I have taken the Invest Your Talent in Italy scholarship for two years, between September 2018 to June 2020. And I believe that not enough people know about this amazing scholarship program. It is not a very simple process, but it is definitely worth it. Let me tell you all about it from a student’s perspective with my experience and some information I find useful. Overall it was a fun, challenging, and rewarding experience.
Announcement: Applications for the 2022 september intake are open between January 14, 2022 until February 15, 2022.
Also related: How to study Master’s degree in Italy.
What is Invest Your Talent in Italy Scholarship?
Invest Your Talent in Italy (also known as IYT) is a scholarship given to international students that are accepted to the Italian universities for master programs that are taught in English. It is conducted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, ITA – Italian Trade Agency, and Uni-Italia. And it covers the study areas such as Engineering & Technology, Design & Architecture, Economy & Management.
Disclaimer: I am a student who took the scholarship, so the information on this page is not official. The dates, numbers, and other details may vary upon the decisions of the IYT office for each year. For the official information and application please visit the official website:
https://investyourtalentapplication.esteri.it and https://postgradinitaly.esteri.it/
Universities and courses included in the program
You can check the programs that are included in this scholarship program here:
https://investyourtalentapplication.esteri.it/SitoInvestYourTalentApplication/corsi.asp
What does the scholarship cover?
Firstly, it is not just money. While other scholarships like dritto allo studio (DSU) mostly focus on giving you just money, Invest Your Talent is much more than that. Of course, it gives the students in the program financial aid but there are other benefits to it. Let me explain them separately.
Financial Aid
The main financial benefit is that they give the students 900euro monthly, for 9 months per academic year. This amount is paid in installments every 3 months between October to June. They transfer the money to your Italian bank account at the middle to end of each 3 months. So the first installment is going to be around the middle of November to the middle of December (changes per person) of your academic year. So make sure to have your first 3-4 months’ of money with you when you get to Italy.
Secondly, you don’t have to pay the tuition fee to your university, except for the taxes which is a small amount.
And thirdly, the Italian courses offered by your university become free for the first year. You can choose to have it in the first semester or in the second one. But I strongly recommend you to enroll in the first year to improve your Italian faster. Attending the course is a requirement to renew the scholarship for the second year. I will get to the requirements to renew the Invest Your Talent in Italy separately.
Before we continue to other benefits, I will write a post called “How to Study in Italy as a Foreigner” soon, subscribe to my newsletter to get notified.
Other Benefits
The first benefit to me was that it’s cool :). The year I was accepted, only around 5% of the applicants were granted the scholarship, so you can say it is pretty selective. Many people do not know about it, and a high majority of the applications are rejected. But I strongly recommend you to apply, you never know if you are among the 5% until you apply. I remember the day I went to the Italian Consulate in Izmir, Turkey when I was getting my Visa, and the employee there was surprised to hear I got the scholarship. Which made me feel so cool. 🙂
Speaking of the visa, the scholarship is very useful on that as well. If you need a student visa from Italy, you need to show around 6000euro in your bank account when you apply to the consulate. Instead, if you are an IYT scholarship holder you can use the acceptance paper as proof of your financial support.
Another benefit is the Italian language course which is helpful to get you adapted. You will need to show a certificate of attendance to renew your scholarship for the second year.
The thing that I benefited from the most is the internship integrated into the invest your talent scholarship program. And it deserves its own title below.
Internship with Invest Your Talent in Italy
As a part of the program, all the students must do an internship in an Italian company, for 3 months (480 hours to be specific). This can be 3 months full-time, or more months in part-time completing 480 hours. This is very good, but not easy. Because for example I have been studying at Politecnico di Milano, and it is not an easy university. We had to study a lot even months before the exam term, so it’s very difficult to make it go along with the internship. Plus, most Italian companies don’t work in August, so you can’t consider doing your internship at that time.
I did my Internship at Botta packaging which was a great experience. I learned a lot of things during my internship, improved my Italian, and made very good friends from other IYTers (yes we call ourselves IYTers 🙂 ) and other employees & interns. We even made an Invest Your Talent lab with other IYTers.
