Increasing Learning Opportunities in the job market

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

The ‘Increasing Learning Opportunities in the job market’ (ILO) Mobility Consortium acts both as a prosecution and as an expansion of the long-standing cooperation among partner universities in the field of traineeships abroad. The Consortium is coordinated by the University of Padova in partnership with IUAV University of Venice, the University of Pisa, the University of Catania, the University of Trieste and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
Its main goal is to increase the employability of the courses offered, and the qualifications awarded by the various universities, by giving students the chance to acquire or further develop the skills demanded by companies and to develop cooperation with international firms useful for their future job.
172 grants have been awarded for traineeships abroad, of which 160 financed by EU funds.
The fields of study that were more involved are the following:
- Economics
- Medicine
- Natural Sciences
- Architecture
- Psychology
- Foreign Languages
- Engineering
Students and recent graduates in all types of courses offered by partner universities have had the opportunity to benefit from a hands-on learning approach based on practical activities to be carried out in a work environment; this being the main goal, attention has been paid to the quality of receiving institutions. Different types of institutions were chosen in order to meet students’ needs, among which are the following:
- universities and research centres (for students wishing to carry out either thesis work or research activities during job placement)
- language schools and translation and interpretation agencies
- small and medium-size manufacturing enterprises
- public bodies
- chambers of commerce
- hospitals
- local and governmental institutions
- large companies
- associations, foundations and NGOs
- architectural firms
- museums and libraries
- law firms
- tourism enterprises
- consultancy firms
- schools of different levels of education.
As far as the goals of specific traineeships are concerned, participants have generally acquired the relevant skills. In particular, they have had the possibility to acquire or further develop:
- key competences such as e-skills, entrepreneurship, critical thinking and problem solving
- hard skills with reference to their field of study and the use of foreign languages at work
- soft skills such as promoting business relationships with enterprises, institutions and associations outside their own country, creating networks, debating, public speaking, mediating and negotiating, synthesizing information and accommodating conflicting interests.
As far as recognition is concerned, then, results are equally satisfactory: although the process is still ongoing for mobility periods ending in September, the vast majority of students has so far obtained credit recognition for their traineeship mobility.
Funding has been distributed among the six participating universities based on the requests of each of them. Every single university has played a pivotal role and has contributed to the project by performing key functions and carrying out core activities through its own office responsible for the implementation of Erasmus+ traineeship projects.

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: 01-06-2017

End date: 30-09-2018

EU Grant: 285.617 €