Internship
An obligatory part of the advanced studies in your major subject is internship (EDU s8). The goal is that the internship would be done during the spring semester of your second year. However it can also be done during the summertime or in other points of your studies if it is considered to be more reasonable then.
Objectives
The objectives of the internship are that students become acquainted with educational working-life practices and the variety and diversity of work opportunities in the educational field and are better able to focus their expert profile and work career. It is important to discuss about the options for internship while doing your personal learning plan.
Contents
A student can choose one of the following fields for the internship:
- Educational administration and planning in educational institutes or societies;
- Guided research work in a research project;
- Learning environment: an elective theme in order to plan an intervention or a developmental project in a learning environment, or learning material project or a separate evaluation project or teaching.
The extent of the internship is 10 ects. It includes seminar (6 hrs), individual work (report; 21 hrs) and practical work (243 hrs; about six weeks).
Possible places for internship
The internship can be done for instance at the Teacher Training School in Turku, the Turku International School, the Centre for Learning Research or at the Unit for Evaluation and Development of Education. The student can also make a proposal concerning the internship placement.
Acceptance of the internship place
The contents of and the place for the internship have to be accepted by the Department Council of the student’s home department. A student has to fill in the Training Agreement with his/her mentor from the host organisation and hand it in for the Department Council proceeding. Department Council meetings take place once in a month except in summer time.
Substituting the internship with previous work experience
If the student has previous work experience that relates well with one of the areas listed above s/he can apply for the substitution of the internship with that work experience. A student should address a free-form application to the Department Council of his/her home department and enclose a Letter of Reference (from the employer) and a Training Agreement to his/her application. The Training Agreement is needed to give the Department Council all the relevant information for the decision making.
The student is expected to write and perform a report of the work experience accepted by the Department Council.
Evaluation of the internship
Students should write a report of the internship, which contains the goals for the internship, description of the work tasks, students’ own assessment of the internship and its contribution to his or her expert profile and a letter of reference. The internship is evaluated on fail - pass -scale.