Extended program

Format

Extended program, in person

Duration

85 days, 12 weeks of activity. Counted in days, not in months. Three calendar months can be 92 days, and at 91 the entry regime changes

Hours

180 hours of in-person teaching · 15 hours a week, over three days

Hours before and after

6 hours online before departure and 5 hours 30 after the return, up to T+120. Not included in the 180. One hundred and eighty hours means one hundred and eighty hours in person

Participants

minimum 8, maximum 15

Age

over-18s only, eighteen years of age at the date of departure

Specialization

one of design, applied AI or digital business, chosen at admission

Language

[language of delivery: declared per intake]. Materials, templates and documents issued are always available in Spanish and English. A bilingual member of staff is present throughout

Site

[site: to be confirmed], with at least 8 company visits

Season

Italian intakes run February to April and June to October. Not in January

Intakes

[intake: start and end dates, to be published on confirmation]. Dates may be subject to minor changes

Price

Quotation on request, with a reply within two working days and the detail of what is included and what is not

Entry

No visa required, because the program stays under 90 days in 180. The count is cumulative across the whole Schengen area. Check before enrolling

What is issued

Certificate of attendance at the end of the stay, completion certificate at one hundred and twenty days. No qualification, no academic credits

Why 85 days and not «three months». The limit for a stay without a visa is 90 days in any 180 and it applies to the whole Schengen area added together, not to one country. Since 10 April 2026 the count has been recorded automatically at the border by the Entry/Exit System, fully operational at all external crossing points of the 29 countries that use it. Eighty-five days leave five days of margin, which is what absorbs a rescheduled flight or an early arrival. Anyone who has already travelled in Europe in the last six months may not have 85 days left, and this is checked before enrolling, not at the gate.

Request information · Download the program dossier (PDF) · I am bringing a group

The head of international programs replies within two working days. programas@istitutobelmonte.com · +39 [number] · Monday to Friday, 09:00-18:00 CET.

What is and is not included

Presentation

This is not the intensive program stretched out. It is a different product, and the difference is one thing: here things run for weeks, not for days. A media plan that actually runs for four weeks is worth an order of magnitude more than one simulated over two days. A physical prototype either exists or it does not. An agent left switched on for five weeks shows the failures that in three days it does not have time to have.

You work three days a week, not five. The other two are not disguised free time; they are the reason you stay twelve weeks rather than four. They are for work on your own project, for field observation where it is open, and for living, which at twenty-two is part of what you are buying. A twelve-week program spread over five mornings is a diluted intensive, and it shows.

The first three weeks are the same for everyone. You learn to read an Italian company, which has a different shape from the one you know, made of family, industrial district and supply chain. You learn the working vocabulary, by writing real documents that get corrected in the room. And you bring your own project to the state where it can be worked on for nine weeks, which means writing the project question in one line and signing it, together with the program director. It is the internal contract for everything that follows.

From the fourth week to the eighth you go into your specialization, with two deliverables a week instead of one. From the ninth to the eleventh you work on a real problem, with a client contact who receives the work and who at the end writes down what was delivered. That is not a reference from us: it is a statement from the person who received the work, and it is worth a great deal more.

In the twelfth you close, in front of a panel including at least two outside members.

Who it is for, and who it is not for

It is for students able to be away from home for twelve weeks — typically in an academic break or with a light semester — arriving with a project that is already defined. You can come as a group or on your own, placed in a group.

It is not for anyone with only curiosity. The difference from the intensive is exactly this and we write it plainly: the intensive can be done with an idea, the extended program cannot. It needs something with work already behind it, because the nine central weeks assume it. It is not for anyone looking for credits or a qualification. It is not for anyone who has already used up their Schengen days in the last six months. It is not for anyone under eighteen.

Requirements. Eighteen years of age at the date of departure. A passport valid for at least six months beyond the expected return date — our rule, stricter than the legal minimum of three months beyond departure. Current university enrollment or a secondary school leaving qualification. English at a level equivalent to B1, checked in a twenty-minute conversation. A project with work already done, documented in the four-page entry dossier. Verified availability of 85 remaining days in the Schengen area.

