Company internships

The Uni­ver­si­ty Intern­ship (TU) is part of the edu­ca­tion­al cur­ricu­lum and involves the acqui­si­tion of a pre­de­ter­mined num­ber of cred­its. For the Degree Course in Automa­tion Engi­neer­ing, “Ord. 270” (D.M. 270/2004), the cred­its assigned are 15 ECTS. Each trainee­ship is assigned a ref­er­ence num­ber called “code”.

A stu­dent can car­ry out two types of intern­ship: cur­ric­u­lar manda­to­ry or cur­ric­u­lar non-manda­to­ry. The term “cur­ric­u­lar” refers to the fact that the intern­ship is car­ried out by a stu­dent enrolled in the Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree pro­gram at Politec­ni­co. Manda­to­ry intern­ships are includ­ed in the study plan and give 15 ECTS (B.Sc. Degree only). Non-manda­to­ry intern­ships are not includ­ed in the study plan and do not give any ECTS.

There exist also extra-cur­ric­u­lar intern­ships, car­ried out after the com­ple­tion of the B.Sc. or M.Sc. Degree. Infor­ma­tion about the lat­ter can be found here.

Prof. Luca Fer­rari­ni and Prof. Fredy Ruiz Pala­cios are the pro­fes­sors of the Board of Stud­ies in Automa­tion Engi­neer­ing devot­ed to the man­age­ment of trainee­ships, whose duties are:

• Approve the trainee­ship offers, avail­able on the Uni­ver­si­ty intern­ship ser­vice por­tal or pro­posed by the stu­dent, based on their quality.
• Approve / Assign Aca­d­e­m­ic Tutors.
• Pro­vide a stu­dent ori­en­ta­tion service.

The aca­d­e­m­ic tutor has a role of con­trol and guar­an­tee. The choice of the Tutor depends on the sub­ject of the intern­ship. All teach­ers of the Poly­tech­nic can be Tutors, even if they have nev­er been teach­ers of the student.

As a rule, the stu­dent direct­ly con­tacts the most appro­pri­ate teach­ers accord­ing to the sub­ject of the intern­ship, and com­mu­ni­cates it to a del­e­gat­ed teacher. If the stu­dent can­not inde­pen­dent­ly find an Aca­d­e­m­ic Tutor avail­able, he can ask the del­e­gat­ed teach­ers for help.

It is empha­sized that a TU request can only refer to an activ­i­ty yet to be under­tak­en and not for the recog­ni­tion of an activ­i­ty already car­ried out.

Acti­va­tion of the internship

PHASE 1: Pro­ce­dure for iden­ti­fy­ing and start­ing internship

• Type A: TU avail­able on the Uni­ver­si­ty Intern­ship Ser­vice por­tal (career service). 
  • The stu­dent choos­es an intern­ship among the offers on the intern­ship por­tal man­aged by the Career Ser­vice of the Politec­ni­co di Milano and signs up for the inter­view for TU select­ed. The sec­re­tar­i­al activ­i­ties of the trainee­ship, and there­fore of bureau­crat­ic man­age­ment, are car­ried out by the Train­ing Area and specif­i­cal­ly by the “Career Ser­vice Stage”.
  • Once the inter­view is over, after obtain­ing the intern­ship code and the start / end date of the same, the stu­dent presents the pro­pos­al to the del­e­gat­ed teacher for approval, togeth­er with the pro­pos­al of Aca­d­e­m­ic Tutor. Clear­ly, approval is sub­ject to the agree­ment between the stu­dent and the teacher who will act as tutor. At this point, the stu­dent receives the Train­ing Project. It must be signed by the Aca­d­e­m­ic Tutor, the Com­pa­ny Tutor and the stu­dent him­self, and then it must be sent via email to tirocini-automazione-deib@polimi.it, at least 2 work­ing days before TU start date.
  • At this point, the stu­dent can begin TU.
• Type B: Autonomous search for TU pro­pos­al. If the type talks have failed and / or the pro­pos­als on the Politec­ni­co stage por­tal are not con­sid­ered inter­est­ing, the stu­dent can inde­pen­dent­ly seek an offer from anoth­er com­pa­ny (of which he is not an employ­ee). How­ev­er, in this case, the pro­pos­al must be approved by the del­e­gate pro­fes­sor and the pro­ce­dure is as follows: 
  • The stu­dent presents to the del­e­gat­ed teacher, dur­ing his recep­tion hours or prefer­ably by mail, a writ­ten pro­pos­al, writ­ten by the Com­pa­ny on head­ed paper (or sent by com­pa­ny email address), con­tain­ing the fol­low­ing infor­ma­tion: Com­pa­ny data — data of the stu­dent — descrip­tion of the trainee­ship and tasks of the stu­dent — expect­ed dura­tion, begin­ning and end, pos­si­ble Aca­d­e­m­ic Tutor.
  • If the del­e­gat­ed teacher approves the pro­pos­al and approves / assigns an Aca­d­e­m­ic Tutor (also in this case the approval is sub­ject to the agree­ment between the stu­dent and the teacher who will act as tutor), the stu­dent can con­tin­ue with the com­ple­tion of the prac­tices; oth­er­wise it must look for a new TU proposal.
  • Once the pro­pos­al has been approved, if the com­pa­ny already has an agree­ment with the Politec­ni­co, it must insert the offer on the web­site of the Uni­ver­si­ty Intern­ship Ser­vice fol­low­ing the pro­ce­dure for the inser­tion with the can­di­date already select­ed. After reg­is­tra­tion, the pro­pos­al will be read again and eval­u­at­ed (hav­ing already been accept­ed to sug­gest send­ing mail to the del­e­gat­ed teacher who approved it with the code of the intern­ship in order to speed up the approval). If the com­pa­ny does not have an agree­ment with the Politec­ni­co, it must first con­tact the Uni­ver­si­ty Career Ser­vice office to acti­vate the Convention.
  • Once the intern­ship has been approved, the stu­dent can fol­low the stan­dard procedure.
• Type B (employ­ees): If the stu­dent is already employed by the Com­pa­ny, the pro­ce­dure is instead the following: 
  • In this case, the pri­or approval of the CCS is required, which is obtained by send­ing a writ­ten train­ing pro­pos­al, writ­ten by the Com­pa­ny on head­ed paper, con­tain­ing the fol­low­ing infor­ma­tion: Com­pa­ny data — stu­dent data — descrip­tion of the trainee­ship and tasks of the stu­dent — expect­ed dura­tion, begin­ning and end, name and busi­ness func­tion of the Com­pa­ny Tutor.
  • The del­e­gat­ed teacher, by del­e­ga­tion of the CCS, pro­ceeds to eval­u­ate the pro­pos­al. The prac­tice becomes the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the CCS and not the intern­ship ser­vice, there­fore the stu­dent will not qual­i­fy as an ear­ly trainee, but as an employ­ee; it fol­lows that his sit­u­a­tion will be man­aged separately.

