Guides to the university

WBB program students may include an internship/traineeship experience (hereinafter internship) or an activity similar to an internship. These activities are worth 6 credits, as an alternative to an elective course in the fourth year of the program (see ‘Administrative rules, regulations and deadlines’).

In compliance with the same characteristics of curricular internships (see chapter 4.1 Characteristics of Curricular Internships), a second experience can be completed worth 6 credits, which will be recorded as an additional internship (see 4.4 Internship Recognition).
The additional credits shall not contribute to the GPA or result in an extra point for the ranking to access Master of Science programs. The first internship completed that complies with the characteristics of a curricular internship shall be recorded in the study plan within 180 CPs. Students therefore cannot choose which of the two experiences will be recognized within 180 CPs (see “Program Structure WBB”).

Other internship experiences may be completed during your studies or after graduation, which do not have credit point value and for which the information in the following paragraphs and sections does not apply: "Duration", "Positioning", "Internship Recognition", "Activities Similar to Internships and Recognition".

In this chapter, curricular internship stands exclusively for curricular internship for credit.

Curricular internships must have the following characteristics regarding duration, objectives and content, location and positioning.

Duration

• Minimum 8 full-time weeks, whether in Italy or outside Italy,
• minimum 11 weeks in case of part-time internships whether in Italy or outside Italy.

The number of weeks is understood as continuous and non-cumulative.
For variations on duration (postponement, suspension, withdrawal/interruption) see paragraph 4.5 'Postponement, Suspension, Withdrawal, Interruption'.

Objectives and content
The internship is an in-the-field training experience and not an employment contract. Its regulations are valid in Italy and are set by the law (national and regional law) and by the University. The main objective of internships is to educate.

They allow students to:

• learn about the world of work,
• developing professional skills and knowledge,
• facilitate their professional choices.

The content of internships must be aligned with the educational objectives of the Program.

Students who decide to attend the fourth year at Bocconi and choose to specialize their studies by taking one of the proposed tracks can choose to include the internship in place of a track course, on the condition that the internship experience is aligned with the selected track. Assessment of this alignment will be completed by the Program Director. If not aligned, the student will automatically be moved to the free track. The in the field experience includes a company tutor (professional expert) supporting the students.

Location
Internships may take place - in Italy and outside Italy - at companies, public and private institutions, professional firms, international organisms, diplomatic agencies, cultural institutions and other organizations (hereinafter company). Internships held on the premises of the participant's family property are not accepted. Internships whose activities are held remotely are not accepted. The University reserves the right to evaluate the eligibility of the internship location. The company tutor should be referred to for anything the student needs or the company needs within the University.

Positioning

The University places such experiences after the completion of learning activities which are fundamental to gaining basic theoretical knowledge. Students can therefore participate in an internship only after completing third-year lectures. Internships are registered in students' academic careers as a fourth-year educational activity. 
Students who decide to attend the fourth year at Bocconi University can take part in a curricular internship at the end of third-year teaching and during the fourth year.

Students who decide not to attend the fourth year at Bocconi University may complete a curricular internship only at the end of teaching of the third year and before the start of lectures for the fourth year at the chosen University.

The duration and content requirements for these internships remain unchanged compared to the requirements for curricular internships with the standard time location (see the paragraphs on duration, objectives and contents and location).
For more information on the recognition procedures, see paragraph 4.4. 'Internship recognition').

Bocconi University recognizes internships organized by any of the following parties:

• Market & Partners Organizational Unit (see information below);

• Bachelor of Science Program Direction.

Internships at highly qualified companies that are found through students’ own channels can also be recognized. In this case, the Internship Office will carefully monitor the internship opportunity. Students should ask the company to get in touch with the University, well in advance of the start of the internship, by accessing to the JobGate Portal.

The Market & Partners Organizational Unit promotes and makes available internship opportunities in Italy and abroad. For more information, please see the website: Campus and Services > Career Service.

In order to activate an internship, it must be formalized, i.e. governed by a document that regulates its aims and content. This document is the Internship Agreement, and it contains the internship’s training project.

