Relevance of practical experience

… offers you the chance to figure out what career you might want to pursue after you graduate.

The mandatory internship isn’t just a tedious requirement that you have to complete in order to graduate. Quite the opposite! Above all, it offers the opportunity to gain an overview of the wide range of different careers while you’re still in school, to practice writing applications, to build networks, and—most importantly—to figure out whether you can see yourself working in that profession or field after graduation. During the mandatory internship, students should also identify their strengths and weaknesses in a professional setting, determine which skills and competencies are important in their chosen field, and explore ways to integrate what they enjoy and what they’re good at into their future work life.

The greatest strength of the mandatory internship, therefore, lies not only in its role as a door opener and a source of initial professional experience, but above all in its ability to help students discover which career they might be interested in pursuing later on.