{"id":10805,"date":"2023-11-10T11:10:15","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T09:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/?p=10805"},"modified":"2026-03-05T08:34:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T06:34:41","slug":"digital-internship-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/en\/blog\/2023\/11\/10\/digital-internship-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Jyv\u00e4skyl\u00e4 University of Applied Sciences increased productivity by digitizing work training management"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"10805\" class=\"elementor elementor-10805\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div data-particle_enable=\"false\" data-particle-mobile-disabled=\"false\" class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-0c9cf16 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"0c9cf16\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7197d1e elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"7197d1e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Digitalization has evolved from a buzzword to a core element of all organizations\u2019 daily operations. Universities of applied sciences will no longer simply <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">adopt<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> tools, but rather will <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">exploit<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> them for better teaching and administration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This article describes how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jamk.fi\/en\/for-students\/degree-student\/practical-training-in-the-bachelors-degree\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jyv\u00e4skyl\u00e4 University of Applied Sciences<\/a> (JAMK), in collaboration with Workseed Ltd, took a significant leap towards digital reform in work training and on-the-job-learning (OJL) with digital internship management.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 27.2px;\">Common challenges with internships in higher education<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><\/h2><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<br \/>In Finnish universities of applied sciences, work training and on-the-job-learning (OJL) constitute a major component of formal studies. They offer students an opportunity to learn practical skills and apply theoretical knowledge they have previously accumulated. Through internships, students will:<\/span><\/p><ul><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">gain important skills in their domain of speciality<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">develop their professional soft skills<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">gain valuable work experience<\/span><\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This benefits not only the student, but also the training organization that gains exposure as a potential employer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Internship periods vary from 5 to 20 months, depending on the industry. Internships can be temporary, split into smaller work contracts, or completed in more than one workplace. Students can look for internships on their own or using internship portals provided by the academic institution.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Background to the reform at JAMK<\/span><\/h2><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<br \/>Jyv\u00e4skyl\u00e4 University of Applied Sciences (JAMK in short) recognized the need to reform their work training process in 2021. The reform was based on the following fundamental areas of development:<\/span><\/p><ul><li aria-level=\"1\"><b>The need to reform processing and archiving internship contracts<\/b><b><br \/><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The university of applied sciences spend considerable time and effort administering contracts between the institution, workplaces, and students. Contracts would be printed on paper, signed by hand, delivered to the workplace, and then scanned manually for archiving. Teachers spent a significant proportion of their time with these manual processes, often being forced to spend less time with their students.<\/span><\/li><\/ul><ul><li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Prevalence of human error in processing contracts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There was a relatively high risk of misplacing or losing contracts due to the manual archiving process. Administration was worried that in some cases it would not be possible to locate legally necessary documents at the right time.\u00a0<\/span><\/li><\/ul><ul><li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Inconsistent quality of support to students and technical limitations to tutoring<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The tutoring and support provided by teachers to students and training supervisors was perceived to be inconsistent and insufficient. A teacher would coordinate dozens of students at the same time, usually using a mix of email, internship reports, and remote meetings. Scheduling meetings and receiving reports was perceived as cumbersome and increased teachers\u2019 workload.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><b>Required solution:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> An automatic, fully digital tool to approve and archive contracts to eliminate manual work.<\/span><\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JAMK decided to reform the process in order to increase efficiency of administrative work and to create flexible ways to work. New tools for improved internship management were needed.<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How internship management was improved with Workseed<\/span><\/h2><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<br \/>JAMK and Workseed Ltd initiated a collaborative project in autumn 2021 to design a fully digital project for internship management. The Workseed platform was deemed a suitable tool as it is designed specifically to support on-the-job-learning. Among other perks, the platform allows training supervisors direct access to legal documents and training assignments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A pilot phase of the project lasted for six months. During this period, JAMK perceived the following positive impacts of digital internship management on administrative work:<\/span><\/p><ul><li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Increased flexibility:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The platform was seen to adapt well to the special needs of different departments. For instance within the context of health and social studies, the most common practice is to use framework contracts that do not require separate contracts for individual students. Other study areas may require individual internship contracts to be approved by multiple parties (school, student, workplace). In these cases, JAMK was able to streamline the process to take place entirely through the Workseed platform.