Internship

In the bachelor’s programmes E-Commerce, Computer Science and Business Information Systems, an internship (also called practical semester, internship module, practical module or mandatory internship) is scheduled for the 5th semester. After four semesters of studying, students should get a first impression of actually working in an IT company.

The internship module is regulated in § 6 of the study and examination regulations.

It is part of the educational objectives that you organise your internship yourself. Our Faculty will support your search for an internship by offering useful internship platforms or internship exchanges. However, you yourself have to take care of selecting interesting companies and applying to them as well as the getting approval for the internship from the responsible internship coordinator.

Requirements for the internship

Students must have earned more than 90 ECTS credits before doing the internship. Students in the Computer Science bachelor’s must have successfully completed the first module on algorithms and data structures (Algorithmen und Datenstrukturen I).

These requirements do not have to be met already when you start the approval process for the internship with your internship coordinator. However, there must be a realistic likelihood that the requirements can be met.

Checklist and documents

Please be sure to review the checklists and templates, as well as the list of frequently asked questions.

Duration of the internship

  • The internship module is defined as a continuous, supervised internship lasting at least 20 weeks, but no more than 26 weeks. 
  • A "week" here is considered to be a working week consisting of 5 working days, i.e. the internship must be extended accordingly in the event of absences and holidays.

Training or internship plan

According to the study and examination regulations, companies commit themselves “to train the student for the agreed period in accordance with the internship plan and to have them supervised for this period by a qualified person.” The training plans for the different degree programmes are available from the following links:

• Training plan for E-Commerce
• Training plan for Computer Science
• Training plan for Business Information Systems

Internship abroad

Of course you can always do the internship at a company abroad. The conditions, such as requirements, duration and necessary documents, do not differ between an internship in Germany and an internship abroad.

Please note our project Internationalisation of Business Contacts and the offered internship in Sheffield. 

When planning, you should consider whether the internship abroad can perhaps be followed by a semester abroad.

For more information about an internship abroad please visit the pages of THWS International Office.

Possible companies

Generally speaking, all companies or institutions fulfilling the subject requirements and the ability to guarantee qualified and objective supervision are suited for a possible internship. 

You can find advertisements for internships through the following platforms:

  • IWInews 3.0: Here, some companies publish job advertisements and our staff forward incoming advertisements to it.
  • Our Faculty annually offers an internship exchange during the first week of the summer semester.
  • THWS also organises a business contact fair called Praxisforum.
  • The THWS online job exchange Hochschuljobbörse publishes job advertisements from around the world.
  • Some companies ask to hang their posters on the glass walls of our buildings.

Information Event

  • During their 3rd semester, all students get information about the actual procedure for the approval of an internship during a comprehensive information event at the end of November.

Contact

  • Please check the FAQ about the internship module first. If you then still have any questions, please contact the internship coordinator responsible for your degree programme.