The traineeship activities represent an opportunity to enhance the academic skills in the working environment.
The curricular traineeship is an unpaid training experience to be carried in a work environment and is regulated by a specific agreement between the University of Bologna and the single host organisation/company (companies, agencies, institutions, associations, cooperative organisations, etc.). It is a curricular activity (and thus compulsory), which is registered and approved by the School Traineeship Commission in a date fixed at any exam session.
The curricular traineeship is an unpaid training experience to be carried in a working environment and is regulated by a specific agreement between the University of Bologna and the single host organisation/company (companies, agencies, institutions, associations, cooperative organisations, etc.).
It is a curricular activity (and hence compulsory), registered and approved by the School Traineeship Commission on a date fixed at any exam session.
University credits awarded: 4
When to carry out a traineeship: the traineeship can be carried out in the 2nd or the 3rd academic year.
Traineeship application: All students are required to apply for the traineeship at the School's Secretariat for the Teaching Activities at the beginning of the academic year in which he/she wants to carry out the traineeship.
Duration: 100 hours
Academic period: The traineeship can be carried out in all academic periods of the year (including the summer months). For the students who carry out the traineeship during the lecture period , attendance is automatically recognised for all study courses. Students who carry out the traineeship during the exam sessions still have the chance to take the exams and can make up for the lost working days later on in agreement with the host organisation/company.
Insurance for 100 hours: the premium is paid by the University of Bologna
Costs for transport, board and lodging: paid for by the student.
- traineeship at an external organisation/company.
- traineeship at a University office/structure to be agreed with a School's teacher.
Who finds the host organisation/structure: The Traineeship Commission is responsible for finding traineeship opportunities within the province of Forlì-Cesena or surrounding areas. If a student wants to carry out the traineeship in other provinces or regions, he/she must specify the host organisation/company to the Traineeship Commission, which will assess the compliance of the traineeship opportunity proposed and will grant its approval, where appropriate.
Who assigns the student to the external organisation/company: The Traineeship Commission, which will base its decision on the student's preferences as specified in the traineeship application, where possible.
Contacts:
a. Traineeship Commission: Roberto Menin (President); Franco Bertaccini: Isabel Fernandez; Christopher Rundle; Daniela Zorzi.
b. Individual tutor: A teacher from the School, who will help the student to fill in the traineeship documentation and with any problems arising from the traineeship procedures. The School's tutor is selected and appointed by the Traineeship Commission and after which the student is informed.
c. Organisation/company coordinator: The traineeship coordinator at the host organisation/company will help the trainee to get acquainted with the working environment and procedures.
You can ask for work and training activities already carried out to be recognised, provided these activities are in compliance with the Degree Course objectives. This opportunity is especially offered to working students who are already involved in working activities within the study area.
Recognition is possible following a specific application made by the student. The application must be handed in to the Secretariat for the teaching activities and addressed to the Traineeship Commission.
To have a good chance of having your application accepted, students should contact a member of the Traineeship Commission who will advise them concerning any supplementary documentation. The student must specify the exact number of hours and the type of working activity to be carried out. All the documentation presented will be evaluated by the School’s Board of Teachers, which will deliberate upon the final approval. Traineeship recognition is not guaranteed.
When to do the traineeship
Students currently enrolled in the 2nd year can start the traineeship starting from 15th June 2004.
Students should start the traineeship by 15th June 2005, as the traineeship must be completed and duly registered before graduating.
- Traineeship application
All second-year students must apply to the traineeship by the date 2nd February 2004. The application form must be filled in by the student (parting the parts concerning him or her) and handed in to the Secretariat for the Teaching Activities, with full information on the traineeship type chosen and with full details for the priorities.
The traineeship application form was distributed to the School's students meeting on 13th October 2003. Those who did no attend the meeting can get one from the Secretariat for the Teaching Activities.
- The application form cannot be modified for any reason.
Once the application form has been handed in to the Secretariat for the Teaching Activities, the information filled in cannot be changed. This is due to organisational reasons: the Traineeship Commission needs to plan ahead each student’s participation in the external organisation’s/company’s activities; the host organisations/companies shall therefore support students in planning the training activities.Changes to the application form are only possible for reasons of force majeure in relation to the Erasmus and Overseas programmes (i.e., the early start of the exchange programme).
Those who for serious personal reasons cannot participate in the planned traineeship activities or want to modify their application must forward their inquiries to the School's Secretariat for the Teaching Activities.
Traineeship modalities
- A. traineeship at a University office/institution to be agreed upon with a School's teacher.
