Work-based learning is a substantial part of professional education. For a vast majority of study programmes in Professional Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs), internship is mandatory for the programme accomplishment, with defined learning outcomes and ECTS-expressed workload. The internship concept is based on a planned period of experience in the workplace aimed at helping students develop particular skills, knowledge or understanding. Limited opportunities for students to physically approach the workplace have strongly affected and delayed the accomplishment of their studies.A clear need for the development of an internship model that will rely on the virtual/remote format in response to the pandemic has been recognized. In addition, digital internship is a powerful tool for the inclusion of students who cannot participate in traditional internships due to financial, geographical reasons, or disabilities etc. The assignment of work-based tasks that can be performed digitally and remotely, with the development of adequate monitoring of student progress, can significantly facilitate student learning outcome achievement. The goal of this project is to introduce the specific virtual internship model and methodology for VIs with practical workflows and guidelines, which enable quality design of customized and flexible internship programs. In order to enable functioning of VIs, a specialized web software solution will be designed and developed. It will be based on the proposed VI lifecycle model and methodology, and it will connect all parties (students, schools, and companies) within a secure and collaborative web platform. The goal is to provide a more flexible, efficient, personalized, low-cost, and adapted solution for VIs.The achievement of the project goal is envisioned through the orchestrated work of experts who have experience in organizing internship systems between PHEIs and companies and a group of experts who have experience in developing web-based platforms. The testing of the online platform for digital internship will be performed by piloting the internship in each country, as well as by virtual student exchanges between partners with complementary programs.The expected results of the project include:•Developed model for digital internship in professional higher education, including learning outcomes and methodology for its implementation;•Created online platform for the organization and management of virtual internships;•Created toolkit/guide for the implementation of virtual internships •raised capacities of PHEI teachers/trainers/mentors for organizing virtual internships;•improved professional and digital skills of students; •improved capacities of business enterprises to carry out digital internships;•created network of educational institutions and business partners involved in conducting virtual internships;•representatives of the education and business sectors informed on the possibilities for carrying out virtual internships and benefits from them.The model will support the needs of the internship triangle: student-PHEI-world of work. It will allow students to select and approach the digital internship position in the workplace; PHEIs to perform monitoring and validation of student progress, assessment of achieved learning outcomes, knowledge, skills and competences during a digital internship, support to companies in term of training the internship mentors; and for the companies, it will facilitate the internship implementation, which includes designing of a complete or partial digital internship position, selection and delegation of particular tasks to students, monitoring of student progress and program accomplishment. The development of a digital internship model, envisioned in this project, targets the PHEIs in emergency situations, but it also increases the responsiveness of PHEIs to the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, that blurred the boundaries between the physical, digital, and biological worlds. Accordingly, it targets students, providing them with more efficient work-based learning. In particular, it will widen the spectrum of internships that will be accessible for the students with difficulties. The digital internship model also targets the world of work, perceived opportunities and challenges of representatives of key stakeholders in the development of digital internships. All partners will benefit from networking by sharing good practices and widening their teaching capacities via the online internship applications. It will strengthen the cooperation within institutions becoming more open for mobility and successful acquisition of innovative projects under the EU schemes in the field of professional education development.Contributing to the supply of digital education opportunities, the project will impact digital education readiness of project partners, but it is readily transferable to other professional higher education.

<< Background >>The EU is a key player in the international R&D landscape, but it is facing a series of crucial challenges which require urgent responses such as the financial crisis, low economic growth, and the ageing population. Europe invests too little in research compared to major competitors (1.9% of GDP in Europe in 2008 as against 2.5% of GDP in the US). Knowledge production is concentrated in a relatively small number of Member States.Doctoral education is a primary source of new knowledge for the research and innovation systems in Europe. The core of doctoral education is research training by an individual research experience. In Europe the number of doctoral candidates is increasing. It will probably continue to do so in future, as the strategic goal of the EU to make all member states spend 3% of the GDP for research and development will, if achieved, increase the demand for well-trained researchers. Thus, the education and recruitment of excellent young scientists to the European universities from within or outside Europe have become a key strategic goal in order to secure Europe’s position in the global knowledge economy.Need for competent researchers and academicians in social and educational sciences in EU are increasing. However, there are still problems and methodologic gaps in the research area. Kurt & etal (2007) and Karadağ (2010) concludes that even in the PhD thesis, there are substantial errors which arise from the lack of knowledge or misinformation to utilize research techniques in social and educational sciences in Turkey. Yıldırım (2010) suggests that in line with the technologic and industrial development, use of the research qualitative methods gain importance day by day. Seidman (2013) states that same problem the recent graduates that face indeed a global problem.OBJECTIVES & TARGET GROUPTarget Group: In line with the above