The course in brief
This professionalising degree course derives from the transformation of the previous course titled 'Prevention technologies in the Environment and in the Workplace', in line with DM 509/99. It lasts three years and has scheduled access, as per the ministerial regulations.
The course catalogue has been adapted to the cultural and professional framework, as well as to the constantly changing working reality in the field of prevention in the environment and workplace. The aim is to ensure that students, in addition to relevant scientific content, also acquire specific professional skills useful for their insertion in the world of work, opening up the possibility of internships in both public and private facilities, by including in its course catalogue the contents of MODULE C, in accordance with the State-Regions agreements (Legislative Decree 81/08), which allows graduates to acquire the relative certificate qualifying them for the role of Prevention and Protection Service Manager (RSPP).
Today, Prevention Technicians are graduate professionals who, while still retaining these inspection and supervisory functions, deal mainly with the assessment of health risks that may arise from the environment and workplaces in relation to the activities carried out in them, also propose solutions for their elimination or containment and are involved in training and health promotion in both public and private spheres. Indeed, they practise their profession in both public and private institutions and facilities. In the former case, they work mainly in the DSPs of the AUSLs, in the ARPAE, in the Prevention and Protection Services of Public Bodies and recently in the State Police, where they are employed in technical, logistical and administrative roles. In the private sector, they can work as employees within company Prevention and Protection Services (DLgs. 81), including as RSPPs, in food companies in the field of food safety and in quality management in relation to applying ISO standards. The same activities can also be delivered as a self-employed external consultant.
Given the broad spectrum of skills required of this professional figure, multidisciplinarity is the main characteristic of this degree course, which involves professors/instructors from a wide range of scientific disciplines (bio-medical, engineering, legal, veterinary and food safety, socio-psychological etc.) as well as professionals from the AUSL, ARPAE, and private consultants, who are mainly responsible for supplementary and professional training courses.
English language is included from the first year of the course to provide learners with the tools of research methodology at an early stage. Fifteen ECTS credits have been added to the degree system of the academic discipline in question MED/50 - Applied Medical Technical Sciences. The Professionalising Internship activities are worth 60 ECTS credits (academic discipline of the professional profile MED/50 - Applied Medical Technical Sciences) in addition to an internship project focused on the performance of characterising experiences referable to the specific professional fields of the profile and preparatory to the acquisition of distinctive skills related to the functions of the profile itself: Opinion and Advice, Supervision and Control, Investigation, Information, Training Interventions, Education, Management and Research.
The broad and complex spectrum of fields that the professional profile encompasses requires us to set up a network of relationships through legal and administrative constraints/conventions to ensure that training is comprehensive and as integrated as possible across the various topics.
Consultation with the Directors of the AVEN DSPs and the Director of ARPAE and their contact persons for training, highlighted the need for professionalising training that adheres to the organisational and cultural transformations of Public Health and to the guidelines of the Prevention Plans, in order to train health professionals that can be effectively deployed in their areas of competence.
The AUSLs of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena and Piacenza, through a working group promoted by the Directors of the DSPs of the local health districts association (AVEN), were involved in the process of defining the new regulations, and continue to actively collaborate with the Degree Course in assessing and updating the training needs and monitoring the employment opportunities, and in identifying the skills required of the new health professionals by defining the professional profile (provided for by D.M. 58/97) in the light of organisational and cultural changes within public health. Since connections and relations with the local area are of fundamental importance, so that graduates have a university education that is consistent with the skills required by the public and private sectors, the list of public and private facilities working with the university has been continually expanded. The Prevention Technicians who work in the DSPs of the AUSLs and in ARPAE are the interface of a large part of the prevention system in the field of workers' health protection, public hygiene, food protection, environmental protection and public health; it is therefore in the primary interest of the structures whose mission is focused on prevention and public health to guarantee the fundamental requirements necessary to align the degree with the professional profile and the most current core competence requirements.