- B. traineeship at an external organisation/company selected by the student but approved by the Traineeship Commission.
- C. traineeship at a University office/structure agreed with a School's teacher.
In the application form, the student can only indicate one option.
A. Traineeship at an organisation/company selected by the traineeship commission
(Point A of the form)
The Traineeship Commission identifies and starts up the traineeship opportunities required to meet the student's needs. To meet the students' traineeship requirements and to facilitate the partner host organisations/companies it is necessary to plan the traineeship opportunities provision.
The student must specify their priorities concerning 3 options (the period, the place and the type), each of which provide for a first and a reserve option. If only the period or the type or the province is specified, the Traineeship Commission will decide on the grounds of its opportunities.
Traineeship period
The student must indicate the period when he/she wants to carry out the traineeship (e.g. July 2004), also writing down a reserve option (e.g. September 2004).
The traineeship period is the most important factor at an organisational level and cannot be changed. Students are therefore invited to consider all the options available and to choose the most suitable. The traineeship can be carried out both in summer (June, July, August) so as not to interrupt the exam and lecture period, and during the exam sessions, not to interrupt lecture attendance; students can also choose the lecture period if they want to take their exams on a regular basis.
Traineeship location (province)
Most of the available traineeship opportunities are located in the provinces of the Romagna territory (Forlì-Cesena-Rimini). There are also partner organisations/companies situated in other provinces.
For students who put down the furthest province as their first option, they should put the Province Forlì-Cesena (FC) as their second option.
Traineeship types
The available organisation/company types are:
- Production/manufacturing companies (coordinator: Professor Franco Bertaccini)
This working environment represents the typical situation for the company in-house translator, who has the advantage of coming into direct contact with specific linguistic sectors, marketable goods and production processes. The translated text type therefore has a clear source and a clear target reader. Within this type of organisations/companies, the trainee may be asked to carry out a range of services: clerical duties requiring the use of foreign languages, high-level translating (e.g. the creation of lexical databases), and liaison interpreting. Sometimes, the trainee is also required to carry out translations into the target language.
- Translation and service agencies (Coordinator: Professor Chris Rundle).
This working environment represents the typical situation for the translator at a translation agency, with all its pros and cons. The translation and linguistic service agencies provide both for translation services and for liaison interpreting. These bodies are not very numerous. You should therefore specify a reserve option.
- Journal Editorial Office (Coordinator: Professor Roberto Menin).
This type of traineeship provides for editing activities mainly in the Italian language. It offers a sound training in the use of the written Italian language, with constant practical exercises on the communication skills (in the target language). In addition, this work activity gives the student the chance to discover and participate in the whole editing process as it is applied in a local newspaper. There is also the chance to practice the foreign language skills. Trainees are asked to send inquiries, participate in press conferences, draft articles and surveys, write feature article, always supervised by an expert.
- International Events / Conferences (coordinator: prof. Roberto Menin)
This traineeship typology provides for translation and liaison interpreting. Trainees take part into international events or conferences, discovering the internal dynamics, processes and very interesting organisational methodologies. The traineeship opportunities in this area are few and the vacancies available are limited. You should therefore specify a reserve option.
- Local Public Institutions (coordinator: Professor Isabel Fernandez)
These traineeship opportunities include a few posts for high training positions, generally connected with language mediation at Local Public Institutions (Municipal administrations, health authorities, Public Relations Offices, etc.), especially focusing on immigration issues. This opportunity includes both translation and liaison interpreting services. Given that the posts are few, you should specify a reserve option.
NB:
The Traineeship Commission does not guarantee that the student’s requests will be met, but will make every effort to find the most appropriate solution, also on the basis of the job market demands and needs.
B. Traineeship at an organisation/company chosen by the student (coordinator: Professor Zorzi)
(point B of the form)
If the student lives in a town outside the province of Forlì-Cesena, he/she can autonomously look for another host organisation/company of his/her choice. This option has been provided to enhance the contacts and the relations which many students have already established with the organisations or companies situated near the student's home. Nevertheless, students should contact companies or organisations where language mediation is indeed in demand.
With this option, the student will:
a) identify the organisation/company where he/she wants to carry out the traineeship, get in touch with the administrative office and check the organisation/company's availability.
b) specify the relevant information needed to forge an agreement between the University of Bologna and the host organisation/company: the complete company name; its head office; telephone and fax numbers; name of the organisation/company coordinator for the purposes of the traineeship (generally, the HR Office or the Manager/Director) and the e-mail, if available.
NB:
Application with incomplete information will be rejected.
