Policy
Academic Board (CAD) for Aerospace Engineering
Policy on relationships with the business world
1. Motivations and objectives
In the frame of virtuous competition between the schools of aerospace engineering in Italy, and taking account of the difficult economic situation of our country, particularly in relation to access by young people to the world of work, we believe we must address the problem of the relationship between the Sapienza aerospace educational system and the companies, agencies, and research centres. So as to operate as effectively as possible in relation to the world of work in general, any action taken should be fully coordinated between the Academic Board and the Masters and PhD courses, and could aim for the following main goals:
- to improve the visibility,to aerospace companies, of the teaching offer at Sapienza, by representing the content and value of our Level 1, 2, and 3 Aerospacecourses as effectively as possible
- to improve the quality and number of students enrolled on our Aerospace Engineering courses, within the framework of a teaching system that proactively constructs a virtuous relationship between the university and the companies
- to understand the requirements and expectations of companies in relation to the professional profiles of our graduates
- to quantify the assessments made by companies of the skills and abilities of our graduates
- to improve the assessment of our teaching system in the metrics published by ANVUR [the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research Systems] in relation to access to employment by graduates
- to exploit the opportunities offered by theNew Apprenticeship In High-Level Training And Research1
- to promote internships with companies, or with training and research centres, in the European countries that participate in the Erasmus Placement2 programme
- to improve the effectiveness of our traineeship activities, increasing the numbers of students involved in them and ensuring a level of commitment that is adequate for academic learning.
2. Placement
The university offers a job placement3 service that concentrates on the transitional phase of the recent graduate from the university into the job market, aiming to speed up this process and to match the demand to the offer by disseminating information about work opportunities. For Aerospace students, a significant role is played by the SOUL portal (Sistema Orientamento Università Lavoro-University to Work Guidance System) which is used to manage curricular and postgraduate work placements.
This placementservice is dedicated (evidently) to all Sapienza graduates, but does not appear to be at the same level as the service offered by other universities; see, for example, the job placement and apprenticeship pages on the website of the University of Turin4, where the interventions offered (e.g., training courses for the acquisition of Masters and PhDs) are supported by specific employment policies of the Piedmont Regional Government5.
The Alma Laurea service, an inter-university national placement consortium, is also active at Sapienza.
The Academic Board supports students throughout their university career: at entry, during their studies, and when they leave as newly qualified graduates ready to begin their career. The SARA (Sapienza Aerospace Alumni) LinkedIn group has been operating for two years and has about 300 graduate members, to whom the Academic Board regularly sends information on job opportunities announced by companies in the sector.
3. Tools and methodology
The Academic Board intends to promote contacts with public and private entities in the aeronautics and space sector (governmental bodies, agencies, research organisations, and companies) for the purpose of understanding the expectations of current work environments in terms of technical skills, and to make it easier for the profiles of our graduates to be identified by informing those bodies and firms about the content and characteristics of our education offer.
The inclusion of an apprenticeship as part of our academic pathway meets the requirement that the student should become knowledgeable about company life and experience it, and is common practice in almost all the most important European aerospace schools. The Academic Board intends to promote job placement for its students by offering traineeships and apprenticeships of the types identified by the law, supported by the relevant Sapienza administration departments and explaining how to comply with current legislative requirements. An internship should last for 2 - 3 months and should award recognised credits independently of the degree thesis; it might take place, for example, immediately after attaining a Bachelor's or Master's Degree.
The Academic Board will liaise closely with the management of the Masters and PhD courses to avoid using resources inefficiently or repeating the same action twice, with the fundamental aim of intervening on the teaching so that it provides specific placement opportunities for each academic level.
In relation to the foregoing and by agreement with the management of the PhD, Masters, and training courses, joint working groups will be set up, as appropriate, with institutions and companies.
The following action is expected over the short and medium term:
- provide informational material to companies about the educational pathways at Aerospace
- hold meetings/workshops with companies to identify pathways/objectives of common interest in relation to job placement
- distribute a questionnaireto companies and bodies in order to
i) assess their level of satisfaction with the preparedness of new Sapienza graduates6 and
ii) obtain their views as to the value of the education imparted to the student, in relation to company expectations
- review our current organisation of traineeships.
1 - Legislative Decree no. 167 of 14 September 2011 introduced significant innovations on apprenticeships, as contractual tools aimed at training and employment for young people. The consolidated law sets out three types of apprenticeship:
1. Apprenticeship for a qualification and a professional degree: for young people aged 15 - 25.
2. Professional apprenticeship or vocational contract: for young people aged 18 - 29 (+364 days), aimed at learning a trade or obtaining a professional qualification.
3. Apprenticeship in high level training and research: for young people aged 18 - 29.
Within the area covered by type 3, in relation to the bodies that are signatories to the Memorandum of Understanding, the contract for gaining an upper secondary educational qualification or a university and higher educational qualification, including masters, PhDs, and research, can be activated in all sectors.
2 - http://www.uniroma1.it/internazionale/studiare-allestero/tirocini-allestero
3 - http://www.uniroma1.it/didattica/placementT
4 - http://www.unito.it/servizi/lo-studio/job-placement/apprendistato
5 - http://www.regione.piemonte.it/innovazione/innovazione/notizie/piano-straordinario-per-loccupazione-asse-ii-competitivit-misura-ii.-1-innovation-voucher.html
6 - Avoiding overlaps with similar action at the national and European levels