PHASE 2: Con­duct of the Intern­ship / Internship

• The trainee per­forms the activ­i­ty of TU at the com­pa­ny’s head­quar­ters in the times and in the ways spec­i­fied in the approved Train­ing Project.
• Major changes in the activ­i­ties and meth­ods of exe­cu­tion must be agreed with the Aca­d­e­m­ic Tutor and report­ed to the CS delegate.
  
• Any changes in the dura­tion of TU in progress must be agreed with the aca­d­e­m­ic tutors, the com­pa­ny and the del­e­gat­ed professor.
  

Once the vari­a­tion has been con­firmed, the Com­pa­ny will have to inform the “Career Ser­vice Stage” of the change for updat­ing the Train­ing Project.

PHASE 3: Con­clu­sion of the Internship

• At the end of TU, the stu­dent pre­pares the final Trainee­ship Report (form that can be down­loaded from the por­tal). The stu­dent also pre­pares an addi­tion­al report, at least 30 pages, in free for­mat, which must be approved by the Com­pa­ny Tutor.
• The Com­pa­ny Tutor com­pletes his own Final Trainee­ship Report (form down­load­able from the portal).
• The stu­dent presents to the Aca­d­e­m­ic Tutor the final Trainee­ship Report and the addi­tion­al report (signed in orig­i­nal) and the enve­lope with the final report of the Com­pa­ny Tutor who can pro­ceed with the assign­ment of the trainee­ship cred­its through the trainee­ship por­tal. In his absence, the stu­dent will deliv­er the 3 doc­u­ments above to the Stu­dent Office.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Is there a min­i­mum dura­tion and a max­i­mum of a TU ?
The min­i­mum dura­tion is 480 hours, or 3 months full time. The max­i­mum dura­tion 12 months. Gen­er­al­ly, we do not rec­om­mend a TU over 6 months.

When can I start TU ?
The CCS does not place restric­tions on the start date. This depends on the agree­ments between the stu­dent and the com­pa­ny. The only con­straint is on the min­i­mum dura­tion. Indeed, it is not manda­to­ry to do it dur­ing the semes­ter of inser­tion in the study plan. There are no restric­tions on the num­ber of cred­its incurred beforehand.

What are the require­ments to be able to do a TU ?
There are no con­straints on the min­i­mum num­ber of cred­its to be achieved to car­ry out the trainee­ship or on the aver­age. This does not mean that a com­pa­ny can select among sev­er­al can­di­dates also based on these parameters.

Am I oblig­ed to car­ry out TU full time ? In addi­tion, if I have to take cours­es, how can I do ?
The CCS does not impose con­straints on the way in which TU is dis­trib­uted. This depends on the agree­ments between the stu­dent and the com­pa­ny. The only con­straint is on the min­i­mum dura­tion in hours (480). If the num­ber of week­ly hours is between 21 and 40, we talk about full time, if less than 20 we talk about part-time.