\u00a0<\/span><\/li><\/ul><ul><li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Streamlined communication.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Signing and archiving contracts takes place faster due to automatic notifications. Improved internship management eliminates waste and improves workflows.<\/span><\/li><\/ul><ul><li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Easy archive management.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> JAMK now archives legally required documents and contracts automatically. No separate archive or database is necessary. The platform automatically conserves all documents during studies and five years after graduation.\u00a0<\/span><\/li><\/ul><ul><li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Increased quality of tutoring. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Workseed gives teachers the necessary tools to tutor and support their students better and more regularly. The platform keeps documents, assignments, and feedback tools in the same place. Teachers can follow up their students easily, give feedback, identify need for support, and message flexibly.\u00a0<\/span><\/li><\/ul><ul><li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Ease of identifying problems. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extensive visual dashboards and reporting tools allow JAMK teachers to identify situations where students are struggling or falling behind schedule faster than before. Interventions and individual support are easy to offer with better internship management.<\/span><\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These experiences clearly demonstrate the benefits of digital internship management and the opportunities to streamline on-the-job-learning.\u00a0<br \/><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1db3fa1 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"1db3fa1\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"561\" src=\"https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Learning-place-register-1024x561.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-17384\" alt=\"Learning place register is a tool of internship management that helps organizations to understand their impact and measure internship success\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Learning-place-register-1024x561.png 1024w, https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Learning-place-register-300x164.png 300w, https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Learning-place-register-768x421.png 768w, https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Learning-place-register.png 1310w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d742f17 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"d742f17\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Learning place register is a component of digital internship management that allows organizations to assess their impact by region and industry.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-37b4f76 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"37b4f76\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 27.2px;\">Digital internship management improves decision making<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/h2><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">A pillar in JAMK development strategy is to increase regional impact. Workseed learning platform provides an excellent tool to measure regional impact and efficacy of collaboration with private sector actors. Workseed accumulates data not only to assess students and pedagogical materials, but also on how relationships with companies are being forged.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">JAMK can easily identify which companies and municipalities belong to their network and assess how different study areas are represented. The university of applied sciences can exploit this data to assess their impact by area and industries, and make more impactful strategic decisions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">Systematic accumulation of data on internship processes allows internship management to develop the quality of study programs. The data allows measuring the quality of workplaces and providing institutional support and training to the right partners.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">The fact is that private sector partnerships are a crucial factor for all institutions of higher education. Every company willing to offer work training placements is invaluable in the long term.<br \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">How to manage internships better<\/span><\/h2><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The highly successful collaboration between Jyv\u00e4skyl\u00e4 University of Applied Sciences and Workseed ltd demonstrates the efficiency gains a digital process can provide for administering internships. <\/span><b>Digitalization not only streamlines information management and eliminates human error, but also allows teachers to spend more time supporting their students.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">In case you work with students at a university of applied sciences or a vocational school and want to take your work to the next step, you have come to the right place.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">If you are comparing potential software alternatives, we recommend our<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/en\/these-10-tips-will-help-you-choose-the-best\/\">popular blog post on the 10 most important aspects<\/a> <span style=\"color: #000000;\">to consider when acquiring a learning management system.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In case you want to know more about Workseed and its potential use cases in your organization, feel free to<\/span>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/en\/our-team\/contact-us\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">get in touch with our experts<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\"> and take a step towards a more efficient process for managing on-the-job-learning.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Digitalization has evolved from a buzzword to a core element of all organizations\u2019 daily operations. Universities of applied sciences will no longer simply adopt tools, but rather will exploit them for better teaching and administration.\u00a0 This article describes how Jyv\u00e4skyl\u00e4 University of Applied Sciences (JAMK), in collaboration with Workseed Ltd, took a significant leap towards [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":13638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[143,145],"tags":[303,339,309],"class_list":["post-10805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","category-vocational-education","tag-customer-stories","tag-he","tag-internships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10805"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17387,"href":"https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10805\/revisions\/17387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.workseed.fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}