The Institute
The method
A two-week study trip produces photographs. Four weeks done properly produce something that still exists three months later. The difference is not in the visits, which are much the same everywhere; it is in what happens before departure and after the return. It is the part that costs us most and that almost nobody sells, and it is the only sensible reason why a certificate without credits should be worth anything.
Before departure
Work begins eight weeks before arrival in Italy, with four compulsory appointments.
| When | What | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| 8 weeks before | Entry dossier, two pages on a template we provide. What your business does or would do, who buys, with what figures, what you want to be different in three months | written submission |
| 6 weeks before | First online session, as a group. How it all runs, how the work is done, what is expected of each person | 2 hours |
| 4 weeks before | Language check, individual, with the person who will teach. It is not an exam; it is a measurement used to organize the work | 20 minutes |
| 2 weeks before | Second online session, as a group. Logistics, documents, accommodation, insurance, rules, and handover of the case worked on from day one | 2 hours |
The entry dossier is the condition for confirming the place, not optional homework. Without the dossier the place is not held. It does three things at once. It fills the first day, which would otherwise be spent collecting information that could have been had beforehand. It filters, because someone who will not write two pages probably will not come. And it gives the program a written starting point, which ninety days after the return is read against the finishing point.
On the 85-day extended program there are three online sessions before departure instead of two, and the entry dossier runs to four pages.
The hours before and after are not counted in the declared hours. When we write 100 hours we mean one hundred hours in person. Padding that figure with online sessions is exactly the kind of arithmetic that does not survive anyone checking it seriously, and we would rather not have to defend it.
During
100 hours in person on the intensive programs, 25 hours a week from Monday to Friday, split between classroom, workshop and visits. Four modules, one a week, and every module closes with something submitted, not with an oral test. A product analysis, a visual identity system in open files, a product sheet and a photo set, a plan. The day-by-day schedule, with hours and addresses, is published on each program page before enrollment opens.
Visits are not gaps between lessons. Every visit has an observation sheet filled in on site, and the questions are prepared in writing in the preceding days. It is also how we deal with a real problem: the owner of an Italian mid-sized company speaks Italian. Questions prepared in advance produce slower and better-structured answers, and force the visitor to study the company rather than endure it.
There is a bilingual member of staff in the room for the whole program. Not a simultaneous interpreter, which is a different profession, but someone who rephrases, picks up the questions that language embarrassment would otherwise suppress, and works with the groups. Materials, templates, sheets and documents issued are always available in Spanish and in English.
After the return
This is where it is decided whether the program was worth anything.
| When | What | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| 30 days after | Online group session. Where implementation stands, what obstacles appeared, what needs correcting | 90 minutes |
| 60 days after | Individual review by appointment, with the program director or the module teacher | 45 minutes |
| 90 days after | Submission of the implementation plan and final group session, with an 8-minute presentation each | 90 minutes |
The implementation plan is a three to five page document on a template we provide. It says what was done in ninety days, what was not done and why, and what happens in the ninety that follow. It is read against the entry dossier written four months earlier, and it is the comparison between the two documents that measures the whole thing.
On the extended program a fourth appointment is added at 120 days, and the final submission falls there.
How work is assessed
We do not assess anyone's business results, because they do not depend on us and a claim about them would be a promise we cannot keep. We assess the work submitted, against criteria written beforehand.
For each module we check that the deliverable exists, that it is complete against the template, and that it is consistent with the case declared in the entry dossier. Attendance is recorded daily and the percentage ends up printed on the certificate. At the end of each module participants answer three questions, always the same ones, and below a threshold fixed in advance the module is rewritten and the teacher runs it again. This is not bureaucracy; it is the only telemetry a thing like this has.
What is left
At the end a person holds four submitted deliverables and an implementation plan, all on templates that remain usable afterwards, in open files and not in closed PDFs. They hold a certificate of attendance with the hours and the modules and, if everything was submitted, a completion certificate listing what was submitted and when. They hold an observation sheet for every company visited, which is the thing that normally gets lost.
And they hold a document which, ninety days later, says that the work continued. For an institution that has to justify internally a stay without credits, that document is the most useful answer there is, and we did not invent it for the brochure. It is why the completion certificate is not issued on departure day.
This program does not lead to any qualification with legal validity. Istituto Belmonte is a private training institute. Its programs do not confer qualifications with legal validity in Italy or in any other country and carry no academic credits. A certificate of attendance stating hours and content is issued at the end.