Internship in the Bachelor's degree programme

The internship in the Bachelor's degree programme must be completed as a full-day, non-university block internship of at least 8 weeks (320 hours) (*old BAPO: 10 weeks (400 hours)). It is possible to complete the Internship in two blocks, with each block lasting at least four weeks. This gives you the opportunity to complete a second internship at a different company.

The lecture-free period is generally recommended for completing the internship. If an Internship extends into the lecture period of the following semester, this should be taken into account at an early stage when choosing the courses in that semester. Furthermore, in the event of overlaps with seminars, the respective lecturers should be contacted in good time to discuss possible solutions.

In exceptional cases and if the internship content is exceptionally well suited to an internship in the education degree programme, the internship can take place during the semester - subject to approval by the internship supervisor. The work in the internship centre must be carried out on at least 2 days per week for at least 6 hours each. If this applies to the content of your expected internship (and only then!), you can submit an enquiry to the internship supervisor.

Practical activities prior to the start of the degree programme (community service, voluntary social year, voluntary work, educational training, etc.) are generally not recognised in the Bachelor's degree programme. Internships must always be completed during your studies!

It should be noted that internships must be completed in pedagogical fields of educational work (adult education, continuing education, in-company training, diagnostics, therapy, etc.). The decisive factor in the selection of the internship position or area of work is its pedagogical character. The content of the work during the internship must be centred on educational and/or training work or must at least be closely linked to pedagogical activities. The target group is (young) adults. The experience reports of (external link, opens in a new window) our students also offer an opportunity for inspiration.

This means that Internships in which only supervision and care (especially in the elementary sector such as kindergarten, primary school) or only care (nursing and care of the elderly) are carried out are not recognised.

The three main activities of your internship must account for 70% of the internship time and it must be possible to establish a connection between them and the content of your degree programme. This only includes the courses in your core degree programme (i.e. not Minor Subjects or elective courses in your degree programme).

ATTENTION: You are not studying social pedagogy, social work or school education!

You are strongly advised to complete the Internship in your personal or professional area of interest. If it is unclear which content orientation is suitable for the individual profile or which positions exist for existing areas of interest, there is the possibility of a counselling interview with the internship supervisor.

Further information on selecting/searching for an internship can be found below in the section of the same name.

MOST IMPORTANT POINT: The content is crucial! It is therefore useless to send an enquiry to the internship supervisor with the name of the institution, as this is not very meaningful.

As an Internship on the Education degree program serves to reflect on the content you have learnt so far, you should only complete one from the third semester onwards. This ensures that you already have a sound theoretical knowledge to take with you into practice and can draw a corresponding amount of reflective knowledge from the internship. You can then compare and link this with other content in the further course of your degree programme.

The internship can theoretically last until the last semester in which you are enrolled on the degree program. The Internship can also be completed after you have written your bachelor's thesis.

Please note, however, that you must attendthe accompanying seminar (not valid for *old BAPO)after your Internship !

Students are encouraged to use the knowledge they have already acquired during their studies to assess the suitability of a possible internship and to make their own decision.

If you are unsure about the suitability of an internship in borderline cases, write an e-mail to the internship supervisor stating the name of the internship and, more importantly, the expected internship content (which must be requested there in advance) or visit the office hours.

Enquiries about obviously unsuitable internships and enquiries with insufficient information will not be answered or will only be answered briefly.

You are responsible for choosing your internship placement. However, before you enter into a fixed agreement with your internship centre, it is advisable to consult with the internship supervisor. Especially in borderline cases or in cases of uncertainty, this should definitely be done.

Once you have found a place with a clear pedagogical character (see "Where can I do an Internship?" above), you do not need to do anything else. Although being listed in the internship database is a good sign, it is no guarantee that an internship will be recognised. DENN: The content is crucial!

Of course, you can also complete your Internship abroad.

For more information, please contact the International Office.

If your internship position would like a confirmation of the compulsory internship, please send an e-mail with the following data to the internship supervisor:

• BAPO for which you are studying (until SS2016 or from WS2016/17)
• Surname & first name
• Enrolment number
• Date of birth
• Start and end date of the Internship (expected)
• Name and address of the internship centre
• possible addressees of the letter (optional)

The confirmation can either

• sent to you or your internship centre as a PDF by e-mail or
• in person to the internship supervisor or
• faxed to the internship centre
• or sent by post to the internship centre.

Current and older job offers can be found in the GRIPS course "Erfahrungsberichte Praktika Erziehungswissenschaft (external link, opens in a new window)", which is continuously sent to the internship support centre.

The GRIPS course also contains experience reports and further impressions of previous internships in various sectors - regionally and nationally. Browse through the entries and get an overview of potential areas of activity.

It is important that the position corresponds to your own interests and specialisations, but also matches the content of your core studies.

Are you only receiving rejections or simply unable to find an internship? In this case, you should think about your approach and, if necessary, your letter(s) of application.