The four phases, with the deliverable of each

Phase A · Common trunk — weeks 1-3, 45 hours. The same for everyone, whatever the specialization.

Week 1, how to read an Italian company. Size, family, industrial district, supply chain, relationship with the bank. Two visits with observation sheets and a simple set of accounts read line by line. You take home a comparative sheet on two companies, with their revenue and cost structures side by side.

Week 2, the trade and its language. How to write to a supplier, how to ask for a quotation, how to answer a complaint. Simulations and real documents corrected in the room. You take home a folder of twelve working documents written and corrected: quotation, order, response to a complaint, proposal, minutes of a meeting.

Week 3, diagnosis of your own case. Rotating individual review and definition of the project question, which is the part almost nobody knows how to do. You take home a diagnosis document and a project question written in one line, signed by the student and the program director. It is the internal contract for the nine weeks that follow.

Phase B · Specialization — weeks 4-8, 75 hours. One only, chosen at admission. It is not the intensive copied out: the same cores are gone into over five weeks instead of two, with more workshop and less lecture, and two deliverables a week instead of one.

Phase C · Commissioned project — weeks 9-11, 45 hours. Three weeks in groups of three or four on a real problem, with a weekly checkpoint and a tutor alongside. You take home the delivery to the client, in the format the client uses, the working material, and a letter from the client contact stating what was delivered.

Declared, so that it is not a surprise. The client companies for this phase are still being set up. Until an external commission is confirmed for an intake, phase C runs on a real case supplied by the Institute, with the same workload and the same calendar but without the external contact and without their letter. We write it before enrollment, not after. The contract for each intake states which of the two forms applies.

What phase C is not. It is a teaching exercise on a real problem. It is not an internship, it is not a work placement, it is not a route into employment and it does not put anyone in touch with employers as a service. We do not do it and we do not promise it.

Phase D · Delivery and defense — week 12, 15 hours. Two dress rehearsals, then a twenty-minute presentation plus ten of questions in front of a panel including at least two outside members, among them the phase C client where one exists. You take home the complete final dossier and the recorded presentation.

Day-by-day calendar

The five day types

A · Classroom day (5 teaching hours) 09:15 opening and re-reading of the previous day's submission · 09:30-11:00 first block, teaching and discussion of your own case · 11:00-11:15 break · 11:15-13:00 second block, guided workshop · 13:00-14:00 lunch, included · 14:00-15:45 workshop on your own case with rotating review · 15:45-16:00 submission of the day, ten lines on what changed.

B · Company day, out and back the same day (5 hours) 07:45 departure from the site · 09:00 arrival and welcome · 09:15-09:45 briefing with the company contact, who already holds the questions prepared the day before · 09:45-11:45 walk-through of the process on site, with the observation sheet filled in as you go · 11:45-12:45 session with the people who do the work, not the people who describe it · 12:45-13:45 lunch · 13:45-15:15 debrief on site, comparison of sheets and a written group synthesis · 15:30 return.

C · Project day (5 hours) 09:30-11:00 independent group work, with the tutor present and silent unless asked · 11:00-11:15 break · 11:15-12:15 rotating review, twenty minutes per group · 12:15-13:00 technical block on request, topic chosen by participants the evening before · 13:00-14:00 lunch · 14:00-15:45 work and partial submission, uploaded before leaving.

D · Travel day with two stops (5 hours) 06:30 departure · 09:40 arrival in the city, luggage dropped · 10:30-12:30 first stop, visit and session · 12:30-14:00 lunch · 14:30-16:30 second stop · 17:00-18:00 one-hour debrief in the space hosting us.

E · Final submission day (5 hours) 09:30-10:45 two timed dress rehearsals · 11:00-13:00 presentations, twelve minutes plus eight of questions · 13:00-14:00 lunch with the panel · 14:00-15:00 individual feedback, ten minutes each · 15:00-15:45 close, certificates handed over and the calendar of follow-up sessions signed.

85 days, 12 weeks. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are teaching days, five hours each, following the day types above. Thursday and Friday are for work on your own project and for field observation, and are not counted in the 180 hours. Saturdays and Sundays are free, apart from the four experience days included in the price.

