Abstract:

Partnership, exchange of experience, mobility - are currents that lead to the knowledge - based economy. Only through a wide openness to the other actors of the society can the university adapt to the rapid transformations that characterize more and more the society in which we live. The involvement of external partners in the curricular activity in higher education must be seen from the perspective of mutual benefits.

The transition of students to the labour market should be gradual, starting with the first year when they should be given the opportunity to know the environment in which they will integrate professionally (companies presentations), continuing with the intermediate years with familiarization through practical experiences and internships and ending with the last years of study and/or master's degrees in which the student could work part-time or on projects and could also complete the bachelor's and/or dissertation project in partnership with a private actor (or other than academic).

Universities must be open to the needs of the private environment, offering study programs in the fields required on the market, opportunities to identify suitable students to be recruited, to organize laboratories and training centres to be used together by the university and the external partner, to initiate the organization of continuing education courses/programs or to offer opportunities for the promotion of external partners in the university.

This paper presents an analyse made at the Faculty of Engineering of the "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu (Romania) on how to implement internship projects in 2018-2020 and the lack of synchronization between the theory taught at the Faculty and its transposition into industrial practice, which leads to the inefficient use of theoretical knowledge and therefore to the decrease of the efficiency of the taught subject.

In Romania, companies in the economic sector are reluctant to hire new graduates, because they demonstrate a poor practical training or inconsistent with the concrete reality of the activities carried out in enterprises. Despite the legislative measures taken to promote employment - Law 76/2002 introduces tax exemption for recent graduates - the existing solutions are not sufficient due to the low employment rate of recent graduates. Solving these shortcomings can be achieved by increasing the number of hours given to internships in companies.

The resulting advantages are the following: accumulation of practical knowledge in a competitive environment, without neglecting studies, teamwork and development of communication skills, familiarization with the rigors and requirements of a professional work environment, forming an overview of the modern organization of companies in the area.

Consolidation of University-Economic environment relations can be a beginning to solve the diminishing effect of practical training. Consolidation will bring benefits to both universities and companies, namely: companies participating in practical training become known as potential employers by future specialists; companies create a nursery of young people, who can be recruited at the end of college with minimal costs, companies just publicize their internship offers.

Keywords:

Internship, skills, facilitate cooperation, stakeholder.