Our objectives were as follows: Explore and develop new ways to offer pre-professional experiences to younger generations. Prototype and experiment with a digital internship model for learners needing internship immersion and/or career orientation. Reach secondary school learners and their teachers, providing them with digital resources to explore the world of work. Establish connections between educational institutions and companies. Facilitate contact between students and companies for internships. Promote collaboration among teachers from different institutions to address the transition from school to vocational training or university, and ultimately to professional life. Identify the needs of educational stakeholders and students to produce results that are genuinely used to ensure the project's sustainability. Encourage students to undertake internships, especially internationally.
We applied for this project during the Covid period. A significant need was to support students in their transition to the professional world, especially given the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic that made internships impossible. Additionally, we noticed a substantial lack of integration of IT and new media in education. Our goal was to address these gaps by offering online learning opportunities and improving the integration of IT in education, benefiting students while enhancing career orientation by providing access to relevant resources and information about careers. Thus, the theme of "virtual internships" seemed to be a perfect combination to address these aspects. Finally, for better adoption of the results, an online platform with clear resources and guidelines, as well as a motivating presentation, was essential, supported by continuous project activities to ensure its sustainability.