[SEFI AC] Virtual Internships

Virtual Internships Metka Majerič Board of European Students of Technology Ljubljana, Slovenia Metka.Majeric@BEST.eu.org Alexandra Enea Board of European Students of Technology Bucharest, Romania Alexandra.Enea@BEST.eu.org Wieke Villerius1 Board of European Students of Technology Delft, The Netherlands Wieke.Villerius@BEST.eu.org

Conference Topic: Global Mobility and International cooperation Keywords: online life, students’ mobility, student input, virtual placements

INTRODUCTION The term of 'innovation' is used more and more in the development of higher education activities, as well as in the career requirements that most recruiters expect from the students and graduates. In a globally connected world, mobility of students is a great value of today’s society and virtual internships are an innovative approach in their career development.

Earning a formal education in a specific field accompanied by the opportunity to improve the soft skills is the most efficient way to find the successful career path.

Traditionally internships are placements where the student, often driven by the educational program, starts working internally in the company where certain learning objectives have to be obtained. This is supported by the educational institute. A virtual internship involves for a certain extend of virtual communication. The cirtual communication can take place between intern and company; this is called a fully virtual internship. When the communication between student and educational supervisor is taking place in an online environment, there are similar type of requirements for online communication, however the placement itself is inside the company. This is called a blended virtual internship. More concrete ways to virtually support an internship is shown in figure 1, below.

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Corresponding Author Wieke Villerius, Wieke.Villerius@BEST.eu.org

Fig.1 Communication model for a HEI driven virtual or virtually supported work placement,

by Rintala & Schrader, 2010 Internships are following trends in traditional business world, but virtual internships are also catching on, having a series of advantages for the companies that are implementing such programmes. But what are the main benefits of students and what is their opinion regarding the involvement in these kind of activities?

Current practice In the present economy it is nearly impossible to start a career without any kind of experience.

Student organisations and non-profit associations offer young people a wide variety of activities to develop their soft skills, improve the cross-cultural competencies and virtual collaboration abilities. But the main challenge is how are the students going to earn experience in their field of study?

According to the Eurostudent 'Social and Economic Conditions of Student Life in Europe' survey report most of the European students divide their time between taught studies, personal study time and paid jobs, most of the students being part-time or full-time employed.

At the moment most of the international experience among students are the study-related ones, the internships are right behind, while the big number of online organisations around the world indicates the future increase of virtual internships.

Virtual internships would open-up possibilities for mobility for all students and at the same time deliver these competencies highly wanted on today’s labour market.

BEST (Board of European Students of Technology) and EuroPACE, through the Thematic Network of EU-VIP (Enterprise University Virtual Placement) have worked together to improve and empower virtual mobility through perspective of all 3 bodies involved; student, HEI, company. Through this thematic network cooperation the students' perspective was analysed. The main purpose was to improve the existing virtual internships and to develop a set of guidelines for future organisations willing to implement such activities for young people.

METHODS Within this framework, BEST organised two symposiums on education (2010 in Ljubljana and 2011 in Riga). These events aimed to assess students’ expectations on virtual internships and to evaluate pilot projects done by partners of EU-VIP from the independent students’ perspective.

During each symposium, 22 international-minded participants discussed virtual mobility and its future. The role of BEST is to inform the students, to endeavour the sharing between students and get their perception on such online programs; these being also the conclusions of the symposium. The main aim was to get grip on the needs and expectations students have regarding virtual placements. In parallel a discussion took place whether and how a virtual internship outstands a regular or traditional working placement.

To gather the student input on these topics and to stimulate their involvement in the symposium several facilitation methods were applied to evaluate the pilot projects and to come up with a set of requirements to engage in virtual internships. The tools varied in relation to the sought outcomes and the handled topic.

Pilot Projects The discussed pilot projects were carried out by higher education institutes to explore the needs and requirements for Virtual Internships to take place. The results of the findings through the pilot projects can be found in the final publication of the Thematic Network. The virtual internships took into consideration the experiences of all involved parties; students, companies and higher education institutes (HEIs). The pilots that were conducted took place around Europe and were all different in setting, length, level of virtual support or work, the amount of people involved and even the aims of the different pilots varied. This last aspect was due to the fact that internship practices and practicalities such as payment differ over Europe.

For the symposiums coordinated and organised by BEST, a set of various pilots was taken to provide the students a full picture of possibilities for virtual internships and to open-up their minds on the possibilities regarding this type of placement. To make all students understand the different pilots, they were split into groups and each group analysed 1 pilot project in detail. The materials they received to do so were recordings presenting the full overview on the placement from initiation till evaluation. These recordings can be found online on the website of the thematic network (euvip.eu). The groups gained understanding in the internship, which they presented on 1 poster. On an other poster a SWOT analysis was done to evaluate the pilot and make suggestions for improvements, while at the same time they experienced new ways of learning and presenting.