Total 180 hours across 36 teaching days. The four experience days, the Thursdays and Fridays of project work and the online sessions before and after are not counted in the 180 hours. One hundred and eighty hours means one hundred and eighty hours in person, with the teacher in the room or on a visit.

The detailed calendar for a specific intake, with the date of every day and the venue of every visit, is handed over on confirmation of the group.

The companies and places visited

Eight visits minimum, one nameable today. We name only what is confirmed and we write the status of everything else, because a name written before a confirmation is a promise that does not depend on us. When a venue confirms, its name appears here.

Before and after

Longer than on the intensives, and its hours are not included in the 180.

Before. Eight weeks before departure a four-page entry dossier is submitted, twice the length of the intensive one, because here work already done is needed rather than an idea. Without the dossier the place is not held. Three online group sessions follow, six hours in all, on how the program runs, the choice of specialization and logistics, plus the individual twenty-minute language check. After. Four appointments instead of three, up to T+120: at thirty, sixty and ninety days after the return, and the final submission at one hundred and twenty. The implementation plan is read against the one-line project question written in week three and signed then. The question is always the same: did that line hold, and if it did not, what was done. The completion certificate is issued at T+120, not on departure from Italy.

Who teaches

Phase A, common trunk. Digital strategist and head of client relations, for reading the Italian company. The accounts section is taught by the finance function, and the professional writing section by the program director. Phase B, specialization. The same roles as the corresponding intensive, listed on the design, AI and digital business sheets. Phase C, commissioned project. Head of product and product engineer as tutors, plus the client company's contact where one exists. Program director, who carries more weight here because they sign the project question with the student and pick it up again at T+120. Bilingual facilitator, in the room throughout.

The final panel includes at least two members from outside the Institute.

What you receive at the end

At the end of the in-person activities the Institute issues a certificate of attendance to anyone who attended at least 80% of the scheduled hours. The document carries the name, dates, sites, total hours, the list of modules with the hours of each, the attendance percentage recorded and a verification code.

Ninety days after the end, anyone who has submitted every module deliverable and the final implementation plan receives the program completion certificate, which lists each deliverable by name with the date it was submitted.

Both documents carry, printed on them, the same sentence you are reading here.

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.

Academic recognition of these hours rests solely with the student's home institution. If that institution provides for it and appoints a tutor, we supply the syllabus, the hours and the attendance register in the format the institution requires.

The documents are issued in Italian, with a certified English translation attached at no charge.

The documents are issued in Italian, the language of the issuing company. A certified English translation is attached on request, at no charge. The verification code will be entered at istitutobelmonte.com/verifica once the verification page is live, and will return name, program, dates and hours. Until then verification is done in writing, with a reply within two working days.

→ The certificate, in detail

Where you sleep, how you get around, what it costs to live there

Accommodation is not included in the program price. It is a separate option with its own stated price. We say so plainly, because a price with accommodation buried inside it makes it impossible to see what the training actually costs.

The Institute offers a single room for the whole duration, on request, in arranged accommodation within walking distance or one short journey from the site. Anyone who prefers to arrange their own may do so, and in that case we ask for the address and a contact number before departure, because the person responsible for the group has to know where everyone is sleeping.

The program price does include an urban transport pass for the whole duration, lunch on teaching days and airport pick-up on arrival. It does not include dinners, meals at weekends or on non-teaching days, or personal expenses.

The accommodation provider may ask for a security deposit. The Institute does not collect it and it is not part of the price.

→ Accommodation and practicalities

Entry and Schengen days

For a stay of up to 90 days in any 180, nationals of the countries in Annex II to Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 — Mexico and Brazil among them — do not need a visa to enter the Schengen area. This program lasts fewer than 90 days, so no visa is required for it.

The 90-day count is cumulative across the whole Schengen area, not one country, and since 10 April 2026 the Entry/Exit System has recorded it automatically at the border, fully operational at all external crossing points of the 29 countries that use it. Anyone who has already travelled in Europe in the last six months may not have enough days left. This is checked before enrolling, not at the gate.

The ETIAS authorisation is not yet in operation. The European Commission will announce the start date several months in advance. When it does come into operation it will be at the student's expense, will cost EUR 20 and will be valid for up to three years or until the passport expires. It does not guarantee entry.

