Transferable skills

Courses for the a.y. 2024/25

• Information Literacy

  This course will be of interest to you if you want to improve your skills in bibliographic research and use of sources for your thesis, carry out effective research, critically evaluate information and use citation management tools. 

  • Duration: 12 hours
  • Language: Italian and English
  • Method: blended
  • Timetable and enrolment - Italian language edition 
  • Timetable and enrolment - English language edition 

  Why you might find it useful

  This course is recommended if you want to improve your skills in bibliographic research and the responsible use of information sources. You will learn how to carry out effective research, critically evaluate information and use tools such as databaases, search engines and reference management tools. These skills are essential for your academic (thesis writing) and professional career because they help you ensure the accuracy of the information you use and the quality of the work you produce.

  Degree programme schedule

  1st meeting - Define and formulate your research

  Set up your research / Formulate the question that defines your research / Connect the key concepts / Build the search query.

  2nd meeting - Choose the resources and tools for your research

  Use the tools (catalogues, search engines, databases, etc.) useful for locating and retrieving the resources necessary for your research (articles, monographs, data, etc.) thanks to the University library services.

  3rd meeting - Evaluate the sources

  Evaluate the sources based on general and specific criteria useful to critically establish their value. Learn how scientific information is organized and improve your ability to choose, analyze, evaluate and manage sources.

  4th meeting - Use the resources

  Organize the materials retrieved in order to communicate them thanks to reference managers and citation guides. Cite correctly from a formal, ethical and legal point of view, avoiding plagiarism and respecting copyright.

• Practising citizen science

  This course will be of interest to you if you want to learn how to design educational and public engagement initiatives in the field of science outreach.

  • Duration: 12
  • Language: Italian
  • Method: blended
  • Timetable and enrolment

  Why you might find it useful

  The course will provide you with the basic skills you need to take an active part in civic life and communicate science effectively. You will acquire the skills necessary to plan and implement public engagement and science education initiatives suitable for formal and informal education, science outreach, project management for non-profit organisations, consultancy for private institutions and media content creation.

  Degree programme schedule 

  • Case studies and media environment analysis
  • Conception and design of a public engagement or citizen science initiative
  • Delivering the work on the platform
  • Final discussion
• Giving voice to the body and body to silence. Learning through QiGong

  This course will be of interest to you if you wish to explore the link between Eastern body practices and neuroscience and to improve your wellbeing and interpersonal skills in educational, professional and personal settings.

  • Duration: 12 hours
  • Language: english
  • Procedure: synchronous online
  • Timetable and enrolment

  Why you might find it useful 

  The course offers you the opportunity to explore and integrate Far Eastern physical and meditative disciplines, such as QiGong, with the latest findings in neuroscience. During the course, you will develop key transversal competences to improve your psychophysical wellbeing and enhance your communication and interpersonal skills. You will strengthen your theoretical knowledge of the close interdependence of body, mind and emotion, and the importance of an integrated approach to cognitive, emotional and relational learning. This course is ideal if you want to understand and apply these skills in educational, professional and personal situations, seeking to improve the quality of your life and daily interactions.

  Degree programme schedule 

  Aspects of innovation

  Understanding the mind-body unit as a resource and recipient of learning to educate oneself to access one's own resources and achieve and refine transversal learning objectives, including self-empowerment, self-efficacy, resilience.

  Education through gesture: experience from eastern corporeal practices

  Getting aware of our physical posture is not obvious but needs education, not only by intellectual understanding but also through real experiences. Eastern tradition moves from three irreplaceable key-points, to be aware of, to train and coordinate together: body – mind – breath.

  • Posture adjustment: aligning the body segments, realizing the force that anchors on the ground and the force that extends upwords
  • Regulation of attention: activating attention, driving it to specific points and keeping it stable
  • Regulation of breathing: observing the presence of the breath and coordinating it with movement, in a slow and steady rhythm

  Learning to discern, listen and feel

  Every exercise is bound to enhance awareness of one’s own posture and correct it, in different situation: standing still, walking, sitting, laying.
  Every exercise aims to let the person realise and feel:

  • “I can find my place correctly in the space”
  • “I can lead my attention to the gesture or even in static situation”
  • “I am able to listen the rhythm of my breath, feel the right tension of my muscles, feel what is near, inside, and outside my bodily experience”

  Giving voice to the body for a renewed culture of well-being meant as being-factor-of-goodness

  • Attentive to listening to deep needs
  • Capable of promoting personal and inter-personal awareness
  • Promoter of experimentation capable of enabling recognition of the person's internal energies and conscious access to them
  • Interpreter of life's skills through an understanding equipped both from a theoretical investigation perspective and from the perspective of the experiential instance
  • Effective with respect to the internalisation of a sense of responsibility-responsibility
  • Ready in giving tools - of reflection and action - adequate to realise correspondence between the sphere of idea-aspiration and appropriate life attitudes-conducts
• Employability: the role of transversal competences

  This course will interest you if you want to improve the transversal competences most in demand in the workplace, such as critical thinking, effective communication, teamwork and time management.

  • Duration: 8 hours
  • Language: Italian
  • Procedure: blended
  • Timetable and enrolment - 1st Edition
  • Timetable and enrolment - 2nd Edition 

  Why you might find it useful

  The course prepares you for your future career by developing transversal competences that are essential for the world of work, combined with the specific knowledge and skills of each discipline. The programme gives you access to personalised action plans and practical resources such as presentations, videos, checklists and case studies to help you develop your critical thinking, problem solving, effective communication, teamwork and time management skills. These skills will prepare you to succeed in selection processes, integrate effectively into corporate environments and manage your career path, increasing your chances of finding a job and progressing in your career.

