Between the first and second academic year, students will complete an internship in an European industry or research institution.
During the summer internship, SECCLO students will work in a real R&D environment or expert organization as members of a project team. The duration of the internship is at least one month and the maximum of three months. A 10-week internship that meets the programme requirements result in 5 ECTS credits, which are included into the Aalto first-year curriculum.
The summer internship placements in summer 2023 included e.g. Ericsson, F-Secure, Supercell Oy, SSH Communications Security Oy, Kone, Nokia, Huawei, Vaisala, Wärtsilä, and Aalto University Department of Computer Science.
Jointly with the other SECCLO consortium universities, Aalto will supervise the process of ensuring that all students find a placement for the internship and that the internship projects and work contracts are aligned with the programme goals and schedule. The organization providing the internship placement will assign a local supervisor, who will act as the student’s mentor on developing technical and career skills.
During the internship, each student will also have a named contact person from the programme’s academic staff. The students will keep an online learning diary of their internship and write a reflective report. Students whose internship is shorter than 10 weeks and who still need credits for the first year will be given a special assignment, i.e. an individual research or software engineering project, to completed.
“At Ericsson, I learned how to develop and deploy a cloud-native application, as well as the communication and collaboration skills to work as a team. The most important thing about the internship was being open-minded and curious about the latest technologies and trying to learn as much as possible!”
“The most important thing about the internship was correlating all the academic knowledge in real world applications and tackling challenges associated with software development, testing and security. It complements academic knowledge with professional experience and teaches you a lot about the work culture in the country”.
“As a SecDevOps job at KONE, I gained a lot of knowledge in both cloud computing and security. My lead and my team were both excellent. I also took part in a couple company events, where I had the chance to network with colleagues and discover more about the company’s culture.”
“The most important thing about the internship was that it was a practical and hands on approach for the knowledge learned during the school year and through the courses.”
“I worked at F-Secure as a Cloud Developer. The best part was to meet and work with amazing people at the company. I love the Finnish work culture and their punctuality. If you want to work with a Finnish product-based company in a diverse atmosphere, this might be just it”
“The most important thing about the internship, other than gaining technical skills, was that I learned how to deal with work pressure and the importance of teamwork.”
“The internship helped me gain a better understanding of the field while putting into action the skills obtained during the studies. It was an opportunity to work on an innovative product at a company that has a history of leading transformation in technology, while being part of a large, multicultural and diverse community.”
The learning goals of the internship are the following:
SECCLO associate members, companies and research organizations are invited to offer internship positions for the students. Information on possible internship positions can be sent to secclo@aalto.fi.