The presentations of their findings were done through the method of Exhibition walk. This method requires full engagement and involvement of all participants of the session. The process is graphically explained in the figure 2. It is based on a concept of cross-pollination where the different groups give input on each other’s work and meanwhile gain understanding in the other type of pilots that took place.

This method was used during the symposium in Riga where all groups were using the same room. This was distracting for some because the 4 groups were all presenting at the same time. An other pitfall can be the level of the poster presentations. If some of the groups do not pay full attention to what is presented they cannot repeat it in a adequate way to the next group. This would result into a fail of the concept, as not all people present will have received the full picture of the pilot to give funded feedback. Having a stationary person, who stays with the presentation and fills in the gaps that are unclear to each new group that arrives, can solve this. This makes the method of gathering input and developing the students at the same time less successful, but assures the quality of the expected outcomes.

Fig. 2 visualisation of the concept of exhibition walk A positive aspect of this tool is the interactivity between participants and presentation. The input that is being gathered while using this technique also results into opinions of people that know all details to reflections on the content by only knowing the headlines. For the participants themselves, the technique provokes them to subtract main issues from smaller issues and summarise them, tell a complete story and present it in front of an audience.

Intercultural competencies The topic of intercultural competences was added to the discussion because of the international character of the companies who are likely to engage in virtual internships. At the same time a working environment also has its own culture to which a student has to adapt and in which he/she has to find their place. The competence to adapt to different cultural environments seems to be a requirement that increases the success factor of an internship.

This was one of the conclusions that could be drawn out of the pilot projects.

To gather the student input on this topic, the participants were first introduced to the concept of intercultural competencies through a small exercise which made them realise their cultural background makes act to situations the way they act. This was an important first step to be taken to assure a clear understanding of behaviour, which is influenced by cultural background and experiences. A second aspect of this exercise was to experience virtual communication and how the other side experiences it in return. It showed the importance of this requirement of intercultural competencies towards virtual internships; virtual communication is more straightforward than face-to-face interaction.

The Hofstede dimensions were used to gain understanding on what exactly cultural differences are. The participants were divided into small groups discussing on these dimensions. They received a clear question, to defined the most important dimension which

should be developed in order to engage in a successful way in virtual placements. The outcomes had to be presented to the rest of the group in powerpoint, which provokes the students to build up the argument carefully.

Open Space Technology The method of Open Space Technology (OST) is meant to gather new ideas by the people that feel like contributing. Participation is free and open. There are no rules or requirements in an OST-session. The participants, no matter their amount or background, are the right ones on the right place [reference] In a classic OST session topics are not set but can pop-up at any moment. For the symposium the topics were defined on beforehand and new topics were not accepted. However, participants were free to walk around and change discussion at any time.

As for the topics, no prior expected outcomes were defined; the discussion was leading the end result. Typically the topics proposed during the symposium were open questions to trigger students’ imagination and make them think outside of the commonly used boundaries.

The topics on which discussion took place were the differences between national and international internships in the broad sense. The preparation of university for the business world was an other topic, which makes the indirect relation with internships. Related to the virtual aspect of internships the topic of motivation through and during online work was discussed as well as the prospected future of online working.

Fig. 3 visualisation of the OST concept RESULTS Talking about virtual internship, there are a lot of different methods which are considered as structures which can work as a virtual internship. The most important thing is online communication, which can take place in different ways. There is also the matter of the intern’s skills; cultural dimensions and relations between supervisor and intern. So, what has the biggest value referring to virtual internship?

Online work, which is otherwise mostly used in international companies, is the main part of the virtual internship. Participants of both symposiums stressed out important relations and methods for effective and productive online work for intern/employees.

Preferably, the people involved in such an internship should be students from different countries, supported by an academic mentor from their home university and by a contact person from the company or organisation offering the virtual internship.

Another thing, which has to be taken into account, is not to put big impact on the national culture of person working in a virtual internship, but to put bigger impact on the culture of the organisation. A good example of that are big multinational companies, which have rather low level of national influence.

On the other hand motivation itself was discussed – how to keep the motivation flow on a proper level and how to be effective with completing the tasks. Relations between employees are one factor which bring motivation and effectivity on the higher lever and payment is another one.

The idea was to pay the employees according to number of finished tasks and not the number of days working on task. Because they are working at home, they can spend more or less time working on the project and according to their wishes they can earn more or less money – it depends on them.

In general getting a reward for the work done is important. As long as employees are working at home and they are able to live everywhere they want, work at any time they want and they do not spend time on travelling to work and back home, they have free choice where to live.

