Praxis: Bringing an European dimension to Project/Internship academic activities

Abstract

Project/Internship activities are probably the most remarkable and natural bridge between the worlds of work and education. Exploiting its full potential opens the doors to efficient transfer of knowledge, raises awareness of the needs and interests of institutions, creates opportunities for cooperation and promotes students employability in a global market. Despite the significant added value to all stakeholders of Project/Internships and mobility in general, it remains difficult for students to become aware of Project/Internship offers beyond the network of contacts of their home institution. On the other hand, providers - institutions offering Project/Internship - also have a limited access to young talents being, in general, also limited to their own network of contacts. Assuring a European dimension to an effective and efficient platform, supported by a cluster of institutions from the worlds of work and education, will allow students and trainees to improve their Project/Internship experience, their mobility and employability and, on the other hand, will grant access to a broad recruitment base to providers and promote cooperation between the world of work and the world of education impacting economy and society in general. In this paper we present the concept supporting the Praxis European Centre for Project/Internship Excellence, its implementation and preliminary results from the beta test period that ran between October 2013 and May 2014.