Catalogo dei Corsi di studio

Meetings with Stakeholder

Consultation on the training project for the academic year 2016/2017 of the Faculty study courses took place as follows:

- N.1 meeting with the organizations representing the production of goods and services and professions on 10.03.2016 organized by the Presidency for all degree programmes of the Faculty. At the meeting were present, in addition to the Dean, the Deputy Dean, the Educational Manager and the Presidents of AEB / Degree Programmes, the following representative organizations: 5 Emme informatica (Manager and Product Area Manager), BIC Lazio S.p.A. (Head of Operations), Cineca - SCIA (Information and Knowledge Management Services), Exaltech - Latina Company (Co-founder and Vice President), Ey (Human Resources Recruiter), GSE - Energy Services Manager (Management Engineer), IBM (Business Development Executive), INFO EDGE, Italian Institute of Actuaries (Secretary General), National Institute of Social Security (Statistical-Actuarial Section Coordinator), KYDEA - Latina company (CTO & Co-founder), Lait Lazio Region (Sole Director), NS12 (Marketing & Communication Manager), NttData (HR Manager), National Order of Actuaries (Chairman), SAS (SAS Academic Program Manager), Telecom Italia / TIM (Strategy & Innovation - Market & Service Scenario and Human Resources Senior Consultant).

- Cesop Communication survey on the knowledge and perception that Italian companies have of the training provided by the degree programme in Information Engineering, Computer Science and Statistics.

The research aimed to carry out a first background survey on two aspects of the Faculty courses: the notoriety of the courses and the perceived quality. The survey took place through the administration of an on-line questionnaire with the CAWI hypostat-interview system (standard questions and batteries with scale from 1 to 10). The questionnaire areas concerned:

• job market
• examination of the educational offer of the Faculty courses
• skills (hard skills and soft skills)

The questionnaire was sent to personnel with decisional functions in the human resources of companies operating in Italy (HR employees).

The companies contacted were 3800, but only 100 questionnaires were considered valid. The cases were not weighed respecting the values ​​present in the statistical universe of reference since only 73% compiled the basic data (geographical area and company size). The most important finding was the lack of knowledge of the Faculty's training offer. This element strongly conditioned the whole investigation. Of the 73 respondents who indicated the basic characteristics, 16 employees came from small companies, 15 from medium and 42 from large companies. From the north they responded in 38 units, while from the center 31 and only 4 from the South and Islands. The majority of respondents (25 out of 73 declaring basic data) are employed in an IT company (information technology). The companies in the sample operate in the following sectors: Information Technology (34.7%), Industrial - Manufacturing - Transportation (19.4%), Consulting and Business Auditing (15.3%), Media and Communication (9.7%), Chemical - Pharmaceutical - Biomedical (6.9 %), Large retail (5.6%), Public institutions (5.6%), Financial - insurance (2.8%).

The consultations showed the following:

To the organizations present on 10.03.2016 a brochure of the Faculty was provided in which, for each degree course and master's degree, in addition to being indicated on the course website, the aims of the course, the training course and job opportunities were illustrated. This documentation was sent on 17.02.2016. During the meeting the following topics were assessed for the assessment of the training needs and career opportunities offered by the degree programmes of the Faculty:

• Adequacy of the training objectives and the names of the degree programmes
• Adequacy of professional figures with respect to the needs of the labor market
• Expected professional outlets
• Suggestions on the objectives and contents of the programmes
• Opinions on three-year degrees and on the average duration of degree courses
• Collaborations in Internships / Traineeship / Thesis / Research

All the organizations considered the topics covered in the Faculty programmes and the expected occupational outlets to be valid and interesting, advising to increase the transversal nature of the degree programme already present (in the Interfaculty and Interdepartmental courses). The organizations then underlined how the current offer includes current topics such as information technology and data science, big data, internet of things (IoT) and internet of everyting (IoE), smart cities, robotics, domotics, cyber security, cognitive computing, social networking, cloud analytics, mobile networking, privacy, open source, open data, open agent, but hoping for further insights and developments for the needs related to the introduction of digital citizenship in the public administration. Furthermore, the importance of increasing regulatory training was emphasized above all in the statistical and actuarial area courses. Regarding the topic of soft skills, different positions emerged between large organizations and medium / small ones. According to the former it is necessary to increase their presence also through collaboration with companies available to provide seminars to be included in the training offer as ECTS. Small and medium-sized organizations, on the other hand, believe that it is more important to provide strong basic training, especially in first cycle degrees.

All the organizations have underlined how it is important, for the purpose of placement on the labor market, that the students obtain the title in progress and that already during the course of studies they start the collaboration with the world of work, increasing the forecast of business testimonies internal courses, activation of internships, research projects and collaborations in the drafting of the thesis. To implement these aspects, the organizations have shown their full cooperation.

