The EMOS programme aims at responding to emerging needs of qualified people in the production and analysis of data, with particular reference to official statistics.
Eurostat, scientific sponsor of the Master programme, in fact, underlines that this type of training is necessary both:
The EMOS programme provides a preparation aimed at those wishing to operate in national and international agencies producing official statistics and, more generally, in all public or private companies, that are users as well as producers of data (e.g., big data, internal and external data and Official Statistics).
The EMOS programme, designed to comply with the requirements established by Eurostat, has been recognized as a European Master in Official Statistics (EMOS). The EMOS certification is based on selective criteria regarding various aspects: teaching capacity of the staff, content of the courses, infrastructures, agreements with official statistical agencies. The training objectives required by Eurostat concern the system of official statistics, methods of data production, statistical methods and themes of official statistics.
The programme is characterized by the study of methods and problems relating to the production of data, laboratories for software and elements of statistics in general and official statistics. Further, it introduces not just technicalities, but an understanding of the institutional environment and dissemination aspects as well as communication and soft skills. The EMOS programme is embedded in the Data Science (DS) curriculum. At their second year, DS students might decide to obtain the EMOS label by properly selecting their elective courses (namely, Text Mining and Sentiment Analysis, European Economic Policy, and Statistics for Management). Further, in addition to the institutional courses, the programme includes 6 credits relating to “Thematic Activities”, consisting generally of seminars / webinars held by Istat or international experts or in any activities proposed by Eurostat. The curriculum includes an internship in official statistics (6 credits) to be generally held at Istat or other National Statistical Institute or eventually other national or international statistical authorities acting in the area of official statistics. Some possibilities for cross-border internships are also available. In formally justified cases, the internship could be substituted by a research project (written report) on a topic relevant to official statistics. The final dissertation should cover methods or topics relevant to official statistics and be in line with the theme developed within the internship. The student who graduates with the EMOS programme obtains the European Master of Official Statistics label, awarded on the basis of a selection by Eurostat to only 33 European universities in 18 countries.
More details on the study plan can be found at the following link.