Lifelong Learning Programme

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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Companies

This guideline provides the companies with specific suggestion on how to host internships. The guideline covers topic such as: creation of fruitful cooperation with VET institutions; organisation and tutoring of the internship.
Table of Contents
3.2 Traineeship Pathway
3.2.4 The Matching Process

Once selected the virtual interns to be included in the business organization it is necessary to define their pathway. first, it is necessary to define with the company the communication tools that the virtual intern will have to use and only then define the other aspects that characterize its paths such as:

  • tutor or reference employee

  • business function

  • incoming tasks

  • tasks to be acquired at the end of the course

  • growth path and level of responsibility

  • learning checks

  • performance control methods

  • analysis report

Often, virtual interns communicate with their tutor online through various means including email, Skype, WhatsApp, instant messaging, webinars, messaging, etc. Often this situation leads to the overcoming of the concept of working time with the consequence that one is connected to one's own workplace 24 hours a day with heavy repercussions on the personal life of the subjects involved.

The most common virtual internships are in the following areas: Information technology; Software development; Marketing; Social Media; Research; Writing; Journalism; Media; Pre-and post-event planning; Video creation and editing; Human Resources; Graphic Design; Search Engine Optimization and Marketing; Some non-profits and government internships; Some political internships; Some engineering internships; and Some public relations internship (source: Wikipedia)

In the last the virtual internship is growing in popularity due to improving technology and the growth of social media. In particularly a rise has been reported in a startup or small companies active into a social media marketing. The export has criticized the virtual internships for not providing the supervision and guidance that internships are meant to provide. To rise this situation is necessary use a project management tool like Basecamp or Google Docs. To learn this tool is also a good thing to include as part of your overall internship strategy. an internship should be valuable for both the parties involved in the project, so it is necessary to create goals in line with the company's expectations, the manager's expectations and the trainee's expectations. It is necessary to improve communication to avoid the abandonment syndrome that punctually affects every worker at a distance. It is necessary to specify feedback policies to set up meetings that allow the evaluation of the internship progression., It is necessary to create a mentorship relationship that is an essential component of traditional internships.

To better achieve the objectives of the internship it is necessary to insert the intern into a work team with different tasks and relationships. This tends to reduce the trainee's isolation and make him feel part of the team, rather than some random stranger who completes some activities every week.

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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.