From the three areas of the questionnaire it emerged that:

• 88% of the sample plans to recruit in 2016 using resources with training from the Faculty of Information Engineering, Computer Science and Statistics. The computer engineer in particular is the most successful professional figure (19.8% on an 88 basis).
• The knowledge of the educational offer of the courses is very low and for this reason the communication of the Faculty with the companies should be increased (collaborations and meetings between Faculties and companies).
• In terms of the contents of the training offer, companies, even if only slightly, reward the soft skills with respect to the hard skills (average 5.58 on a 10 scale). Among the soft skills is the "ability to collaborate with others constructively" and the "ability to adapt to the needs of organizations" those on which the Faculty must and can have a greater impact.

The Degree Programmes agree to take into account the following indications:

• continue to deepen in Bachelors and Masters Degree programmes such as information technology and data science, big data, internet of things (IoT) and internet of everyting (IoE), smart cities, robotics, domotics, cyber security, cognitive computing, social networks networking, cloud analytics, mobile networking, privacy, open source, open data, open agent;
• increase transversality and contamination between the various degree courses, especially in master classes;
• increase the learning of soft skills through the provision of seminars with or without recognition of ECTS;
• strengthen basic training, especially in first cycle degrees;
• increase the knowledge of the training offer and strengthen the connection with the world of work by providing more company testimonies in the classroom, internships, meetings with companies, degree theses in the company, research projects that also involve students especially of the Masters Degree programmes.
• In the light of what has emerged, it is considered that the training projects of the Faculty programmes are adequately structured internally. It is also believed that the functions and skills that characterize the professional figures that prepare the various courses of the Faculty are described in an appropriate way, and therefore constitute a clear basis for defining the expected learning outcomes and that the expected learning outcomes are specific and the generic ones foreseen by the legal system are coherent with the professional needs, so that the preparation of the graduates meets the broader needs of society and the labor market (demand for training).

As regards the 2017/2018 training offer, in 2017 a focus group was conducted by Cesop Communication to investigate the notoriety and quality aspects of the Faculty's Programmes, and saw the participation of 6 business managers in a two-hour session. The areas investigated were:

• Knowledge of the educational offer
• Communication and reports University - Companies
• Business activity related to selection and professional needs

The companies involved were Capgemini, Altran, Fater, TIM, Deloitte and Infocert. In 2017 the companies hired 2000 people with a profile consistent with the one formed by the Faculty's Programmes: 73.5% were graduates and the most frequently used contract was open-ended (67.4%).

Knowledge of the educational offer

The knowledge of the educational offer of the courses was very low. The knowledge of the training offer of each course is generic and those who were more prepared on the contents were the line managers more than the recruiting managers. This element also has a negative impact on communication between universities and companies.

Communication and reports University - Companies

According to the focus group participants, university communication with companies should be improved. The direct relationship with companies has been considered the best way to increase the knowledge of the training offer. In particular, collaborations and meetings between universities and companies have been considered the most useful means of presenting courses. However, the means that most conveyed this information was the network. According to the participants in the focus group, there is a lack of reliable contacts and a structure dedicated to managing relationships with companies. Each Department self-manages and response times are too long.

Business activity related to selection and professional needs

In the training of young people, companies reward for importance the soft skills, even if only slightly, and do not recognize the Sapienza courses able to train students on these particular skills and abilities. Skills are assessed by companies primarily through individual interviews. Companies say that the soft skills on which universities can have a greater impact is the "ability to adapt to the needs of organizations". "The ability to collaborate with others constructively" should also be a soft skill for the university programmes.

Following the results of the CESOP survey conducted through focus groups, the Degree Programmes agree to take into account the following indications:

• Introduce training activities oriented to the development of soft skills within the lessons;
• Improve the awareness of the educational offer of the Degree Programmes, explaining the skills developed in relation to the needs of the world of work;
• Improve awareness and the relationship between universities and companies by developing collaboration and meetings with companies;
• Develop a more structured "marketing" activity of the Degree Programmes.

The Engineering Area Educational Board (AEB) has already undertaken several initiatives that take into due consideration the indications emerged from the consultations with the interested parties and the Cesop surveys. In particular, AEB participated actively in organizing the event inFORMIAMOCI, aimed at favoring the contact of students and graduates of the bachelors and masters degree programmes of the Department of Computer Engineering, Automatic and Management (DIAG) Antonio Ruberti with important Italian companies and international. The event consists of a series of workshops in which national and international companies conduct effective employer branding and campus recruiting actions, presenting to their students and graduates in the areas of IT, automated and management engineering their own reality and the job positions offered.

The Management Engineering Area Educational Board (AEB) has also provided the opportunity to host business testimonies of particular interest in integration and support of specific courses and / or in the field of extracurricular activities that define the 'Path of excellence', aimed at enhancing the training of students more deserving. In a limited number of selected cases, the AEB has entrusted the (co)-teaching of specific teachings to highly qualified experts identified in the figures of senior executives of national and multinational companies.