Use all the tools provided by the university, as described on these pages. If necessary, rethink your semantic approach to search engine searches. Break down your entries into as few, concise keywords as possible. The same applies to searching job/internship portals.

Attend the BOK seminar "Application & Internship" in advance, where many useful tips on the topic of application are given and worked out.

Your supervisors at the internship centre do not necessarily have to have a university degree in education, pedagogy or educational sciences. However, it is of course an advantage to have pedagogically trained supervisors.

If not already practised by the internship centre, seek repeated discussions and feedback. You are entitled to feedback on your work in a good intern-employer relationship.

If you recognise that you are not being deployed in agreed areas or that the agreed internship content is not being fulfilled, ask for it if necessary. It is recommended that you proceed sensitively but firmly. In special cases, you can contact the internship supervisor, who can also act as a mediator if necessary.

If you want to do a longer internship than the lecture-free period allows, you can apply for a semester of leave. This is possible if the internship takes up more than 50% of the lecture period.

To apply for a semester of internship or leave of absence, go to the Registrar's Office with your internship contract (which confirms that the internship lasts more than half of the semester). Applications are usually accepted until the beginning of the lecture period.

Please note that you cannot/may not complete any coursework or examinations in the first attempt during a semester of leave. Courses and examinations that have been taken cannot therefore be recorded in Flexnow. However, this does not apply to make-up examinations from previous semesters.

Please note the regulations for the semester of leave on the Registrar' s Office website.

In April 1997, the umbrella organisations for social insurance agreed that an internship completed during a degree course and prescribed in the examination and study regulations is part of the university education and is therefore considered to be part of the degree course.

In this respect, students on compulsory internships are not subject to compulsory insurance as employees of companies. If a registered student completes the internship prescribed in the Examination Regulations, he/she is exempt from pension and unemployment insurance regardless of the weekly working hours and the amount of remuneration.

Please note with regard to health and long-term care insurance:

• Self-insured persons are exempt from contributions regardless of the amount of remuneration
• Family members (who do not pay their own health insurance contributions) are exempt from contributions up to the marginal earnings threshold (currently €400); interns with a higher income must insure themselves for the duration of the internship.

Internships abroad: Students who wish to complete their compulsory internship abroad must clarify with their health insurance provider (KV) whether they are covered by health insurance abroad.

If the internship is carried out on the basis of foreign examination and study regulations, there is no insurance obligation.

The internships prescribed in the examination and study regulations are defined as a compulsory part of the degree programme within the framework of the examination and study regulations. The decisive factor in the assessment of accident insurance cover is whether the Internship is carried out with or without remuneration.

With remuneration, the internship location is organisationally and legally responsible and therefore obliged to report the students to the respective employers' liability insurance association, which then automatically takes care of the students in the event of an insurance claim.

Without payment, the students continue to fall under the accident insurance cover of the state of Bavaria - accident insurance cover is guaranteed by the Unfallkasse Bavaria.

This opinion is also held by the "Legal Affairs" committee of the Federation of Institutions for Statutory Accident Insurance and Prevention (Hauptverband der gewerblichen Berufsgenossenschaft) and the Unfallkasse Bavaria in accordance with the German Social Code (SGB VII, § 2 ff).

In principle, the state of Bavaria is responsible for damage caused by students in a practical placement, meaning that it is not necessary to take out additional liability insurance. However, recourse against the students concerned is possible in cases of gross negligence or intent, but insurance for these cases is largely excluded.

In the company, students are also covered by the company liability insurance of the respective company.

Earnings during the compulsory internship are subject to income and wage tax. The usual funding limits apply.

Special feature:
Students who receive BAföG must also inform the BAföG office of their annual earnings. Excessive earnings can reduce the entitlement to BAföG.

Students have no holiday entitlement, but individual agreements are usually made with the practice centres.

The Federal Leave Act can be used as a guideline; i.e. for each full month of employment, 1/12 of the company's usual annual leave is taken into account. Fractions of days of holiday that add up to at least 1/2 day must be rounded up to full days. The minimum holiday entitlement is 24 days per year.

Holiday days are not counted towards practical work in the company. The respective Examination Regulations of the study institutions stipulate the duration of practical work in the company. The duration of the employment relationship (employment contract) must be harmonised with this.

If public holidays fall within the period of your Internship, these count as part of your weekly working hours. For example, if you are employed in a company with a 38-hour week, a week with a public holiday counts as 38 hours if you worked your regular working hours on the other days.

How to obtain your certificate of achievement:

1. Complete an Internship according to the recognition criteria in the Internship Guidelines.
2. Write an internship report in which you reflect on your activities. You can find out how to write the report under "Internship report".
3. Enclose a confirmation from the internship centre with your report (please only send a copy!). This confirmation is not subject to any formal requirements and can be freely written and designed by the internship centre. The exact period of the internship and the hours worked must be clearly stated.
4. Hand in your internship report to the internship supervisor or to Prof. Dr Stürmer's office (further information can be found under "Deadline").
5. Attend the seminar accompanying the Internship (not valid for *old BAPO) from the module EDU-BA-M07.