How to fınd your internship?
Invest Your Talent office already has agreements with many Italian companies, where they share the students’ CV (with their permission) so the companies can contact the student for an interview. I was lucky enough to be offered an internship in March 2019 from a company in Milan, where I live. After an interview, we agreed on starting the internship. But, if the location, company, or position of the internship is not suitable for you, you can reject the offer. (maximum 2 times I think).
Check out: 7 tips on How to find an internship in Italy as a foreigner?
On top of that, if you find an Italian company yourself, you can do the internship there even if they are not part of the program yet. The office told us it is an easy process to register a company. But I have no experience with that. The company I did the internship with was already part of the program and they found me through the platform.
How to apply to Invest your Talent in Italy for the first time?
The application to the scholarship is open from December until the end of February. For example, if you plan to start your education in Italy in September 2021, you should apply for the Invest Your Talent scholarship between December 2020 and February 2021. The office did not announce the exact dates yet, you should check them out from the official site.
The requirements to apply for the first time are
- Having applied to at least one course program at an Italian University.
- Having the nationality of one of the countries that are in the program. Last I checked the countries were: Azerbaijan, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mexico, People’s Republic of China, Tunisia, Turkey, and Vietnam
- Applying in the period.
The documents required for the Invest Your Talent Scholarship application are:
- Final transcript, including your final grade.
- B2 Level English certificate. (If you have studied your bachelor in 100% English, you can use that)
- (Optional) Italian language certificate.
- The 1-minute video, explaining yourself and your motivation to study in Italy, and be part of the program.
- Resume / CV
- Passport
Again, check the official how to apply to Invest Your Talent page to make sure you comply with the requirements here and do the application on the same site.
What are the requirements to renew the Invest Your Talent scholarship for the second year?
You need to renew the Invest Your Talent scholarship for the second year. And there are separate requirements for the renewal that needs to be delivered in the summer of the first year.
- Having passed at least 30 credits of your courses in the first year.
- Having attended the university Italian language course. (And owning the attendance certificate)
- Having an internship agreement with an Italian company. You don’t have to start the internship to renew your scholarship, but you have to have at least the agreement signed by the company and your university.
Once you comply with these standards, the office will issue an approval of your Invest Your Talent in Italy scholarship. Then you can continue to receive the financial aid as in the first year.
Feel free to ask any questions about the Invest Your Talent scholarship in the comments. I will answer them to the best of my knowledge.
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Hi Emre. What certificates do they approve, like Toefl and Ielts exam results?
IELTS and TOEFL are accepted. On top of that, if you have studied your bachelor’s in 100% English, that certification will also be accepted.
Hi Emre,
On what criteria is the scholarship given? Is it merit-based or academic performance? What do you suggest we do to strengthen our chance to get accepted? Lastly, is it possible to find an English spoken company to fulfill the internship?
Thank you in advance.
Scholarship is given as a merit-based. You have to send your CV, gpa, english certification and your bachelor transcript, and a video. I suggest having a good video to have a nice impact. The company has to be Italian, but you can do it with just your english as well. As many of IYTers do.
Hi! Thanks for all the detailed information.
I won the IYT scholarship of this year and I’ll also study at PoliMi.
How was the enrollment process for someone that had this scholarship.
I know that the scholarship covers the tuition fee, so in the tuition payment section of enrollment did it showed that you had to pay?
Thanks!
Hi Rose, you just have to pay some small taxes around 170€ when you’re doing the enrollment. Thats it.
[…] This is the scholarship I took for 2 years. It is a little complicated in the sense of requirements and rewards. So I wrote a separate post about it here: What is Invest Your Talent in Italy Scholarship. […]
Hi Emre thanks for the useful info.
Can students both benefit from DSU scholarship and IYT scholarship?
Thank you
No, both of the scholarships require that you don’t have another scholarship.
[…] you can also have a look at How to Study Master in Italy as an International, and another scholarship: Invest Your Talent in Italy. Here she explains her merit-based scholarship from […]
Hello, quick question. On your application, did you submit an italian certificate? I read that is optional but would that be a plus?