Activation requires the following steps:

1. As the sole promoter for curricular internships, the University prepares all the necessary legal documentation, checks the quality of the content of the training project, and provides insurance coverage.
2. Once the student (hereinafter trainee) has been selected and the internship details have been agreed, the company fills out the internship document (entering information and content) by the Monday preceding the start of the internship. Internships always start on a Monday. Information relating to the internship will be visible to the trainee on JobGate in the “My Internships” area of yoU@B so that he/she can check that the content agreed upon by with the company during the interviews are coherent with the ones specified. The confirmation is valid as internship acceptance.
3. The Internship Office checks the training project and, after checking the coherence and its quality in accordance with the current laws, confirms the internship. The University can negotiate the content and conditions of the internship with the company and, in case of no agreement, may refuse to start the internship.
4. Before starting the internship, the student must:
   • request advance authorization from the University and wait until it has been granted;
   • access the course “Internship...Let’s Go!” available under Extracurricular Courses on the Bocconi BBoard platform.
5. On the first day of the internship, the company downloads the internship document from JobGate and it is signed by the trainee together with a company legal representative or delegated party. The original document is promptly sent by the company to the Internship Office so it can be signed by the University.
6. The trainee must ensure that the company sends the original copy of the document to the University. If it is not returned, the internship cannot be considered valid. The internship document, completed with all signatures, is uploaded on JobGate in the “My Internships - Attachments” area by the University to be used by the company and by the trainee.

Internships outside Italy are also activated through an Internship Agreement, in compliance with the procedure described above.

However, such internships can also be run with an internship contract between the trainee and the company or another document demonstrating practical educational experience according with the local laws where the internship experience is held. This documentation, along with a description of the internship activities and contact information for the company tutor, must be sent well in advance by the trainee to the Internship Office through the Help&Contact procedure on the yoU@B Diary before the internship starts. Internships which are not provided with such documentation and not sent in accordance with the timelines described above cannot be recognized as an internship by the University.

For internships completed outside Italy, trainees must verify with the company the methods for obtaining, if requested, the appropriate visa and any other required document so that the internship or work can be carried out in compliance with the law of the host country. If documentation from the University is also needed to support the visa request, the trainee can make reference to:

• the cert@B procedure for the official certifications,
• the Internship Office (through the Help&Contact procedure) for any ad hoc documents (see paragraph 4.8. Certifications and Documents).

For internships completed outside Italy trainees must fill out and sign an Indemnity on JobGate before departure, in which the student declares to be aware that the University cannot ensure security and solvency of the institution and the country in which he/she has freely decided to carry out the internship.
In addition, trainees may refer to International SOS to receive assistance regarding healthcare, safety, logistics or legal issues in emergency situations. Before beginning the internship, students must:

• view the “Bocconi Students Travel Risk Policy” (available on the yoU@B Diary)
• comply with the measures for mitigating risk suggested therein.

It is the student’s responsibility to take out healthcare insurance through a suitable international medical policy valid in the country where the internship will be completed for the entire duration of the stay, in particular in counties not covered by the European Health Insurance Card.

For some typologies of internships, the trainee and the company tutor are invited to fill out the mid-term evaluation form, indicatively one and a half months after the start of the experience. The trainee can view the form filled out by the company tutor and can decide whether to authorize the tutor to view the completed form.

Shortly before the end of the internship, the following end-of-internship documents must be filled out for the purposes of validation:

7. evaluation form filled out by the student via the yoU@B Diary with the final report (this report is ONLY for internships completed outside Italy);
8. evaluation form of the company tutor filled out on the JobGate. The evaluation by the company tutor includes information on the skills acquired.

Students have the full responsibility of making sure that the tutor has filled out the evaluation form. All end-of- internship documents are available to be filled out starting two weeks before the end of the internship.

At the end of the internship and upon request of the trainee, the company must issue an internship certification for his/her personal purposes.

All internship experiences must be approved in advance in order to ensure their consistency and coherence with the educational objectives of the study program the students are enrolled in. At the end of the internship, this experience is validated in order to obtain credit points. To obtain recognition of the internship, the steps described below must be followed.

Advance authorization
 

1. Before the beginning of the experience and after viewing the internship on JobGate and confirming it, the student must request the advance authorization by accessing the area ‘My internships’ and clicking on ‘Request internship recognition’.
2. The request is made viewable to the Program Director who can give approval, reject it or, for more information, ask the student to schedule a meeting.
3. The student views the request outcome in the ‘My internships’ area of the JobGate portal.