mentioned problems in research sector and academy. We aimed to facilitate transition of First Stage and Established Researchers to Established and Leading Researchers respectively by developing their competences and skills. First stage researchers include final year, master and PhD students and researchers; established researchers include research assistants, PhD holders, researchers in social and educational sciences. Target group(s) elaborated in section of Participants of the project.Overall objective of the project is to contribute the development of research skills and competences of academicians and researchers to facilitate and accelerate their carreer progress in the area of social and educational sciences by providing them tailor made training outputs that tackles the problems they tackle due to gap in methodology.Project objectives are,Providing training tools for First Stage Researchers in social and educational sciences to increase their research skills and competences to contribute their Professional career to make them more independent and ready for becoming Recognized Researchers,Developing tools for Recognised Researchers in social and educational sciences to enhance their research Project preparation, implementation and evaluation skills to ensure their collaboration with colleagues and stakeholders for creation of innovative intellectual outputs. Making them ready to become Established Researchers.Filling the gap in the methodology in the area of research and projects.Raising awareness on the problems that researchers and academicians faces due to lack of proper training tools and methodology in scientific research in social and educational area in higher education.Increasing opportunities for e-learning/blended learning in this area via digital platforms.Ensuring free access to Open Educational Resources and materials in this area.Development of network & synergy between different partners in the area.<< Objectives >>We aimed to facilitate transition of First Stage and Established Researchers to Established and Leading Researchers respectively by developing their competences and skills. First stage researchers include final year, master and PhD students and researchers; established researchers include research assistants, PhD holders, researchers in social and educational sciences.Today, with the development of technology, the need for scientific methods is increasing day by day. As a matter of fact, technology and science have an important place in value added products and services. At the same time, objective and evidence-based analyzes are very important in effective and efficient service delivery. In the field of social and education sciences, the necessity of supporting qualitative analysis with quantitative analysis has started to emerge. However, it is observed that there are deficiencies in the education of these quantitative analyzes in academia and the sector. In this context, students in the First Stage Reseachers category cannot gain the necessary competencies for the correct and appropriate use of these techniques even when they reach the doctoral level. Similarly, research organizations, associations and companies operating in the social and education sectors have started to demand to employ people with these skills. With the intellectual outputs to be produced in this project, First Stage Researchers in the field of social and education will learn statistics, econometrics techniques applied, in detail and accurately.The area where people or researchers who have just started their academic career in the Recognized reseacher category need improvement is to provide capacity development regarding collaboration and project management. Basic information on this is not given in a formal form at the undergraduate, graduate or doctorate level. These people develop these competencies only based on their experience. In this situation, researchers and academicians who do not have access to experience and experiences cannot gain full independence and cannot become Established Researchers. With another intellectual output we will develop, project development and cooperation skills will be transferred to these people in a formal, non-formal and informal way, independent of experience acquisition.SInG-DER and ARNO aim to add non-formal elements in scientific research, to develop evidence-based knowledge and skills of students and their members, as well as young people, to increase their capacity to read statistics, conduct research, and think scientifically and methodologically. In addition, it aims to develop, execute and finalize projects in the social field within the framework of good cooperation and management based on scientific and evidence. At the same time, it aims to increase the scientific approach capacity of NGOs by establishing a cooperation network between universities and NGOs. Universities in the consortium will also gain experience from these NGOs in the use of non-formal methodologies in their students' education.Employees working in associations that focus on research and development such as SInG-DER and ARNO, as well as researchers served by these associations, will benefit from scientific research methods to be produced in collaboration with universities. The widespread use of such objective analysis methods, especially in associations operating in social fields, is very important in terms of the effectiveness and efficiency of the services and solutions offered.It will be ensured that non-formal methods to be used in project outputs are enriched and different methods are used. The use of non-formal techniques in the field of higher education will be ensured with the participation of associations such as SInG-Der and ARNO. The use of these non-formal techniques will facilitate and speed up the learning process. It will also provide institutions with a different and innovative perspespective and methodology.