The Traineeship Commission will assess the compliance of the proposed organisation/company and of the activities described for the purposes of the traineeship. If the Commission gives its approval, then the School's Secretariat for the Teaching Activities will enforce the relevant agreement.
The SSLMIT is not liable for the proper implementation of the agreement as it cannot provide any form of guarantee on behalf of the organisation/company. The student will then evaluate whether there may be any potential problems with the organisation/company.
C. Special traineeship organised at the SSLMIT or replacement activity
(point C of the form)
Some teachers of the School of Modern Languages for Interpreters and Translators, organise training activities involving the participation of trainees. These are non-teaching professional activities. Teachers can look for students interested in this type of activity.
In this case, the application form must specify the name of the School's teacher who is organising the traineeship activity and who has already approved the student's participation.
Traineeship activities recognised on a retroactive basis
Students who choose this solution must send their application form by 2nd February 2004, by opting for the recognition of their work activity as first option and for an organisation/company of his/her choice among those specified in option A as their second option. The student must attach a special application addressed to the Traineeship Commission.
To make have a good chance of having the application accepted, the student should get in touch with a member of the Traineeship Commission who will advise the student in regard to any supplementary documentation. The student must certify the exact number of hours and the type of work activity to be carried out. All the documents are then examined by the Traineeship Commission, which decides on the recognition of the working activities already carried out for the purposes of the traineeship. Traineeship recognition is not guaranteed.
Each teacher of the Traineeship Commission will deal with a limited number of applications and will get in touch with the external organisations/companies and the students (by e-mail): if the opportunities do not match the student's options as specified in their application form, the student will be summoned in order to agree on a replacement traineeship.
Once the traineeship opportunity has been identified at an organisation/company, the student will be informed with a by e-mail on the following points:
- starting date of the traineeship
- complete details of the host organisation/company
- any information necessary for contacting the host organisation/company or on how to reach it
- name of the School's tutor for the purposes of the traineeship
- go to the School's Secretariat for the Teaching Activities and collect the logbook, the project description sheet and the evaluation letter issued by the host organisation/company
The logbook must be filled in properly and underwritten by the organisation/company coordinator or manager (or by the teacher responsible for the special traineeship within the School). The student must certify no less than 100 hours. For his/her convenience, the student can report the date and tasks carried out day by day and ask for all the working days to be signed at the end of traineeship activities. Bear in mind that a working day cannot last over 8 hours. Those who need to work longer due to service reasons must ask for the Traineeship Commission's authorisation. In many cases, the working schedule may be agreed on between the trainee and the organisation/company, on the basis of their mutual needs.
If the traineeship is interrupted for any reason, it is still advisable to certify the traineeship activities or tasks carried out in thus far in the logbook. In this case, the traineeship will be supplemented with other activities.
The project description sheet must be drafted up by the host organisation/company.
The student will hand in the evaluation letter to the host organisation/company, which is responsible for filling it in at the end of the traineeship. Once filled in, the letter is handed back to the student by the organisation/company.
- get in touch with the organisation/company.
The student must inform the host organisation/company of his/her arrival date with at least 7 days notice and must agree with the organisation/company upon the timetable and how to get to the premises/offices.
Traineeships carried out so far have generally been high level training experiences, meeting the organisations/companies' requirements as well as the students' needs.
Obviously, there have been a few cases in which the trainee did not satisfy the traineeship requirements.
It is important to add that normal clerical duties are considered to be among the trainee's duties in almost all the situations. Thus, it is quite normal for a translator to be asked to carry out secretarial duties as well: for example, the EU Leonardo da Vinci Program urges all participants to accept ordinary clerical tasks and duties, as preliminary clause. Yet, the translator or the interpreter should devote all his/her working time to making photocopies or other low-level tasks. In these cases, the trainee should immediately inform the School's tutor. Under these circumstances, the traineeship can be interrupted at any time and the Traineeship Commission may decide to forfeit the agreement with the host organisation/company, where appropriate.
- Before leaving the host organisation/company, the student must carefully check that all parts of the logbook have been filles in and that the organisation's or company's coordinator has underwritten it.
- The student must get in touch with the School's tutor.
- All the student's traineeship documentation must be checked by the School's tutor and handed in to the Secretariat for the Teaching Activities. Incomplete documentation will jeopardize the traineeship recognition and registration.
- The School's tutor will draw up a final assessment, in addition to the organisation/company's evaluation.
- At the next traineeship registration date (one date per exam session), the student will present the so-called "statino" or traineeship certificate, to register his/her traineeship activities.