OUR PROJECT

Title: Quality Internships for SMEs in IT sectors. This project is supported by Erasmus Plus program of the European Union, under the KA210-ADU – Small-scale partnerships in adult education category, approved by the Swedish National Agency called Swedish Council for Higher Education/Universitets- och högskolerådet.

The Duration: September-2024 to February 2026 (18 months)

CONCRETE OBJECTIVES OF THIS PROJECT

Our urgent mission is to address one of the most pressing challenges facing today’s IT graduates: the precarious transition from education to the job market. A critical avenue for supporting this transition is through the provision of high-quality internships. These internships serve as a vital stepping stone for IT graduates to gain practical work experience and meet the qualifications demanded by employers. However, alarming findings from scientific studies and IT sector reports underscore a lack of clear quality standards for internships. This deficiency not only undermines the intended benefits of internships but also contributes to the persistently high unemployment rates among IT graduates in Sweden and across the EU. Compounding this issue is the projected surge in the demand for IT professionals in Sweden by 2030. (Digital Agenda for Sweden, 2023).

In today’s job market, work experience holds immense value, with a vast majority of IT positions requiring candidates to have prior job experience. Yet, many new IT graduates find themselves in a situation where they are unable to secure job opportunities due to their lack of experience. It is imperative that we prioritize the establishment of quality internships to bridge this gap effectively and ensure the successful integration of IT graduates into the workforce.

To address this objective, we want to realise the outcomes and results of;
*investigating the reasons of what undermines the quality internships, the best internship strategies and practices available in the literature and IT job industry,
*facilitate dialogue between SMEs and adult IT graduates to understand/give voice to their perspectives and expectations regarding quality internships,

*provide training to learn various components of quality internships, how to organize, execute, monitor and evaluate the internships in professional formats and many more.

*create a methodological framework of quality internship for IT SMEs, as a professionally tested and developed tool, which will be an important resource for SMEs to develop their own internships in various IT and education fields (would be applicable to other diverse areas.

*share our project findings with a wide range of stakeholders, including IT SMEs, educational institutions, large corporations, public and private organizations, and other relevant entities. The goal is to provide support in implementing our methodological framework for creating high-quality internships, particularly in the IT sector or any other sectos, with the ultimate aim of bolstering the pool of skilled IT professionals in the job market.