  Degree programme schedule 

  The programme is delivered in three phases:

  1. The concept of employability from a psychological point of view.
  2. What transversal competencies are and why they are important in terms of definition.
  3. Strategies for self-monitoring and developing transversal competences in the context of lifelong learning.

  The materials shared during the synchronous lessons on Teams (4 hours) will then be made available on the Virtual learning platform at the end of each session and will cover various aspects of transversal competency development. These will include:

  • PowerPoint presentations on specific topics such as self-assessment, the importance of transversal competences and strategies to improve specific skills such as time management and effective communication.
  • Videos and interactive exercises that provide practical insights into how to apply the skills learnt in real work contexts.
  • Time management checklist, which offers practical tools to better organise one's daily activities, increase productivity and reduce stress.
  • Case studies and real-life case analyses to examine how transversal competences have been successfully applied in specific work contexts, providing concrete insights and reference models.
  • Digital portfolios to guide course participants in collecting and presenting their experiences and skills, useful for job hunting or career development.
  • Learning journals for tracking skills, encouraging personal reflection and self-monitoring of progress over time.

  In asynchronous mode (2 hours), guidelines for creating and sharing the following on the Virtual platform:

  • Individual action plans to help learners identify areas for improvement and set specific goals for developing their skills.
• Rethinking the Anthropocene: Interdisciplinary Practices for a Sustainable Future

  This course will be of interest to you if you want to explore the themes of the Anthropocene and ecological transition, combining scientific and humanistic knowledge to think about sustainable solutions to global challenges such as the climate and migration crises.

  • Duration: 12 hours
  • Language: Italian
  • Procedure: synchronous online
  • Timetable and enrolment

  Why you might find it useful

  The course allows you to explore the complex interactions between the environment, society and technology. It is particularly suited to those who wish to acquire critical interdisciplinary skills needed to address pressing global challenges, such as the climate and migration crises. The course prepares you to identify critical problems and develop innovative solutions by integrating knowledge from the natural and social sciences, humanities and technology. It will enable you to promote responsible action and work inclusively to build a sustainable future. This course is designed for those who want to make an active contribution to a radical and rapid ecological transition and promote inclusive human relations both locally and globally.

  Degree programme schedule

  The course consists of four sessions: 

  1. "Naturacultura". We are the technologies
  2. Who are we? Environments-humanity-technology co-evolution
  3. Tales of doughnuts and urban resilience. New technological and ecological alliances
  4. Inhabiting contemporary worlds. Diversity, mobility, media: imagining the future
• Strategies for innovation: introduction to intellectual property

  This course is for you if you want to gain basic knowledge of key intellectual property tools and learn how to design and create original products and content in a legally compliant and cost-effective way.

  • Duration: 12 hours
  • Language: English
  • Method: blended synchronous
  • Timetable and enrolment

  Why you might find it useful

  If you plan to work in innovation, creativity, or research, understanding how to protect intellectual property is essential for legally and effectively managing and developing products and content—no matter your field of study or profession. This course will introduce you to the five main intellectual property protection tools: patents, copyright, trademarks, industrial designs and models, and trade secrets. You will also learn how to integrate technical, creative, legal, and economic aspects, developing a strategic mindset that will help you protect ideas, enhance your expertise, and mitigate legal risks—an increasingly sought-after skill in the job market.

  Degree programme schedule

  The course consists of four modules:

  1. Patents (7 hours): protect technological inventions and serve as a strategic asset for businesses, startups, and university spin-offs. Patents are crucial for attracting investments, securing funding for new projects, and facilitating knowledge transfer from universities to society.
  2. Copyright (3 hours): protects creative works, including art, software, and databases.
  3. Trademarks, Designs, Models, and Trade Secrets (1 hour): safeguards brand identity, design, and business know-how, preserving innovation, economic value, and competitiveness.
  4. Case study (1 hour)
• Communication, relational and intercultural skills development through intercomprehension

  This course is for you if you want to communicate effectively in multilingual and intercultural environments, both in person and remotely. It is particularly useful if you are preparing for international mobility or frequently interact with people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds for academic, professional, or personal reasons.

  • Duration: 12 hours
  • Language: primarily Italian
  • Method: blended synchronous and asynchronous
  • Timetable and enrolment

  Why you might find it useful

  This course will help you develop effective communication skills using the principles of ecological communication in multilingual and intercultural contexts. You will explore the relationship between the languages in your repertoire (native language, foreign languages, dialects) and their role in understanding and learning processes. You will develop metacognitive, strategic, collaborative, and relational skills, essential in both academic and professional settings. The course will introduce you to intercomprehension, an inclusive approach to language learning and cross-cultural communication. By the end of the course, you will know how to leverage your linguistic, cultural, and experiential background to learn new languages or refine existing ones; interpret unexpected linguistic and cultural behaviours in individual and group settings. Solve communication challenges and participate in intercultural discussions and negotiations using effective communication, mediation, and problem-solving strategies with flexibility and adaptability.

  Degree programme schedule

  The course consists of six lessons, including individual and group activities:

  Lesson 1 – synchronous

  • Discover and enhance your individual and group linguistic repertoire

  Lesson 2 – synchronous

  • Develop strategic skills for understanding written texts in unfamiliar languages

  Lesson 3 – asynchronous (individual or group activity)

  • Understand a text in an unfamiliar language through collaborative strategies

  Lesson 4 – synchronous

  • Develop analytical, comparative, and comprehension skills for texts in unfamiliar languages

  Lesson 5 – asynchronous (individual or group activity)

  • Analyse spoken interactions using intercomprehension techniques

  Lesson 6 – synchronous

  • Develop strategic skills for understanding and engaging in oral interactions in unfamiliar languages