Virtual internships

NEW CONCEPT OF TRAINEESHIP enabling the cooperation between companies and students FOR THE TEXTILE AND CLOTHING SECTOR 

Features:

1. VIRTUAL INTERNSHIP – entirely online – to break the barriers of physical attendance
2. NON-TRADITIONAL TEACHING METHODOLOGY
3. MULTINATIONAL PROJECT TEAM – students from different countries
4. MERITOCRATIC FINAL EVALUATION

 

About the TEXSTRA Virtual Internship

The TEXSTRA project focuses on identified problems affecting the textiles and clothing industry, related to skills and competences, in conjunction with research and innovation. It is funded by the European Commission, under the Erasmus+ Programme. Virtual internships are organised on the online platform for transferring research and innovation through project based training, combined with a Virtual Project Competition.

 

Steps of the Virtual Internship

STEP 1. Recruitment

1.1 – Finding the ideal participant (student): University students aged between 19 and 23, with good English skills and open to learning. Participants will be selected by universities through calls or interviews.

1.2 Finding the ideal participant (company): The virtual internship activities will be promoted among companies. Enterprises will be asked if they are willing to tutor a team of students and propose a research project to be implemented or a challenge to be solved. We are looking for companies wishing to develop new products or to implement a new business idea, as well as to put in practice the research activity implemented. Companies will be required to present a summary (1 page max) of their project challenge.

 

STEP 2. Virtual event with companies

A virtual event will be organised between project partners and subscribed companies.
Teams of students will be assigned a project/challenge by a company and will work, under tutoring, to develop/solve it. At the end, a winner will be selected.
The event will be extremely useful for guiding companies on how tutoring student teams.

 

STEP 3. Establishment of multinational project teams of students

Project/challenges will be published online and enrolled students will be asked to declare their preferences about the project they wish to work on. Teams of 3 or 4 students will be created accordingly and will be as transnational as possible. Equal opportunities, diversity issues will be also taken in consideration while creating the teams.

STEP 4. The internship

Internships will be launched and implemented through the platform. Students belonging to the university partners will be called to share ideas and brainstorm for implementing the research project and solve the company’s challenge.
Groups will be called to present their project ideas together with a small business plan and PPT presentation to be posted online for evaluation. During the process they will be in strict contact with the company to whom they have been assigned (tutorship).

 

ADDED VALUE FOR

– STUDENTS: students will get a deeper knowledge on real textile/clothing enterprise challenges, innovative tools that can be used for the enhancement of knowledge transfer for research and innovation in the textile and clothing sector.

– COMPANIES: companies involved will benefit from receiving new and innovative ideas on projects from brilliant students. It will be also an opportunity to meet high-qualified employers with the secondary skills such as research, innovation and project management to improve competitiveness.