BEST PRACTICES TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ ON-THE-JOB TRAINING-BASED LEARNING OUTCOMES

This paper is based on the PEST - Partnership for Exchange of experience in Student on-the-job Training project (2013 – 2015) funded by European Commission, Leonardo da Vinci Partnership programme. The main goal of the project was to compare student internship practices of vocational higher education in five European countries (Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, and Romania) and to increase mutual understanding of differences in internship practices between partner countries. A long term objective was to increase international student exchanges for work-based learning periods. The special interest was paid to the national accreditation procedures, the best practices of the partner institutions and students’ opinions about international mobility as a part of business studies.

In this paper we focus on quality of international student internship. First we shortly describe and compare on-the-job training regulations and practices in vocational higher education in partner countries. Second, we define key elements of good international internship period and introduce a competence map, a traineeship report and a competence assessment form as examples of the best practices to improve students’ learning outcomes and explain how they can be used in on-the-job learning cooperation between vocational higher education institutions and businesses. In addition, we define a competence map of on-the-job learning counsellor. Finally, we present a few ideas and suggestions to support and to help the increase of international internship mobility.