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This activity is part of the work carried out by the entire Polytechnic School and the Department of Reference and mainly consists of:

• participation in the Welcome Week for presenting the academic offerings of the University at the university campus;
• visits to some high schools in the city of Palermo, its Province, as well as the Provinces of Trapani, Agrigento, and Ragusa.

The activity involves a presentation of the degree program given by a faculty member from the same program, appointed by the Coordinator for this activity, with the aim of informing about the role of management engineers in their various competencies and illustrating the educational path of the program.

Another relevant orientation channel for access to the Master's Degree are the days within the initiatives organized annually by the Study Program for Management Week.

These are days the Study Program organizes for all Management Engineering students (both at the undergraduate and graduate levels) with the dual purpose of sharing the results of surveys conducted by the Study Program Council regarding the placement of its graduates in the job market and discussing any issues or problems encountered with the students.

There is also a presentation day for the Master's Degree in Management Engineering in Palermo for students in the second and third years of the undergraduate program to give them a thorough understanding of the prospects of the educational path in Management Engineering at the University of Palermo.

Furthermore, successful experiences of Master's graduates in Management Engineering in Palermo are presented to the undergraduate students in order to explain the educational path of the Master's Degree and highlight its strengths, especially in terms of future placement in the job market.

At the university level:

The University's Center for Guidance and Tutoring organizes orientation activities for incoming students, tutoring, and outbound orientation. The incoming orientation initiatives, aimed at supporting students throughout the process of accessing university programs, include informational activities and individual counseling.

There are planned activities with high school students, initiatives with schools, and a reception desk for parents.

There is also a guidance and reception desk for foreign students, as well as a psychological counseling service for students who require psychological support for adaptation issues in university life (exam anxiety, interpersonal problems, personal distress).

Pagina del Centro di Orientamento e Tutorato – COT per tutte le informazioni sul Tutorato

https://www.unipa.it/strutture/orientamento/

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The ongoing tutoring activity is carried out by the Course of Studies' faculty tutors and primarily involves mentoring students during their educational journey.

The Coordinator and the Secretary of the degree program serve as points of reference for any clarification needed during the students' studies: from choosing the orientation to decisions regarding elective courses, from recognizing educational credits for professional activities to transferring from other degree programs.

The Coordinator can utilize advanced features of the University portal that provide a detailed overview of students' academic records, including exam pass rates, earned credit units (ECTS), and other progress-related data for each student cohort. This tool allows for targeted mentoring actions if the data indicates a need.

Additionally, faculty tutors are responsible for guiding students on aspects such as customer satisfaction, internships, and periods abroad. Contact information for faculty tutors is available on the course of studies' website.

The academic secretariat for the Study Program has technical-administrative personnel units that support students in activities related to the procedures required during their educational journey.

 

FACULTY TUTORS

Manfredi BRUCCOLERI (educational path)

Giuseppe INGARAO (educational path)

Toni LUPO (customer satisfaction)

Giuseppe AIELLO (internships)

Giovanna LO NIGRO (internationalization)

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Students in their educational journey are supported by the Course of Study Tutor and the Disciplinespecific Tutor (cf. DM1154/2021). The Course of Study Tutor, specific to distance education degree courses, facilitates student reception by providing administrative and IT support throughout the entire study cycle. They perform orientation and monitoring functions for degree courses under the coordination of the respective Coordinator, directly addressing any issues that may arise.

The Course of Study Tutor carries out the following tasks:

• Monitors online teaching and its articulation in terms of instructional delivery, interactive teaching, and self-learning activities.
• Monitors the development of instructional interaction and the involvement of teachers, discipline-specific Tutors, and students, as well as activities carried out by students.
• Coordinates with the Course Coordinator to ensure the adequacy of e-activities (problems, reports, case studies, simulations, etc.) for each course.
• Supports and guides students in degree courses.
• Intervenes to prevent the phenomenon of university study dropout.
• Collaborates with teachers and discipline-specific Tutors in organizing e-activities.
• Organizes training and updates, with the support of the Academic and Student Services Area, for discipline-specific Tutors to enhance online teaching.
• Maintains constant contact with students through communication tools provided by the elearning platform and other university services, ensuring timely responses.
• Monitors not only learning but also students' interest and satisfaction.
• Guides students in their academic journey, choices, and organization of their studies.
• Prepares and provides a schedule of their availability.

The Discipline-specific Tutor, specific to each course, provides students with the most useful tools for successful study of the subject. They support students in the learning process up to the examination, working within the virtual class of the course, coordinating with the Coordinator and subject teachers. In particular:

• Collaborates with Course of Study Tutors.
• Monitors and ensures the correct macro-design of the course, including content and objectives, structure, duration of instructional activities, and final exam, proactively intervening, in coordination with the relevant subject teacher, to resolve issues.
• Monitors and ensures the correct micro-design and execution of the course, including topics (content and objectives of video lectures, webinars, and other e-activities), final exam, proactively intervening, in coordination with the relevant subject teacher, to resolve issues.
• Monitors and verifies that the Moodle page for the courses meets the standard set by the university e-learning model, proactively intervening, in coordination with the relevant subject teacher, to resolve issues.
• Provides support to students in the learning process up to the examination.
• Maintains constant contact with students in the disciplinary area, both synchronously and asynchronously, through communication tools provided by the e-learning platform and other university services, ensuring timely responses.
• Actively participates in the organization of planning, reporting, evaluation, training, and coordination activities among teachers and Course of Study Tutors.
• Prepares and provides a schedule of their availability.
• Reports semi-annually to the Course of Study Council on activities performed.