Note: without advance authorization, the internship is not started as a curricular internship.

Final validation

1. Once the internship has ended, the Program Director views the evaluation form filled out by the trainee and company tutor (end-of-internship documentation). If more information is needed, the Internship Office can ask the student to schedule a meeting.
2. Once final recognition has been obtained, the student can check the credit points recording in his/her academic career via the Punto Blu.

The University will carry out checks during the student’s internship in order to verify that the internship is actually taking place. In case the student is repeatedly missing, the internship will be annulled and the annulment communication will be forwarded to the student, the Program Director and the host company. In case of behavior contrary to the Honor Code or Regulations for University internships during the experience, the Internship Office may report students to the Disciplinary Board.

3. The Study Planning Office (Academic Affairs) records the internships credits by the graduation deadline set for the completion of the study plan. Generally, the internship needs to be completed by that date.

Uncompleted internships which have met the minimum duration of time indicated above can still be recognized in the student's academic career. The recognition is possible only if:

• the student has to graduate before the end of the internship;
• the student applies for a scholarship.

In these cases, at least one week before the set deadline for the completion of the study plan or the other deadlines indicated above, the student must:

• complete the end-of-internship documents within the time needed to record the internship in the student’s academic career;

• make an explicit request for recognition for early ending of the internship via the Help&Contact procedure.

Curricular internships are not compensated. At their discretion, companies may grant an allowance (monetary contribution).
For unpaid internships carried out abroad, for which no allowance is provided, scholarships may be given by Bocconi University.
Depending on the specific internship requirements, the following may be provided:

• Fondo Sostegno Giovani scholarship;
• ERASMUS+ scholarship;
• Contribution for internships at the MAECI institutions (Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation);
• Contribution for internships at international organizations.

For more information: www.unibocconi.eu/internshipfinaid. Bocconi contributions for international mobility are also available. For more information, please see: Funding > Other Financial Aid Opportunities > Contributions for International Mobility and Internship Programs.

• Before the internship or when it starts, students must send - via the Help&Contact procedure available on the yoU@B - a copy of the contract signed with the company to the Internship Office. Students must verify that the contract includes (or, as an alternative they must provide the following information in an attachment) the following information: name and company typology, field of the activity, number of employees, location, name and email address of a company reference person, period of the activity, description of activity and/or role.
• The Internship Office enters the information relating to the activity similar to the internship on the JoBGate and the student must request advance authorization from the Internship Office, by entering ‘My internships’ area in ‘Training project’ and clicking on ‘Request internship recognition’.
• At the end of the minimum of the duration for the internship recognition, students must upload, in the ‘My internships - attachments’ area, a short report including information on the experience and a declaration by the company certifying the presence of the student at the company in the period specified on the request of recognition. After this has been completed, students should inform the Internship Office through Help&Contact on yoU@B.
• After appropriate assessment the Internship Office will proceed with the final recognition in accordance with the procedure specified in paragraph 4.4.
  

To request certifications from the University specifying participation in a program of international mobility or in an internship, you must use the cert@B procedure available on the yoU@B Diary (see chapter 10 Certifications, Self-declarations). These types of certificates are subject to duty stamp fees. The documents described in the following paragraph are exceptions to this procedure.

• Declaration of completed internship: trainees must provide the address of the recipient of the declaration.
  In order to obtain this declaration, the internship needs to have already been recorded on JobGate and, in the case of curricular internships for credit, it needs to have been recorded on the academic career.

• To support a visa application or request: the student must provide the name and address of the company/intuition/diplomatic office/immigration office to address the declaration and the characteristics of the declaration.

These declarations are exempt from duty stamp fees. Requests for the above declarations must be sent to the Internship Office through Help&Contact on yoU@B.

Market & Partners Organizational Unit
Internship Office
Piazza Sraffa 11 - 20136 Milano
Help@Contact : available on the yoU@B

Career Service Infopoint
Piazza Sraffa 11 - 20136 Milano
Ph. +39 02 5836 2711
infocareer@unibocconi.it
http://www.cs.unibocconi.it/