Societal Internship

Admission requirements

Second or third year students of the Honours College FSW programme could follow a societal internship after approval by their coach.

Description

Are you curious about how academic knowledge influences the world of work in practice? About day-to-day processes in a certain work domain, maybe a completely different area from what you're training for? The Honours Societal Internship gives FSW Honours students an opportunity to explore what it’s like to work in practice, from an academic perspective.

Honours FSW students can find a societal internship in whatever area they choose. Depending on the extent and duration of the activities involved, this internship is worth between 1 and 5 EC (which includes compiling the internship report).

The starting point for the internship is the student's own clearly formulated exploratory question, in which the academic knowledge the student has acquired is applied in the work environment. What do you want to find out, and what skills will be needed in the practical context you will be exploring? So you organize your Internship around your own questions and areas of interest.

The focus is all on forming an acquaintance and acquiring a clear picture of the work environment in practice. Students do this by looking over employees' shoulders, interviewing people, and working on specific tasks under the watchful eye of their internship supervisor.

The organization could be a government institution (e.g., a national government body, local government body, or water authority), a company in the business sector (from small company to multinational), a volunteer organization or non-governmental organization (NGO), or a non-profit professional cultural or social organization (such as the Red Cross, a museum, a social or cultural foundation, a health authority, or a mental health institution).

The intern's role should be clearly described. To ensure that this is the case, a short internship plan and contract is drawn up between the supervisor from the institution, the student, and a teacher of the Honours College FSW.

On the Brightspace page of your cohort, a manual with more information about the societal internship can be found.

Skills

The 'shared transferable skills’ covered in this course differ between internships. The skills shown in bold are for sure covered in this course:

Course objectives

• Integration of knowledge and skills in research and practice previously acquired in course work, in particular in realistic work situations;

• The acquisition of further relevant knowledge and skills, and insight into practical situations in the work field;

• Intensive acquaintance with a relevant field of research or work;

• Learning to function independently and responsibly in an organization (professional attitudes); and

• Gaining insight into one’s own potential and limitations, both with regard to skills and with regard to personal functioning.

Registration

You do not need to register for a societal internship. Approval from your Honours College FSW teacher is required.

Mode of instruction

The internship is supervised by a supervisor from the organization in which you carry out the internship. Before you start the internship, you hand in an internship plan and an internship contract to your supervisor and Honours College FSW teacher. You can find more information in the manual on Brightspace.

Assessment method

After your internship, you will write a report. Please check the manual on Brightspace for more information.

You Honours College FSW teacher will review your report, gives you qualitatitive feedback, and assign a pass or fail.

Contact

If you have any questions, please contact your coach.