Student Internships in the Time of Crisis: How IT Companies Cope with New Challenges and Opportunities

ABSTRACT This poster presents findings from a small‐scale study which investigated student internship (hybrid and virtual) during the COVID‐19 lockdown. The study was conducted in 18 Croatian IT companies using semi‐structured interviews. The study tried to answer the following research questions: RQ1: How did local IT companies organise student internships during COVID‐19 lockdown; RQ2: What are advantages and disadvantages of online student internship. The study was conducted within the framework of Erasmus + project DECriS (Digital Education for Crisis Situations: Times When There is No Alternative, 2021–2023). Results of this study showed that the advantages of virtual internships are flexibility, saving time, the possibility for the interns to dedicate themselves to their private and academic obligations, comfort, easier work organization, the possibility of self‐organization and reduced risk of COVID‐19 infection. However, other respondents indicated the following negative sides of virtual internship: the lack of communication among students and mentors, students' lack of opportunity to learn about organizational, business and ultimately the human side of the company.