Using Internships to Enhance Engineering Programs – the Case Study of an Industrial Partner

Many institutions recognise the importance of internships.As part of the training of future engineers, theseopportunities confront students to the realities of jobmarket. The University studied in this case is one of thoseinstitutions. It has developed its way of integratinginternships with the engineering bachelors degree.The University in question gives high importance topractical knowledge. As third and fourth year studentscomplete their studies, they are asked to manage full-scaleprojects – from Design Brief to assembly, along withPlans and Specifications. These courses are bound to theUniversity's engineering Chair, who accompaniesstudents in their design process. All subjects come fromreal customers who either have heard of the Chair, ordiscovered it via internships. In fact, a major part of theChair's clients comes from partnerships developed insummer time, outside of the walls of the University: theconfidence and trust built in internships propel theprogram. Recently, this symbiosis was brought up to anew level