Masz na Staż - Your Internship Opportunity
Masz na Staż [Your Internship Opportunity]
The MASZ NA STAŻ project ran from 1 March 2017 to 28 February 2019. Its main objective was to improve the skills and abilities expected by employers among 75 students of Management at Kozminski University by enabling them to take part in high-quality internship programmes taking place in Poland and abroad.
The envisaged support could be planned to be so extensive thanks to the several complementary pillars it was based on. The logic of the undertaken activities involved broadening the areas of the offered support. The activities carried out as part of the process of recruiting participants and employers made it possible to get actively involved in the offered initiatives, and the university was able to focus on the specific needs and motives of individual participants and to shape the support path accordingly. Then, the participatory design of the internship programme defined the detailed scope of its implementation. The internship, in turn, helped those who served it boost their confidence and their motivation to act, created an opportunity for them to develop specific competencies and see how their skill sets met the demands of the labour market – and draw from the experiences and solutions from abroad. At the end, the conducted competency test made it possible to determine the extent of improvement and prepare an individual report with recommendations for further professional development of the Management students taking part in the project.
We had 72 persons taking part in the project. As a result, they:
- improved their competencies as a result of KU’s activities supported by ESF,
- increased their awareness of their own competencies,
- prepared themselves better to enter the job market,
- p improved their skills in at least 2 areas (professional, communication, entrepreneurial, analytical, and IT).
Although the project has finished, we’re still taking advantage of its effects, implementing them in the daily practice of our university. The resultant model was continued within the framework of further projects carried out by Kozminski University, which included an internship programme: MASZ NA STAŻ! BIS and AKADEMIA 360 – ZINTEGROWANY SYSTEM PODNOSZENIA JAKOŚCI w ALK. The tools worked out are used in the support offered by the Career Development and Alumni Relations Office as part of e.g. competency diagnosis and preparation for interviews (as part of individual counselling, depending on students’ needs). The internships were served with e.g. Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Credit Agricole, “Wiedza i Praktyka” publishing house, or PGA Polska. The continued collaboration with employers goes beyond the framework of the internship programmes themselves. Employers are invited to take part in various initiatives organised by KU, e.g. job fair events or meetings for graduates. The success of the project resulted in a declaration and vision of further collaboration between KU and employers. Thanks to the overall positive experience and the collaboration models worked out, Kozminski University decided to design and run a practice-oriented programme in the form of dual studies. All this contributed to the achievement of the project goals, becoming at the same time its added value, which pays off by improving the quality of education at Kozminski University.
Contact: dofinansowane@kozminski.edu.pl