Related to working at home, employees need to have good work equipment (fast internet connection, new laptop ect.). With virtual internship there is a great opportunity to develop virtual communication skills and since there is the possibility to self-organise the work, organizing skills like project management and time management are developed simultaneously.

It is crucial to get regular feedback from superior on finished task and to have constant contact with at least one person from company – a person, who is following his employer work and who cares about him and his work.

In the end, the most important thing is to have live meetings and conferences at least once per year, so employees can meet their co-workers in a real place and discuss with them face-to face.

Hofstede dimensions International competence is the ability of successful communication of people with different cultures. To understand national differences between countries, there was a research called “Hofstede dimensions.” It was made during 1970’s and there were five dimensions taken into the analysis: power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation.

Speaking of these dimensions, after all tested methods of virtual internship and facing all kind of problems and opportunities, participants find out that most important dimensions are ·

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Individualism: It is essential for integration in the work environment and it has big influence on motivation of people working in a group. When people are working like individualists, they are also more efficiency and connections between members of groups become stronger. In that way the group can achieve the aim in the fastest and most effective way possible.

Uncertainty index: This dimension shows if a person in a group is open for the changes and prepared for new challenges. It is important to see how flexible person is and how this person can work in immediately changed environment or under different conditions.

As a result of the both symposiums, the most suitable structure of virtual internship is a setting which contains students from different countries. Those students are working together in small groups of five people. The tasks should be clearly defined and multiple online

communication tools should be used for communication between the member of the group during the working process.

For example: A company can organise a virtual office for the interns, thereby they are socially connected, working in their virtual department, using a forum as a communication tool.

CONCLUSION In today’s society, internships are a necessity for students to learn and gain understanding in their field. At the same time it is often an important value for future employers to hire applicants with such an experience on their resume. Virtual internships provide opportunities to students who are less mobile than others to gain a similar experience as if it would be a traditional internship. Depending on the level of virtual interaction in the internship this statement is valid. When the student is only virtually supported by its’ educational supervisor but physically involved in the placement, other issues need to be tackled than when the student needs to communicate with the company by virtual means. However some issues are always likely to happen and therefore should be taken into account. During BEST symposium these issues were defined by gathering input from international-minded students for the benefit of the Thematic Network of EU-VIP. The students used several methods to subtract outcomes on how to further develop virtual internships by reflecting on some cases that happened in the past; pilot projects. The methods were adapted to the wanted outcomes as well as to assure a learning effect out of it. The exhibition walk is an example of such a method. SWOT and classical group discussions and presentations were also applied, as well as the more open and flexible OST on broader topics.

Support by other interns and the HEI as well as an insider of the company are considered to be important, as well as rewards for the work done. A danger in online working is motivation when not physically in contact with others. Also the means by which virtual communication is taking place is evidently crucial. Finally competencies to work in other cultural environments is more critical than in a normal placement, as the virtual communication is the only mean of interaction the pressure on this is rather high. The competence to work in and with other types of cultures is influencing the quality of the work done. Working for a multinational is considered to be easier to adapt for multiple cultures than being an outsider in a national based working environment. For this evaluation the Hofstede dimensions were used. According to the students the competencies of individualism and uncertainty index are most important to be successful in a virtual placement of all the dimensions defined by Hofstede.

This students’ perspective shows the importance of interaction and trust between all individuals involved in the process of the internship. Even in the most virtual internships of all it has been noted as very beneficial to have at least once a while a face-to face meeting.

REFERENCES [1] BEST Educational Committee (2011), Is your life online? Then make it WORK!, Board of European Students of Technology, pp. 13, 18 [2] BEST Educational Committee (2010), Work virtually! Boost your career at student speed, Board of European Students of Technology, pp. 7-8 [3] ENTERPRISE UNIVERSITY VIRTUAL PLACEMENTS (2012), Make it Work!

Integrating virtual mobility in international work placements, Leuven

[4] Rintala, Ulla (2011), State-of-art in support of virtual placements, pp. 2 [5] Media & Learning Unit K.U.Leuven (2011), About the EU-VIP project [Online], Available: http://euvip.eu/EU-VIP/EU-VIP/about.html [Accessed 26-2-2012] [6] Santa, Clara (2012), Virtual Internship in Rising Demand [Online], Available: http://news.mentornet.net/content/virtual-internships-rising-demand [Accessed 26-2-2012] [7] Schrader, Claudia; Rintala, Ulla (2010) Scenarios for virtual and virtually supported placements. Available: www.euvip.eu/results [accessed 19-6-2012] [8] Orr, D.; Gwosc, C. & Netz, N. (2011): Social and Economic Conditions of Student Life in Europe. Synopsis of indicators. Final report. Eurostudent IV 2008–2011. Bielefeld: W. Bertelsmann Verlag.