Internship

An internship gives you the opportunity to discover the business world, identify companies that match your profile, develop skills in a specific sector, build a professional network and put theory into practice. The internship also enables you to gain self-confidence, learn to give and receive feedback and assess your ability to adapt. It is also possible to join the company after the internship on a fixed-term or open-ended contract, and enhance your CV.

All the precise information is clearly explained on the course page STAG-S501 on the UV . We invite you to register via an automatic registration for access to all this this valuable content.

The goal of an internship is to put into practice all the skills acquired during your university career, to live a learning experience and an opportunity to reflect on your future career path.

The internship enables students to:

• experience the living and working conditions in developing/emerging countries,
• participate in ongoing work at the host institution,
• conduct a specific research on the topic of their master’s thesis.

Definition of objectives.

Workshop.

Reflexive practice.

Coaching.

Contribution to the teaching profile

This integrative work contributes to all the objectives of the programme:

• Integrate sustainable development into problem analysis
• Identify and apply the relevant analytical tools, scientific knowledge and corporate financial techniques to perform in-depth analyses of microfinance-related issues
• Articulate key macro and microfinance-specific facts and economic trends in the banking sector with mechanisms of management and governance of microfinance institutions
• Collect, organise and analyse data to assess the performance of microfinance institutions using a multidisciplinary approach
• Adopt a scientific approach to data collection, research and analysis and communicate results with clear, structured and sophisticated arguments
• Display critical thinking and develop autonomous learning strategies and techniques
• Apply quantitative and qualitative techniques to support data analysis using standard office and statistical software
• Work and communicate effectively as part of a team in an international and multicultural environment

Additional information

The two-to-four-month internship is an opportunity and a prospective part of the programme.

It takes place between May and August in an institution/organisation related to microfinance activities typically in a developing/emerging country. Exceptionally, the internship may take place in a developed country following certain conditions (previous professional experience in a developing country, etc.).

The Thesis guide contains useful information on the practical aspects of the internship: location, duration, help in finding an internship, internship proposal document, internship agreement, insurance, grants, etc.
The internship is the subject of a compulsory information session, usually organised at the beginning of November by Prof. Carolina Laureti. The practical aspects of the internship are discussed before any questions the students may have are answered in full.
Students who choose to do an internship acquire the 5 ECTS for the ‘Internship’ course, and do not have to do any additional work (including an oral presentation), which is the responsibility of students who decide not to do an internship. 

Abstracts of previous EMP theses are available here. For full versions, please contact the EMP coordination office (emp@ulb.be).

Campus

Solbosch

Method(s) of evaluation

• Oral examination
• Written report

Oral examination

Written report

s specified in the Thesis Guide distributed at the beginning of the academic year, students who decide to go on placement must produce a thesis based on the placement. Students who choose not to do an internship will be required to complete an assignment as part of the ‘Internship’ course, as well as an oral presentation of the assignment. Practical details will be explained at the internship information session in October/November.
The EIR dissertation based on the internship allows an application for an open session (defence in October) subject to certain conditions.
Each dissertation will be defended orally before a jury, in two parts: the student's oral presentation (10 minutes) using PowerPoint, followed by a 15-minute discussion with the members of the jury. The mark awarded to the student is overall and therefore covers both the dissertation and the oral presentation.

Language(s) of evaluation

• english