Promoter of transnational relations

Unipi Team Leader: Francesco Marcelloni, Vice-Rector for International Cooperation and Relations

The Mobility Consortium PRT-"Promoter of transnational relations" was born from the long lasting cooperation among six large and medium Italian Universities: the Universities of Pisa, Padua, Trieste, Catania and Venice: Ca' Foscari and Iuav.
The objective of the project was to organize traineeship mobility so that participants, from different degree courses, could acquire soft and hard skills and could be able, after the mobility experience, to work in international contexts, having developed transnational relations between the business world and its stakeholders.
The project intended to respond to the needs in term of skills, expressed by local companies and employers. Through the research work carried out in particular by the labour market Observatory of the University of Padua, we are able to understand better these needs and one of the key demands by companies is to have graduates able to work in international contexts, able to work using foreign languages and to network also at a transnational level.
The project addressed students of all the disciplines with a greater attention to students in social, political sciences and humanities, who usually encounter more difficulties in entering the world of work and need to have in their curriculum some qualified international traineeship experiences, to increase their employability.
During the academic year 2016/17 the Consortium organised 219 traineeship mobilities, and 185 were funded with Erasmus funds.
The traineeships have had an average duration of three months and 17 days and took place mainly in hosting partners such as: language schools, law firms, consultancy firms, local bodies, corporations, banks, chambers of Commerce, international foundations, museums, libraries, NGOs, research institutes and universities.
Hosting partners were 195 in 25 different countries. 69 participants were recent graduates.
Most of the participants considered that the training activities were relevant and in line with their educational programme and would work in the hosting organization if they had the chance. Almost all participants are satisfied with the mobility experience.
More than half of the participants said they could not face the mobility experience without the grant, and this gives an idea of the importance of the program for the students, for the enrichment of their training path and for the fundamental contribution that the program gives to internationalization of curricula.
As for the qualitative objectives of internships, participants generally have acquired the skills and competencies that had been foreseen in the learning agreements.
The skills were those required by companies working in a globalised context: skills related to the use of foreign languages in the workplace, hard skills related to the study course, but above all soft skills such as communication, networking, problem-solving skills.
By analyzing the participants report we can see that more than 90% of the participants thinks their problem solving skills are improved, they have learned better how to plan and carry out their learning independently, learned better how to see the value of different cultures, they are more able to cooperate with people from other backgrounds and cultures, and they know better their strengths and weaknesses. The majority of the participants found that their language proficiency in a foreign language has improved during the mobility.
The absolute majority of participants believe that they will have more opportunities to find a job after the mobility, they have clearer ideas about their professional goals, and almost all participants would like to work in an international environment.

Coordinator:  UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA (Italy) 

Other participants: 

UNIVERSITA CA' FOSCARI VENEZIA (Italy)
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI CATANIA (Italy)
UNIVERSITA IUAV DI VENEZIA (Italy)
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TRIESTE (Italy)
UNIVERSITA DI PISA (Italy)

Start date: 01-06-2016

End date: 31-09-2017

EU Grant: 316.650 €