IWBLabs

Policy Makers

This guideline provides the policy makers with specific suggestion on how to assess the impact of international and virtual internships. The guideline covers topic such as: creation of an observatory to trace the quality of work based learning approaches; promoting of international and virtual internships.

Table of Contents

4.2 How to Support a Traineeship System

4.2.3 How to Support Schools (VET institutions) in Internship Organization

Benefits to VET Institutions:

VET institutions can see many benefits from internships. Their students are able to bring their experience back to the classroom. This helps keep courses relevant with the current trends, so it results in a richer learning experience for everyone. Internships provide more valuable experiences than case studies and lectures. The result: competitive and employable graduates, better program credibility, student excellence and better connection to graduates. Therefore, the VET institution is more attractive if public knows that chances of obtaining employment after graduation is better compared to other schools.

Virtual exchanges are new for many schools. During initial phase, it can be difficult to set it up and to integrate it into existing curricula. Tutors organising internships need often to solve practical barriers, as difficulty in finding receiving companies, calendars conflicts etc. Virtual internship is often viewed as an additional activity depending on motivated teachers and students who are willing to invest extra time working online as interns.

More supporting points:

Creating and developing of live databases to provide to school possibility of orientation – in next steps, schools can choose appropriate internships and recommend it to their students.
Enabling participation of teachers and school trainers on internship to improve own knowledge and experiences and to have better picture in communication with students.
Systematic providing of brief statistic reports and success stories to teachers (including good influence of internships to employment) to provide them to potential interns.

Policy makers can support schools by many ways. One example: the European Commission has awarded funding to a project which aims are to raise greater awareness among students, educators and (senior) managers of online intercultural exchange, which can be seen as a pedagogical model serving the goal of virtual mobility in foreign language education, achieving more effective integration of tele collaboration in university institutions.

Online Resource

Top 3 Reasons for Internships
Teachers, parents, even peers push students to think of their future careers as soon as possible. However, preparation for their upcoming careers is often overlooked. So, how can students prepare for the “real world?” How can universities and colleges better prepare students for their careers after they graduate? According to Katharine Hansen of Quint Careers, many college graduates struggle with getting hired, because they lack experience. Hansen stressed the importance of doing internships in college, especially in today’s job market.

5 things you should always consider before accepting an internship
Most important issues, which are necessary to consider before internship.

Operative Tools

Doing an Internship for College Credit
Advices about crediting of internships in the frame of school study

Internship Guidelines And Forms
Official Student Internship Forms - Student Internship Application + Student Internship Evaluation + Internship Requirements for Hospitality Business International Students as example for schools if they would like to create their own rules.