The Internship form for the Education degree program must be completed and attached to the internship report and is available for download (opens in a new window). (This PDF is not accessible).

You will also attend the accompanying seminar for the Internship (from module EDU-BA-M07). You only have to do this once, even if you have completed several internships, in the semester following your last internship. In it, the reflected experiences of all participants are thematised in various tasks. Please do not confuse the accompanying seminar with the BOK seminar "Application & Internship" (not valid for *old BAPO).

The internship report serves as a written reflection of the completed activity and must be submitted to the internship supervisor within six weeks of completing your (last) internship.

It should take the form of a seminar paper (incl. cover sheet and outline, bibliography). Sources used must be cited in the body text (APA). The internship report must be at least 8 and max. 10 pages in length (if the internship was completed at two different institutions, it may be up to 4 pages longer. The emphasis is on a correct and standardised form (spelling, linguistic expression, justified text).

If the Internship has been completed in two different institutions, the report must include these bullet points separately for each institution. The overall report must then be submitted to the internship supervisor within six weeks of the end of the second block.

The cover sheet must contain the following points:

• Surname & first name
• Address
• E-mail address
• Enrolment number

Attach a copy(s) of the internship confirmation(s) from your internship placement(s) tothe report . There are no formal requirements for the preparation of the internship confirmation. However, please note that the hours worked during the internship must be listed in the confirmation in addition to the duration of the internship.

The internship report does not have to be bound or specially stapled.

Content should include:

1. A description of the institution (brief description of size, different units, mission, etc.) => at least 1.5 pages (max. 2 pages in total for two internships)
2. A description of your own areas of responsibility (factual activity report, no narrative of experiences. Further information under "Description of own tasks / activities") => at least 2.5 pages (max. 4 pages in total for two internships)
3. A reflection on the university teaching on the practical tasks (further information under "Theory-practice reflection") => at least 4 pages (max. 6 pages in total for two internships)
4. references used, if applicable

Make sure that you do not simply list a series of activities during the Internship. The aim here is to convey the most important tasks (the 70% mentioned in the form) and not to be able to reproduce every work process in minute detail.

It can help to keep a kind of diary during the Internship and write down your impressions. This also makes it easier to write the internship report afterwards.

The aim of theory-practice reflection is to reflect on the actions in the Internship with regard to the theories learnt at university and vice versa.

In many cases, this seems very difficult at first glance, because education programmes teach little concrete practical knowledge (e.g. computer skills, certain formulas or languages, etc.).

In pedagogy, on the other hand, mainly reflective knowledge is taught. This should enable students to judge practice in terms of its inherent theories in order to be able to act flexibly and independently of the situation. Together with the experience gained in the Internship and the reflective knowledge from university, competent action is the result.

So don't just try to integrate concrete application theories into your internship, but also reflect on which scientific theories could help to explain and predict the practice or to achieve the set goals. In your internship report, refer to suitable literature sources to support your explanations (APA citation style).

Ideally, you should study literature on the relevant field of work before or during the internship, reflect on the application of these theories during your work and try to find further fundamental theories in practice afterwards.

The internship report must be submitted in printed form to the internship supervisor within 6 weeks of completing the (last) internship.

If your internship lasts longer than the mandatory weeks, your employment becomes a voluntary internship. From this point onwards, you can decide for yourself when you submit your internship report. However, the 6-week rule also applies here as soon as your internship is complete.

The report can be submitted in person or by others

• to the internship supervisor or
• handed in at the office of Prof. Dr Stürmer (PT 4.0.76C) or
• sent by post to the following address:
  University of Regensburg
  Internship supervision
  Chair of Education (Prof. Dr Stürmer)
  93040 Regensburg

If all requirements are met and all documents have been submitted and evaluated, the Internship is recognised and entered in Flexnow. This Flexnow entry confirms that the internship module has been passed (EDU-BA-M07, or *old BAPO EDU-M07).

The update in Flexnow takes place on two key dates per semester. No exceptions to this are possible. On these dates, up to 2 weeks must be allowed for the correction. Afterwards, the internship work will automatically appear in Flexnow, so nothing further needs to be done.

Correction deadlines are

30 June and 30 September in the summer semester and

31 December and 31 March in the winter semester.

These deadlines have been chosen to facilitate the preparation of certificates in particular. Exceptions to these deadlines cannot be made. Please contact the internship supervisor.

If there is a need to revise your internship report, you will be contacted by e-mail by the internship supervisor. It is generally possible to receive feedback from the internship supervisor or to inspect the corrected internship report. Please ask for an appointment for this.

If you would like to have a feedback discussion following your recorded internship performance, please contact the internship supervisor.