opportunity for professional and personal growth and enhances the student's study curriculum as it is integrative to individual study and the university learning process.
They can be seen as a moment of experimentation, a way to try out a particular career which enables students to see the connection between knowledge acquired at university and how it is applied in a particular organisation.
Since the University understands how important internships are, they are now included in most of its academic programmes as credit-bearing activities.
The project internship is a work-related experience in organisations (companies and institutions) which offers the opportunity to approach the job market and enhances the learning progress.
The University considers this experience as part of the learning process, together with lectures and individual study.

Three different typologies of internships are offered:

1. Partner Internship: Opportunities of Internship delivered by the MSc. Partners can vary in time. Partners companies have the priority in evaluating the students' CV and will contact and select the students autonomously.
2. Free Internship: Students can find an Internship in companies different from MSc Partners on their own. In this case, they must follow the standard Università Cattolica's procedures through the Internship and Placement office.
3. UCSC Department Internship: Some Internships could be offered by Departments of Università Cattolica, aimed at participating in a research project jointly developed by Università Cattolica's researchers and by companies.

Requirements to accrue the 8 ECTS:

• The content of the internship must be consistent with the educational objectives of the MSc programme: the student is involved in innovation and technology projects;
• The duration of the Internship must be at least 3 months;
• The Internship must start from September onwards in the second academic year.

For the assessment of the Internship, students must deliver three main documents which will be evaluated in a mark out of 30 by the Academic Committee and the Internship will account for 8 ECTS. Details and forms are available on the ITEM Student Community on the Blackboard platform. The three main documents are:

a) Report: the report and the Master's Dissertation must be clearly discernible, both respectively characterised by a specific and different aim. In fact, this dissertation is the student's individual work on a specific topic connected to the job developed during the internship.

b) Monthly register: the monthly register is a formal document that has to confirm the presence and working activities of the student signed by the company tutor.

c) Final evaluation of the working activity of the student by the company tutor.

The Stage Digital (SD), created in partnership between the Faculty of Economics of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC) and Guilds42 (platform that offers 250 MOOC certification paths on digital issues – website: https://www.guilds42. com/), offers students the opportunity to acquire the skills necessary to use the main tools adopted by companies in the digital field (e.g.  Google Ads, Salesforce, Shopify, Hubspot, SEO) and to apply them by developing a project for a company.

The SD, corresponding to 8 ECTS:

• is offered to MSc students who meet the following prerequisites: (1) exam mark average of 26; (2) ECTS achieved by the beginning of the SD: at least 40.
• consists of two parts:
  • Certification path in Digital issues, aimed at achieving a coherent cluster of digital skills;
  • Apprentice path (Percorso di Bottega), which consists of a project for a company to be carried out in groups of 5-6 components.

The SD has a minimum duration of 3 months. The  minimum 12 weeks are divided as follows:

• 4 weeks for the first UC Certification Cluster;
• 8 weeks for the project and the second UC Certification Cluster;
• The minimum training hours (Cluster 1 + Cluster 2) will be about 250-300.

The following Streams are offered:

Stream 1 – Business development

• Cluster 1 (150 hrs) – Lead Generation (Google Analytics - Content Marketing - Social Media - LinkedIn - Inbound Marketing - Marketing Cloud Basics - Graphic Design Basics - SEO Certification Course)
• Cluster 2 (150 hrs) -  to be chosen among: Digital Marketing – Tech – Machine Learning – Artificial Intelligence

Stream 2 -  CRM & E-Commerce

• Cluster 1 (150 hrs) – CRM & E-Commerce (Salesforce - Inbound Sales - Hubspot - Ecommerce Marketing - Amazon eCommerce Management - eDock Fundamentals  - Designing for Conversion - Google Analytics);
• Cluster 2 (150 hrs) to be chosen among: Business development - Tech - Machine Learning - Artificial Intelligence.

Schedule

• Application deadline -  November 30, 2022
• Selection and admission of Students by UC -  December 2022
• Starting Date: Second semester A.Y. 2022-2023 - March 2023

Evaluation

The overall evaluation, expressed in a mark out of 30, will consider the results obtained by the student between the certification path and the Apprentice path, as well as the consistency of the path followed and the commitment made by the student.

