An internship can be an elective worth 7,5 ECTS and must involve both job training and formalised learning processes. It must take place within an existing organisation (company, governmental, non-governmental) in which the student is hired by a contract specifying time period and contract hours. The internship is not limited to organisations in Denmark, but can take place in all parts of the world. The duration of the internship depends on the contract, but the total period of employment must be at least 188 hours for a 7,5 ECTS internship. 
 

It is important to emphasise that an internship must have academic content. Projects will not be pre-approved and reports will not pass if it is apparent that the nature of the work has only been practical (coffee making, photo copying etc.). The internship report (see below) must apply relevant theories in analysing the organisation, parts of it, or aspects of its work. An internship is to be supervised by a mentor in the organisation (primarily for the job training) and by an academic supervisor from CBS.

In the initial phase, the student can meet with the internship coordinator for up to 30 minutes to discuss ideas related to the ‘kick-off’ phase of the internship. 
It takes time to set up an agreement with an organisation on an internship, especially if the internship is abroad. The student needs to engage with relevant organisations as early as possible in order to be able to gain the most of the internship. Some places have very well defined internship arrangements while others may not have had an intern before. Therefore the contract is very important.

The list of fields of study relevant to the BSc Soc profile is this:

•  Organisational sociology and economic sociology

•  Innovation and entrepreneurship

•  Corporate and business strategy

•  Globalisation, international business, markets and studies

•  Business ethics and CSR

•  Experience economy and service management

•  Management of information and knowledge management

•  Human Resource Management

•  Marketing and branding

•  Public management and international politics

•  Business and Politics     

•  Finance, economics, macro and managerial economics

CBS academic supervisor

The student is responsible for finding a supervisor from the BSc Soc faculty. Chosing supervisors from CBS faculty beyond the programme is possible, but requires approval from the Internship coordinator. The role of the supervisor is to ensure that the internship meets the overall requirements and is relevant for the study programme. Furthermore, the supervisor can help with framing the topic and content of the internship report. If the student wants to collect data for future projects (e.g. the bachelor project) the supervisor may also be helpful in planning this.

The student is entitled to 4 hours of supervision (including preparation time for the supervisor). The student is responsible for scheduling meetings and meeting agendas.
 

Pre-approval and Internship Contract

At CBS: The internship must be pre-approved by the Study board based on the recommendation of the internship coordinator PRIOR to the internship commencement. The application is to be submitted on the form provided on MyCBS. Along with this form, two other documents are to be submitted:

1. The internship contract with the organisation stating the time period and contract hours of the employment and the host organisation’s description of the extent and nature of the intern’s work and learning processes, and
2. A motivational essay (1-3 pages). This must address why the internship is relevant for a BSc in Business Administration and Sociology student and include a preliminary academic hypothesis suitable for examination through the activities the student is engaged in during the internship. The internship must be relevant for the BSc Soc qualification profile. This is judged by the nature of the host organisation and by the nature of the work.

The pre-approval application must contain:

• Your name, student number and contact details
• The name of the host organisation
• The host organisation’s description of the extent and nature of the intern’s work (on the form available on MyCBS)
• An explanation of the relevance for the BSc Soc programme
• An academic topic idea suitable for examination through the activities during the internship (note that this idea can be revised later, but remember to get your supervisor’s approval)
• The name of the suggested academic supervisor
• The suggested supervisor’s agreement to supervise

Please consult information on My.CBS.dk on how to apply. 
 

Contract with the organisation

The student also needs to sign a contract with the host organisation prior to the internship. This can be prepared in collaboration with the supervisor and the mentor and should contain agreements on: tasks, working hours, expectations with regards to the outcome, formal requirements and contact persons. Important issues in this regard are the definition of the work content and the workload. The tasks undertaken by an intern are often related to assisting the organisation with daily work. However, it is a good idea to combine this with a special assignment that can relate to the internship report. This could be an investigation into a specific area of the organisation. It is important to state clearly that the content of the work needs to be relevant for the BSc Soc programme and have a Business Administration and Sociology content.