I didn’t, as I didn’t know Italian back then. If you have a certificate, yes it would definitely help you out.
Hey! Emre how are you doing? I have one of the fortunate ones who has got this scholarship. I tried contacting other students who applied in my own country and seems like I was the only one who got this scholarship. It was a little shocking yet joyous moment. I want to know if there is any group of IYTers or something like that. Because I have got tons of questions that are really bugging me up all night. It would be really nice of you to actually let me know some of those groups. You can contact me through my mail. Thank you!
Hello Ayush, yes it is a pretty selective scholarship so it is normal that you could be the only one from your country. There is no group or anything for the IYT scholarship, but you can ask me anything via my mail or social media accounts.
There is a facebook group of IYTers and IYT applicants. Look for “invest your talent in italy-friends”, you may find someone from your country there.
Ah yes. I meant there is no official group or anything. I didn’t know about this group, thanks for telling about it!
Hi, thats so cool, i was looking for some post like this. I want to apply this year and I will be grateful if you can answer a doubt. In the application you need to have the acceptance letter of the university?
Regards
Yes. You have to be accepted to one of the university programmes on the list.
Hey, firstly thank you for all information. Secondly i was wondering does internship companies pay salaries to students? And i am worring about monthly expences
Hello Ecem, most companies pay for internships. Usually between 500 – 900 euro per month, depending on the size of the company and the position.
About the monthly expenses, yes most big cities in Italy are pretty expensive. But it is all up to you so you can manage your budget.
Ciao Emre! What a nice sharing about this scholarship.
If I may, I have one question. So, I confuse about student visa application. The announcement for awardee this scholarship is by end of June (for 2022). But, Polimi also stated, that students have to apply for student visa by end of June.
Based on your experience, do you wait for the announcement? Because you write that with this scholarship the awardee doesn’t have to show money in their bank account.
Thank you a lot Emre!
Hello Astuto,
The Visa application process may depend on your country and your specific state. They didn’t ask me specially for money in the bank account, but I showed it anyway. I wouldn’t suggest anybody to wait for the announcement to make visa applicatiın, since they give the scholarship to very little number of people. So prepare your documents as if you haven’t won the scholarship. And in the end, if you win it, it is double win 🙂
Grazie Emre!! Yeah people say the opportunity to get this is very difficult.
So, I still have 2 another question.
I am now confuse. If I already apply for Invest your talent scholarship, can I apply for MAECI scholarship? Or is it prohibited?
And based on your experience, is Invest your talent better than MAECI?
Thank you again for your response Emre!
Thanks for the detailed information.
As an IYT 2022 holder, I have a question regarding the enrollment.
When you enrolled at the Polimi, in the tuition fee section, did it asked you to pay or it showed that you had a tuition waiver.
Thanks!
Hi Emre, thanks for the information, I just have got one question, can I apply to the scholarship while studying at the 4th grade of the bachelors degree, for not having a gap between bachelors and masters, before having the diploma at hand, and receiving conditional acceptance. Thank you in advance!
No they are asking your graduation certificate / Diploma when you apply. So I don’t think while still being a student would work.
Hi Emre, I’m in a dilemma, I’ve been accepted by Polimilano (Feb. intake) but I missed the dates for DSU and also for “Invest your talent in Italy (IYTII)” scholarship, so I couldn’t apply for financial aid (even though I need it). I am in a dilemma because I wanted to know if I study feb semester is still possible to apply to the DSU or “Invest your talent in Italy” from the second semester (in my case September). I was planning to take a student loan for 6 months to survive the February semester and then apply to the DSU or “IYTII”. Or maybe these scholarships are just for first semester?? Do you recommend reapplying to the university for the month of September? i would be greatful if you could give me some advices.
Hi Jordan, for the IYT I know they don’t take the students that start in the second semester. But for DSU, some of my friends got the DSU even if they were started in the second semester. I don’t really know how they did it / if they missed the deadlines or not. But it was possible. Did you already start the uni? If so, I don’t think you can re-apply to it. Sorry for the late response. Maybe contact me on my social for a quicker reply.