The UC Coordinator will be assisted by the Guilds42 coordinator, who will issue a standard assessment for each student, divided into two levels:

• Individual evaluation of the overall Certification Path (in both phases of the SD). It is automatically calculated by the Dashboard system through a specific metric;
• Individual evaluation of the work done by the students in the Bottega, which is carried out by the Project coordinator.

Contacts

UC Coordinator: Prof. Marco Minciullo (marco.minciullo@unicatt.it)

• Prof. Alfredo D'Angelo (Internship Coordinator & Member of the evaluation Committee)
  
• Prof. Marco Minciullo (Digital Stage Coordinator & Member of the evaluation Committee)
• Prof. Viviana D'Angelo (Internship Tutor) viviana.dangelo@unicatt.it

Preparation for the Graduate Degree Dissertation begins during the second year. Under the supervision of one of the Professors of the programme, students will be asked to submit an original research proposal and give some ideas of the research plan. The Graduate Degree Dissertation must fulfil the originality and autonomy requirements. Two main features will be evaluated:

• Capability of autonomous development of a research project, conceptualised in research questions;
• Articulation of a research project that highlights a) correct use of sources, data and methodologies, b) ability of the student to elaborate pattern of analysis and discussion of findings; c) control of results in terms of implications and contributions in literature.

Some conditions must be respected. The dissertation accounts for 12 ECTS. It is estimated that the student will be engaged in this research work for about 5 months (Internship included). The whole work is approximately 80-100 pages long. The content is to be structured as follows: a) brief conceptual introduction of the topic (some literature references); b) development of the project taken in the internship; c) discussion and managerial suggestions.

The student is evaluated in a range from 0 to 4 points:

• 0-1: the Dissertation doesn't respect the conditions regarding its different status from the report. The requirements of autonomous development and correct articulation of the research project aren't satisfied. Originality and critical analysis aren't demonstrated due to a mere description and summary of the topic of research.
• 2-3: the Dissertation has partially reached the main features of autonomous development and correct articulation of the research project. It moderately demonstrates originality and critical analysis.
• 4: the Dissertation has met the main purposes demonstrating ability of autonomous development and correct articulation of the research project through an original and critical analysis.

According to the proposal of 4 points for the Dissertation or in order to confer honours, the Supervisor has to anticipate a written and reasoned motivation to the Degree Committee. The attribution of honours depends on the curriculum, final grade average and achievement of the 4 points.

During the academic years and beyond traditional frontal lessons, round tables, seminars and workshops, training days, company visits and courses off UCSC Milan Campus are only some of the numerous initiatives planned. All these activities are integral parts of the academic programme and for this reason the presence of each student will be registered.

Round Table – this event is a discussion panel structured with an agenda according to which, after the introduction by the Dean or the Organising Committee, different business speakers talk about a specific topic moderated by a Professor.

Seminars – these initiatives are presentations and discussions by invited speakers taking places in specific courses, in line with the goals of the courses.

Training days – these events are special free days organized by Partner Companies for enhancing a specific student's competency.

Company visits – these activities are proposed by Partner Companies in order to allow students to directly learn about the work environment and culture of a company.

This Master of Science encourages all the experiences abroad such as Exchange Programmes, Summer Schools, etc. It has to be highlighted that due to its innovative structure and knowledge-intensive schedule, the suggested period to go abroad is during the summer holiday or in the first term of the second year. All students' requests to attend international programmes and take exams in foreign Universities are evaluated only by the Exchange Committee, that is a specific commission different from the ITEM Coordination Committee (the latter is not allowed to accomplish these procedures). Regarding applications and courses' match, each student must follow the standard UCSC procedure that is the same for all the Masters of Science/Graduate Degree Programmes of our University and the UCSC International Office is at your disposal for additional information. In order to speed up the process, it is recommended to apply for the exchange programme as soon as possible

The programme of the two-year Master of Science will be supplemented with a 30-hour semester-long course, made up of seminars and/or single-subject lectures, the topics of which will depend on decisions made by the Theology teaching board.