Your passport must be valid for at least three months beyond your intended departure from the Schengen area and have been issued within the previous ten years: that is the legal minimum, set by Article 6 of the Schengen Borders Code. We ask for six months beyond the expected return date, which is our own stricter rule and absorbs a rescheduled flight.

What we do. We prepare a named letter of admission with duration, syllabus, weekly hours and the type of final document, in the format required. What we do not do. We do not obtain visas, we do not guarantee them and we do not handle consular applications. The decision rests solely with the consulate.

→ Entry, visas and residence permit · → European Commission, EES · → European Commission, ETIAS

Why 85 days and not «three months». The limit for a stay without a visa is 90 days in any 180 and it applies to the whole Schengen area added together, not to one country. Since 10 April 2026 the count has been recorded automatically at the border by the Entry/Exit System, fully operational at all external crossing points of the 29 countries that use it. Eighty-five days leave five days of margin, which is what absorbs a rescheduled flight or an early arrival. Anyone who has already travelled in Europe in the last six months may not have 85 days left, and this is checked before enrolling, not at the gate.

Frequently asked questions

Does the program carry academic credits? No. The program carries no academic credits, neither Italian CFU nor ECTS, and it is not a qualification. Recognition of the hours is possible only if your own institution provides for it and appoints a tutor: in that case we supply the syllabus, the hours and the attendance register in the format required.

Do I need a visa? Not if the stay remains under 90 days in any 180 and you hold a passport from a country in Annex II to Regulation (EU) 2018/1806, which includes Mexico and Brazil. The count is cumulative across the whole Schengen area. See the entry block above.

Can I take part at seventeen? No. The program is open only to people who have turned eighteen by the date of departure, and age is checked against the passport at pre-registration. This applies equally to anyone turning eighteen during the stay.

Do I need to speak Italian? No. The requirement is English at a level equivalent to B1, checked in a twenty-minute conversation rather than by certificate. A bilingual member of staff is present throughout, and materials, templates and documents are always available in Spanish and English.

How do I pay, and can you invoice? A 30% deposit on confirmation, the balance thirty days before departure. International bank transfer, and for groups an invoice made out to the institution. No payment to personal accounts, for any reason. If an institution is paying, the contracting party is the institution and not the student, and the procedure is different: → I am bringing a group.

What if I have to withdraw? The refund terms are written into the contract and onto the terms page, with the deadlines and the percentages. They are not discretionary.

Why 85 days and not three months? Because three calendar months can be 92 days, and the limit for a stay without a visa is 90 days in any 180, counted across the whole Schengen area. Eighty-five days leave five days of margin for a rescheduled flight or an early arrival. If you have already been in Europe in the last six months the days you used are added in, and you may not have 85 left. It is checked before enrolling.

Can I come on my own, without a group? Yes. On this program you can arrive on your own and be placed in a group. On the intensives arriving as a group is more common, but it is not a condition there either.

What happens if there is no phase C commission? You work on a real case supplied by the Institute, with the same workload, the same calendar and the same final dossier, but without the external contact and without their delivery letter. Which of the two forms applies to an intake is written into the contract for that intake, before signature and not after.

85 days · 180 hours in person · 15 hours a week over three days · 8-15 participants · over-18s only · one specialization among design, AI and digital business · at least 8 company visits · no visa required under 90 days, count cumulative across the whole Schengen area · [site: to be confirmed] · [intake: start and end dates, to be published on confirmation] · quotation on request · certificate of attendance and completion certificate at T+120, no qualification and no academic credits.

Request information · Download the program dossier (PDF) · I am bringing a group

Related programs

the three four-week intensives are the right choice if you do not have twelve weeks, or if you are arriving with an idea rather than a project with work already behind it. Bringing a group? → I am bringing a group

Istituto Belmonte is BHBlasted S.r.l. Società Benefit, VAT [number], registered with the Companies Register of [place] under REA no. [number]. European Union trade mark no. 019120355. Policy [insurer] no. [number], limits [limits: published once the policy is taken out]. This program does not lead to any qualification with legal validity and carries no academic credits.