<< Implementation >>Outputs and its Activities:O1 Training Needs Analysis: This output, by itself, is a preparation work for remaining outputs of the project and other activities as a basis. In order to achieve a greater impact, it is important to first analyze the problem objectively, comprehensively and extensively. For the analysis, a survey content will be created to receive objective feedbacks from the target group of the project with the contribution of partners. It will be applied minimum 450 students/researchers. Feedbacks will be analyzed with statistical softwares and methodology by academicians/researcher in our consortium. Our first step for creation of a tailor made training will be completed by this set of activities and outputs.O2 & O3 Design and Creation of Tailor Made Training Materials: O1- Training Needs Analysis will be taken as a basis to create the training materials to determine which topics should be addressed and emphasized to create a greater impact on the target group. After that, literature review and preliminary research will be made by consortium. For the second action, index, headlines, content will be created and translated into 4 different languages. In order to ensure the greater impact and continuous improvement and development of the training material, pilot trainings will be conducted by each partner to receive further feedback. Prior to the pilot trainings, participants will be selected by each member of the consortium. And also expectations of participants will be received via survey which will be specifically created for the trainings. Also a similar survey will be implemented as a post-training to compare the results between two surveys. Strengths and weaknesses of the training methodology will be determined along with the suggesstions, requests, complaints. O4- e-Learning Platform & O5 Digital Discs: Prior to creation of the e-learning platform and digital discs, softwares and coding of the materials will be procured since it will be the backbone for the contents. When the design of the interfaces are done, it will be evaluated by our partners and with the feedbacks it will be finalized. When it is finalized, materials will be converted for e-learning and uploaded to the digital medias.O6 Trainer’s Handbook: O2-O3 are multi-purpose materials which can be also used as self learning tools. So, we’re planning to create a guidebook/handbook for trainers to facilitate the teaching process. This handbook will include practices, questions/answers regarding to unit, the topics which needs to be elaborated/emphasized while training and also how to use e-learning platform and digital discs for blended learning opportunities. When the handbook is finalized, a pilot training will be implemented to test the impact of the material and receive feedbacks from the participants as the same way which followed in the design of O2 and O3 (via surveys). Also participants will be selected with the objective criteria determined by the consortium.Activities for quality evaluation, quality reviews will be made and surveys will be used for training, internal and external evaluation. With the feedbacks received from the sources, reports will be created. Activities and preparation for dissemination, promotion and valorization will be conducted in parallel with the dissemination plan which is elaborated in the proposal.Multiplier events are important for dissemination and valorization of the project and the outputs. Prior to organization of these events, academicians, researchers, universities, research institutions, key actors, decision makers and other key institutions/persons will be identified and their contact numbers will be recorded. After the process, they will be formally invited and their participation wil be confirmed to access a wider and influential audience to promote the project.<< Results >>Participants and Target Groups:First Stage Researchers will develop skills and abilities listed below:• Carrying out research under supervision,• Selecting the most suitable methodology and use it for the empirical results,• Having the ability to gain further knowledge of research methodologies and discipline, • Having a good understanding of their research field,• Having the ability to produce data under supervision,• Being capable of critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis of the research topic, • Being able to explain the outcome of research and value thereof to research colleagues.• Specific research abilities are:- Accessing the correct data and its collection,- Being able to use basic softwares for the tests,- Cleaning the data and integrating the relevant software,- Creation of empirical model and hypothesis, reviewing its logic (its connection with the real world)- Conducting diagnostic and robustness tests,- Selection of the best analysis method, methodology and tests,- Assessing links and connections between empirical results and real world and integrate them into the academic paper or report.Recognised Researchers will develop skills and abilities listed below:- Having necessary skills communicate, collaborate and delegate tasks with colleagues for researches and academic co-authored papers.- Being able to make a contribution through original research that extends the frontier of knowledge by developing a substantial body of work, innovation or application.- Being able to demonstrate critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis of new and complex research projects and its results, - Having the ability to prepare, implement and evaluate the research projects. Including technical and softskills listed below: • Resource, time and budget,• Personnel, • Output and WP,• Communication & collaboration, • Meeting, • Risk/issue/change/crisis, • Dissemination, valorization, visibility,• Quality evaluation & management for implementation.• Being able to prepare and presenting project/sponsorship proposal for getting funds for research and development to collaborate with industry.Employability, professional career and likelihood of finding better jobs of target groups are improved.Methodology gap in the area was filled with the development of access&cost free tailor made outputs&trainings.Awareness of participants and target groups increased.Participating organisations & Other relevant stakeholdersParticipants enjoyed the international meetings and European Mutual Learning opportunity which increased their skills in the area .An academic and thematic network is created among partners for sustainability of the Project, further activities/projects in the area.Management and technical and skills of partners and staff are promoted by implementing a multinational EU project. Their management skills on communication, collaboration, budget/time/risk management are increased.Partners gained experience on different way of works by interacting with different organizations from different countries with different working cultures.Partners integrated the outputs and trainings created in the Project to their education system and classes. Therefore, they renewed their education systems.Long term impact to Other relevant stakeholdersAwareness of decision makers in this area raised. This would cause multiplier effect and also impact development of new projects positively.Good practices and experiences gained throughout the project and past projects/activities were shared with stakeholders.Methodology and literature for training of new academicians/researchers was contributed.Number and quality of academic research, projects, thesis and papers in the social and education sciences are increased.Likelihood of collaboration between academy and industry is promoted. Therefore, innovation and number outputs with added value increased in the industry.