The Vocational Training Project is a course that is part of the Master’s degree programme in biology at Aarhus University, in which the Master’s degree student takes part in a vocational l training process in a company.
The student is responsible for hands-on assignments and will test his/her knowledge, theories and methods in biology. The Vocational Training Project strengthens the student’s competences, such as creativity, independence, and the ability to collaborate. At the same time, students will be inspired to choose their path in their working life following their studies.
The Vocational Training Project makes the latest knowledge accessible to the business community, provides an opportunity to collaborate with Aarhus University and allows for recruiting new potential talent.
There are many benefits to participating in the Vocational Training Project. Till now, experience shows that businesses and organizations feel that the Vocational Training Project ensures exposure of the company, allows access to the latest research, collaboration with Aarhus University and, importantly, allows for access to recruiting new talent.
As a rule, all interested businesses, organizations etc. can participate.
A typical host often employs biologists or others in the natural sciences. Additionally, the host may see the Vocational Training Project as an opportunity to recruit future biologists and build a collaboration with students and supervisors in the department.
The department invites interested businesses and organizations to create a company profile, which will be part of a dynamic and ever-growing catalogue of inspiration for the Master’s students.
In the catalogue of inspiration, businesses and organizations are presented with:
The department ensures that all profiles undergo proofreading as well as subsequent professional layout.
Biology students go to the inspiration catalogue to find, among other things, interested companies and organisations. When your company or organisation creates a profile for the inspiration catalogue, it will be available via the student’s study portal.
The profile provides the name of a primary contact person in the company or organisation. It is the biology student who must contact the company or organisation - this is an important part of the learning process.
It is always an individual assessment by the company or organisation whether a student matches the company or organisation and if there is sufficient time and a suitable project.
The project covers a semester, either the period 1 September to 15 December or 1 January to 15 June. The project accounts for up to 2/3 of the semester, corresponding to 20 or 15 ECTS. The Master's degree student has a supervisor in the company or organisation and is also assigned a supervisor from the Department of Ecoscience whose research is related to the topic of the project.
The supervisor in the company or organisation plays an important role and guides the project towards obtaining a satisfactory result for both the workplace and the student.
The student completes the project with a working report, a portfolio of completed tasks and an oral examination. At the exam, the supervisors from the workplace and the department are examiners together with an internal co-examiner.
The department's supervisor sets the exam date together with the supervisor from the company/organisation and the co-examiner.
The exam will be held in January or June
The project programme tasks should be relevant for the student’s study programme, and the student should work within the same framework as the company’s other employees.
The project is an opportunity for companies to, for example, initiate and complete one of the many projects on their to-do list.
The student will not receive any pay. The company or organisation’s time and resources as well as the student’s learning outcome of the project form the basis for the collaboration.
A company or organisation where the student already has a spare time job cannot participate as a partner in the project.
