What is an internship and what is it for
An internship is a training period with a company or professional body which is relevant to your studies. It represents an opportunity to broaden the knowledge you gain during your degree course studies, an important contribution to your professional and personal growth, and a support for future professional choices.
More particularly, an internship is a useful experience for:
- recognizing the importance of a high-quality, multidisciplinary theoretical and practical competence in the production process
- experimenting in practice the knowledge and skills acquired in class
- understanding the complexity of the world of work and acquiring the first skills for managing this complexity.
The internship:
- is compulsory and must take place in the second year of the degree course.
- To start the internship, you must have already obtained at least 30 ECTS. Any requests for exception to this requirement must be motivated and submitted for approval to the Delegate for Internships via email to stage.srs [at] unitn.it.
- grants 9 ECTS.
- must last at least 225 total hours to be carried out over a period not exceeding 12 months
- Internships lasting longer than 225 hours allow to acquire additional credits that will be deducted from those available for elective courses (1 credit for every additional 25 hours) up to a maximum of 13 credits in total.
- It is not considered a form of employment and is free of charge.
The internship:
- is compulsory and must take place in the second year of the degree course.
- To start the internship, you must have already obtained at least 30 ECTS. Any requests for exception to this requirement must be motivated and submitted for approval to the Delegate for Internships via email to stage.srs [at] unitn.it.
- grants 9 ECTS.
- must last at least 225 total hours to be carried out over a period not exceeding 12 months
- Internships lasting longer than 225 hours allow to acquire additional credits that will be deducted from those available for elective courses (1 credit for every additional 25 hours) up to a maximum of 13 credits in total.
- It is not considered a form of employment and is free of charge.
Internship regulation ("Disciplina delle attività di stage della laurea magstrale in Data Science") is available in Italian only.
Internship application
You can decide whether your internship will be:
- an internal internship at the university. To start an internal internship, send an email to stage.srs [at] unitn.it indicating whether you have already decided your internship activities and the name of a reference tutor
- an external internship, including the Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK).
To identify the host structure in which to carry out the external internship experience, you can:
- consult the internship offers and opportunities published on the page Internship and work placement opportunities | JobGuidance
- propose an internship at an organisation of your choice following the indications given on the page Start an internship | JobGuidance
- consult the internship offers abroad published on the page Traineeship abroad
- ask for support from individual instructors or the Delegate for Internships, professor Elena Pavan, email elena.pavan [at] unitn.it
Internship tutors
During your internship you will be supervised and assisted by:
- a university tutor, to be selected amongst all members of the teaching staff of the departments involved in the Master's Degree in Data Science, the members of its Master’s Management Committee, or amongst all instructors of courses offered by the Master's Degree in Data Science in the current academic year or in the one preceding the start date of the internship.
- a company tutor, who will be responsible for integrating the intern within the host institution, guarantees that the activities included in the training plan (see below) are carried out, and collaborates to the final evaluation of the internship. The company tutor interacts, even remotely, with the university tutor and is required to draw up an evaluation at the end of the internship.
In the case of an internal internship, the figures of the university tutor and the tutor of the host structure may coincide.
Training plan
Your internship depends on a Training Plan that you must design together with the company tutor and the university tutor. The training plan must include:
- the details of the intern
- the details of the university tutor
- the learning objectives, activities, and means for carrying out the internship
- the obligations of the parties involved.
Your internship can start exclusively after the contents and the conditions outlined in the Training Plan are approved by both the university and the company tutors
Internship in Italy: what to do
During the internship
During the internship you must keep an Internship Diary (see file attached).
Moreover, during your internship you will be subjected to the following obligations:
- You must comply with: the contents of your individual Training Plan, disciplinary regulations, organizational, safety and hygiene rules at work and the legislation on the protection of personal data;
- You must maintain, during and after the internship, the utmost confidentiality with regard to data, information or knowledge about production processes and products acquired during the internship
- You must obtain a formal authorization from the host structure for any report intended for third parties
- You must respect all instructions about the processing of personal data.
- If a code of conduct or internal regulations are present at the host organization, the intern is required to respect them.
Internship closure
For the closure of the Department of Sociology and Social Research internship, you are asked to submit the required documentation through three webform.
Step 1
Fill in the webform DSRS -Internship closing - Phase 1.
Upload the following documents:
- “Certificate part one of internship” (available in your Esse3 private area) signed by business mentor and by you
- the “Final Internship Report”
The Final Internship Report must consist of at least 5 pages, format A4, font ‘sans serif’ (such as ‘Arial’), minimum of 11 point and 1.5 line spacing and contain:
- presentation of the host
- analysis of the activity carried out during the internship period
- reference to the objectives defined in the internship project and analysis of their degree of achievement
- final consideration on the experience: evaluation of the experience from both an educational and relational point of view; assessment of the adequacy of their university preparation for carrying out the activity envisaged by the internship project
- satisfaction in terms of expectations and results
Once the form is filled out, the Job Guidance office will issue the “Internship part two certificate” on your Esse 3 private area: you must sign it and have it signed by your academic tutor.
Phase 2 (only for external internship)
Phase 2 is required only for external internship.
- As the academic tutor returns you the "Second part of internship certificate" signed in your reserved area in Esse3, upload it to the webform DSRS - Internship closure - Phase 2.
- Fill in and upload it in the DSRS - Internship evaluation - Student questionnaire.
Once the form “Phase 2” is filled out, the system automatically sends an email to the business tutor inviting him or her to fill out the “End-of-internship evaluation questionnaire”.
As soon as the tutor has completed the evaluation, you will receive a notification. Then the Stage office asks for approval of the internship by the Programme's President for ECTS registration.
Internship for working students
If you are a student working in a company/organization, you can carry out your internship there. The procedure you must follow in this case is the same as that of a regular internship but you also must:
- inform your university tutor that a formal employment relationship exists between you and the company/organization that is hosting you for the internship
- include in Training Plan a clear indication that a formal employment relationship is in place exists between you and the company/organization that is hosting you for the internship
- agree with the host organization that specific time will be devoted to conduct specific activities that are consistent with the objectives of the internship.
Internships that overlap with formal employment relationship can start exclusively after the contents and the conditions outlined in the Training Plan are approved by both the university and the company tutors.
Recognition of past professional activities
In exceptional cases, the internship can be replaced by recognition of past professional/training activities which are considered relevant to the degree course.
The activities for which recognition is requested must last at least 225 hours and at most 12 months; if the student does more than 225 hours then extra credits for elective courses – in addition to the compulsory 9 credits - can be recognised (1 credit for every 25 hours) up to a maximum of 13 credits in total.
Before requesting recognition, it is necessary to contact a professor of the degree program who is competent in the functions for which the student is requesting recognition, so that the professor can declare the activity relevant.
To apply for recognition, fill in the DSSR-Application for recognition language certifications and outside activity and attach:
- the certificate of the institution or company in which you carried out the activity, which must include the period and duration in hours
- a report written following the Work activity template
Postgraduate internships
You can do your internship after graduating: for more information please refer to the section Students and Graduates of the Job Guidance website.