Get a student from the Innovation and Entrepreneurship programme as an intern

New ideas | New angles | New knowledge

Accepting a student from the Bachelor in Innovation and Entrepreneurship programme as an intern is an excellent opportunity for you and your company to team up with a student who is close to graduating and is trained to plan and carry out tasks relating to innovation and business development.

By agreeing to collaborate about an internship you can get:

Additional resources dedicated to solving development tasks within the company
The opportunity to test a potential future employee in real life
The opportunity to provide a student with valuable hands-on experience.

Most students produce their final Bachelor’s project for the company in continuation of the internship. The student’s project is a good opportunity for the company to, for example, look in detail at a specific issue, carry out an analysis or add resources to an existing development project.

What type of work can you expect an intern to carry out?

The following are examples of internship tasks and Bachelor’s projects:

Participation in development projects
Identification and analysis of new business opportunities
Development of new products and markets
Planning and implementation of new organisational structures
Development and optimisation of innovative processes
Organisation and planning
Planning and implementation of marketing activities
Sparring partner for management in connection with innovation
Participation in general day-to-day tasks.

Planning of the internship period

The cooperative relationship between the student and the company will of course vary from company to company. What is important is a positive and ambitious attitude towards the cooperation from both parties.

We have compiled some good advice that will help you as well as the student to benefit as much as possible from the internship.

Student and company adjust expectations prior to the internship period. This involves tasks to be performed, working hours and other expectations to ensure mutually satisfactory cooperation.

Always feel free to contact the student’s internship counsellor at the Academy for inspiration, information or advice concerning the internship. The student is completing an internship in order to learn. Make sure you provide a good mixture of tasks of both a challenging and also a more routine-based nature. Some are able to handle a lot of responsibility from day one, others need a more careful dosage.

It is recommended to link the student to one or more contacts throughout the internship, individuals who can help guide, inspire and motivate the student.

Think about and discuss what a good subject could be for the student’s final exam project. Some agree on the subject at an early stage, whereas others wait until they know each other a little better.

Introduce the student to the entire company, look at the intern as a ‘fully accepted’ member of the team.

Be proactive – talk to the student or the Academy if something is not quite as expected.

The student, the company and Business Academy Aarhus will sign an internship agreement prior to the internship.

To ensure the right match between students and companies, we have compiled a list of requirements to internship companies (pdf)

When and for how long?

The internship starts in August and lasts for 10 weeks. After the end of the internship period, the student and the company can agree that the final exam project will be written in cooperation with the company.

Get an intern for free

As the internship is a part of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship programme, your company is not obliged to pay a salary to the intern.

The company is allowed to give the student a ‘token’ payment of up to 3000 DKK per month.

Subsidies for transport, rent and a phone, which the student can document are related to the internship, can be given without affecting the student's educational grant (SU).

Declaration of secrecy

A student who becomes aware of trade secrets during his/her internship may not share or use this information without prior approval as stipulated in the Commercial Secrets Act, §4. Business Academy Aarhus employees and external co-examiners who are involved with internships are also covered by §4 of the Commercial Secrets Act, just as they have a duty of confidentiality pursuant to Chapter 8, Section §27 of the Public Administration Act.

Insurance

If the internship takes place in a company in Denmark, the student is covered by the act on worker's compensation (lov om arbejdsskadesikring), cf. Ministerial Order no.185 from 23 February 2017, and by the act on liability for damages (lov om erstatningsansvar).

It is therefore the internship company’s responsibility to insure the intern, just as all other employees are insured. Associations and sole proprietors are also covered by the duty to insure, even if you don’t have any other employees.

If the internship takes place in a company outside of Denmark, then it is the student's responsibility to examine and assess whether he or she can be covered by the company's insurance policies. In cases where the student is not covered by the company's insurance, the student must ensure that they have any necessary insurance.

Facts about the programme

The Bachelor’s degree programme in Innovation and Entrepreneurship is an 18 months top-up programme based on a broad range of AP degree programmes such as the programmes in Multimedia Design and Communication or Marketing Management.

The programme qualifies the student to work with creative and innovative processes, create growth in established and new companies and use tools to manage development projects.

Read more about the programme (only in Danish)