Perceptions and experiences of online internship

Abstract

Remote working enables organisations to have location- and time-independent business processes. Working life practices should also be applied in higher education. Lapland University of Applied Sciences' ICT education in Finland met the challenge by developing an online internship concept that improves cooperation between the university and industry and promotes the content and quality of education. This paper describes the experiences of the research project of online internship models. Oral feedback from students (N = 12) and companies (N = 6) were analysed along with the online internship concept during 2021. The concept includes three types of process models. Based on the idea that business and industry representatives are active players in the process. The supervising teachers and technical support staff of Lapland University of Applied Sciences (UAS) acted as a support network. Results confirmed the notion of the usefulness and suitability of the concept for the purpose. The marketing of the concept was supported by a process website. The challenges found focused on, for example equipment resources and the pedagogical skills of industry representatives. The concept can be generalised regardless of the field.