Paola Cascinelli and Joanna Simos
Opportunities for Innovation in a Knowledge-based Society
In a context where universities are approaching the reality outside the classrooms to produce “useful knowledge”, national and international curricular internships are an interesting tool to increase and promote the connection of the learning process with the application to practical cases. In an ideal scenario the benefits are evident for all the interested parties: for the student, as an internship gives a first glance into the professional world; for academia, being exposed to the real world and pushed to adapt the curricula and the teaching methods; and for the host organizations that can access the innovative thoughts developed in the academia. In sum, a curricular internship can activate the circulation of ideas at the core of the knowledge economy we live in, as well as amplify our understanding of how knowledge is produced and how we may tune into this exchange…