Student-tutor interaction is realized in three modes:

1. Guidance/consultation
2. Overall class monitoring
3. Coordination of student groups

Through the communication tools available in their teaching portal, the tutor provides support to students in understanding the content and context of the educational journey. Periodic monitoring activities allow constant verification of the class's learning progress, enabling better planning of interactive activities and feedback for students.

Tutoring activities can be carried out both synchronously (each student can interact with the tutor in real-time through chat, video chat, or video and audio conferencing systems facilitating collaborative learning processes) and asynchronously (email, forums, FAQ system).

Interaction modes between the tutor and student are provided in both "push" mode, where tutors provide stimuli requiring student responses (e.g., self-assessment questions or problems applying acquired knowledge), and "pull" mode, where students explicitly request assistance or in-depth meetings. The tutoring activity is carried out by CICS tutor teachers in relation to the needs of the students during their study course. It mainly concerns aspects of student satisfaction, internships, student’s mobility, and master theses. The Academic Coordinator and the Secretary of the Master Degree are the main referents for any question or doubt the student may have: admission requirements, curriculum selection, free choice subjects, elective courses, , transfer from other master degree programs.

ONLINE TUTORS: Sergio Riotta and Andrea Mattaliano.

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An ISTAT survey from 2011 (published on June 8, 2012) highlights that three years after graduation, 95% of management engineers have stable employment. These data are also confirmed by the Alma Laurea employment survey from 2015, which reports that 86% and 94% are the percentages of employed management engineers one and three years after graduation, respectively. What's even more significant from the 2012 Alma Laurea survey is that about 94% of those employed, one year after graduation, and 90% three years after, find their degree sufficiently effective for their current work. All of this indicates that the professional profile of the second-level Management Engineer is indeed among the most sought after in the world of work.

The placement analyses and the skills required for master's-level management engineers in the job market have been consistently managed by the Study Program Committee (CdS) in recent years.

The latest placement survey was renewed in 2015. It pertains to master's graduates in Management Engineering in Palermo from 2009/10 to 2013/14. The survey reveals a 97% employment rate at three years, surpassing the figures reported in both the ISTAT and Alma Laurea surveys, and an 80% employment rate at one year, in line with the Alma Laurea survey. It's noteworthy that 55% of graduates in the 2012-14 biennium had their first job interview within three months, and 26% of graduates accessed their first interview through the CdS.

Furthermore, about 25% of the employed individuals work in Sicily, demonstrating that the CdS also meets the needs of the local economic and production fabric. The analysis also shows that 91% of graduates at three years and 96% of graduates at one year consider the skills acquired during the master's program suitable for entering the job market.

The analysis of the LinkedIn group profiles of master's graduates in Management Engineering in Palermo (created and managed by the CdS, to which approximately 600 graduates belong from 1990 to today) allowed the examination of 266 graduates who indicated the type of skills they used in their work (these are graduates from 2012 to March 2014, whose data integrates with previous results from the 2007-2011 period). The survey reveals a 73% employment rate, which is very satisfactory given that these are respondents at most two years after completing their degree. About 27% of employed individuals interviewed work in Sicily, confirming that the degree program meets the needs of the local economic and production fabric.

From the same analysis, it's evident that approximately 80% of those interviewed found employment within six months of graduation, and about 20% of them did so through CdS contacts with companies. The skills acquired during the master's program are considered suitable for entering the job market by approximately 84% of graduates, consistent with the results of the previous survey.

The CdS also sends the resumes of graduates to a database of companies operating in the fields of interest of Management Engineers after each graduation session. In addition, all job opportunity announcements for CdS students that the Coordinator or CdS faculty become aware of through institutional channels and direct relationships with various companies are published on the website.

Another point of focus is the promotion of conducting a thesis in a company, which provides the opportunity to bring together the university and the business around a common project to be carried out inside the company.

During an internship at a company, students typically work on some aspects of a project undertaken by the hosting company, focusing on practical issues. For the company, hosting a student facilitates the acquisition of specialized personnel in their areas of interest. This creates an effective tool for the future integration of graduates into the job market, along with the fact that Management Engineering students in Palermo follow an educational path that not only provides excellent engineering and management preparation but also emphasizes soft skills or so-called transversal skills. In addition to traditional teaching formats, students are often called upon to work in teams to develop group projects, present results in the classroom, discuss case studies, and analyze articles, including those in English. All of this aims to stimulate their ability to write and present professionally and work in teams.

Moreover, the LinkedIn group managed by the Study Program Committee serves a dual purpose: for graduates, it constitutes a community of alumni that supports the professional growth of all Management Engineers from Palermo; for the Study Program, the goal is to monitor the placement and professional growth of its graduates in order to tailor the educational offerings to the real needs of the job market.

Finally, in collaboration with the Polytechnic School and the relevant Department, seminars and orientation days are organized, and meetings with the major companies operating in the typical sectors of Management Engineer placement (Career days, open recruiting programs).

See the CdLM PLACEMENT analysis HERE.

At the university level, students, especially those nearing the completion of their educational path, have access to the placement service provided by the University of Palermo's Center for Guidance and Tutoring.

For graduates, there is also the opportunity to access post-graduate internships and placements, following the procedures outlined in the current University Regulations.

The curricula of new graduates are included in the ALMALAUREA database.