To fol­low the cours­es dur­ing the day, could I take a few hours of my TU in the evening or on Saturday?
The legal train­ing can be done only on week­days, from Mon­day to Fri­day, at most for 8 hours a day exclud­ing lunchtime, dur­ing the day, there­fore from 7 am to 9 pm as extremes.

Where can I car­ry out TU ?
TU was invent­ed to expose the stu­dent to the busi­ness real­i­ty already in the uni­ver­si­ty peri­od. There­fore, typ­i­cal­ly it is done in a com­pa­ny. It can be done both in Italy and out­side Italy.

How long before the date of the degree exam must I fin­ish TU ?
TU, like the exams, must be reg­is­tered in the stu­dent career by the final date sched­uled for the exams. The School pub­lish­es these dates.

My TU is manda­to­ry or optional.
Manda­to­ry means with cred­its, while option­al means with­out credits.

Should I look for the Aca­d­e­m­ic Tutor ?
Yes. The del­e­gat­ed pro­fes­sor assigns the Aca­d­e­m­ic Tutor, but it is the stu­dent who must take care of con­tact­ing him and look­ing for his avail­abil­i­ty. The stu­dent must con­tact (in per­son, tele­phone or mail) a pro­fes­sor who teach­es cours­es and car­ries out research activ­i­ties “close” to the top­ics of TU. For sim­plic­i­ty it is advis­able, although not manda­to­ry, to start with pro­fes­sors of the CCS Automa­tion Engi­neer­ing. The pro­fes­sors are pre­pared to under­stand the requests of TU and informed about the pro­ce­dures to be fol­lowed. In case of prob­lems you can con­tact the del­e­gate (SAT — Aca­d­e­m­ic Fac­ul­ty structure).

I entered TU in my study plan, but I can­not find any com­pa­ny that will host me for an intern­ship. What can I do ?
Insert­ing TU into the study plan is a free choice, not an oblig­a­tion. Com­pa­nies are also not forced to host all stu­dents who apply. In this case the stu­dent must there­fore change the study plan as soon as pos­si­ble (gen­er­al­ly, in the fol­low­ing semes­ter) replac­ing TU with new cours­es, not pre­vi­ous­ly includ­ed, whose cred­its cor­re­spond to the val­ue of TU (15.0). The com­pa­ny search typ­i­cal­ly lasts 1–3 months.

I entered TU in my study plan, but the SAT del­e­gate did not approve the pro­pos­al I received inde­pen­dent­ly from a company.
You have two pos­si­bil­i­ties: 1) to search for a new pro­pos­al inde­pen­dent­ly or through the Politec­ni­co por­tal, and present it to the SAT Del­e­gate for approval; 2) change the cur­ricu­lum as soon as pos­si­ble, gen­er­al­ly, in the fol­low­ing semes­ter) replac­ing TU with new cours­es, not includ­ed previously.

I am a Mas­ter’s degree stu­dent. Can I do a TU ?
Tech­ni­cal­ly not. TU is fore­seen in the study plan for a three-year degree only. How­ev­er, he can do an intern­ship, or a peri­od of train­ing in the com­pa­ny, with zero cred­its. In addi­tion, the intern­ship, as any activ­i­ty man­aged by Politec­ni­co di Mil­no, must have a pro­fes­sor asso­ci­at­ed with it. For orga­ni­za­tion­al sim­plic­i­ty, it was decid­ed to equate the man­age­ment and the bureau­cra­cy of the intern­ships with the option­al TUs.

I am a Mas­ter’s Degree stu­dent. Can I do a the­sis with an internship ?
The the­sis is an activ­i­ty inde­pen­dent of the stage. How­ev­er, noth­ing pre­vents the the­sis super­vi­sor and the Aca­d­e­m­ic Tutor of an intern­ship from being the same per­son. How­ev­er, remem­ber that the stage / TU is an activ­i­ty reg­u­lat­ed by law and there­fore it is not pos­si­ble, for exam­ple, to do an intern­ship just to make a one-week vis­it to a company.

What is meant by extra-cur­ric­u­lar internship ?
An intern­ship car­ried out out­side the stu­dent cur­ricu­lum, that is, car­ried out after graduation.

Who man­ages the internships ?
The com­pul­so­ry place­ments are man­aged by the SAT / CCS of Automa­tion Engi­neer­ing. The del­e­gates are Prof. Luca Fer­rari­ni (luca.ferrarini@polimi.it) for type B intern­ships (inde­pen­dent­ly searched) and prof. Fredy Ruiz Pala­cios (fredy.ruiz@polimi.it) for type A intern­ships (avail­able on the Career Ser­vice por­tal). Doc­u­ments can be deliv­ered and col­lect­ed at the Stu­dent Office, DEIB ground floor, build­ing 20 (tirocini-automazione-deib@polimi.it).

The option­al place­ments are man­aged by the Career Ser­vice (+39 02.2399.2535, careerservice.stage@polimi.it).