Budapest University of Economics and Business

Full time students must complete a 24-week (960-hour) internship during their 6^th semester. The internship cannot be interrupted and has to be done at a partner institution outside of the university.

The dates are based on the faculty calendar as:

Between 1 February 2021 and 31 August 2021

(in the Autumn semester: between 1 July 2021 and 15 December 2021).

Course prerequisites have been cancelled.

The Internship is worth 30 credits, necessary for the pre-degree certificate.

The primary goal of the internship is for students to participate in solving concrete professional tasks and to put their knowledge into practice by synthesizing theoretical and practical knowledge gained at the university.

On the one hand, students become acquainted with Tourism companies, thus getting to know:

·        various types of companies, operating principles and company structures,

·        the work of various inspection bodies, as well as the interactions among them,

·        tasks relating to running and managing hotels and travel agencies.

On the other hand, students develop their own competencies, such as

·        attitudes and approaches required by the profession,

·        communication skills and professional networking,

·        working in teams.

Based on these, students may do their internships in the following areas, getting acquainted with the following activities and procedures:

In hotel work:

·        knowledge of front office work (concierge, reception, cashier’s),

·        knowledge of housekeeping tasks,

·        interacting with colleagues in housekeeping,

·        getting acquainted with sales and marketing in a hotel,

·        communication with guests, using foreign languages.

In restaurant work (sales practice):

·        knowledge and practice of various sales methods,

·        contact with production facilities,

·        hospitality, greeting customers,

·        invoicing, handling payments.

The internship CANNOT be done at a catering unit, with the exception of hotel catering.

The following types of internship places are accepted:

·        Accommodations (hotels, pensions, etc.)

·        Tour operators and Travel agencies

Professional associations, not-for-profit organisations, civil organisations (eg. MTÜ Zrt., Tourinform, MSzÉSz, FATOSZ)

Introducing the Online Career Platform

Budapest Business School has launched its Online Career Platform. By exploiting state-of-the-art technical possibilities and building on communication forms now used naturally by students, the aim of the Career Platform is to enable us to operate a system that significantly reduces the time spent on contacts management via automated processes. The current system has been developed based on the experience of past years and feedbacks from companies and students.

The system consists of two major platforms:

·        Online internship form filler

·        Career Platform

The purpose of the online internship form filler is to enable the end-to-end documentation of the internship online.

The online internship form filler – replacing all paper forms – puts all administrative tasks of the internship online, makes the process paper-free, creates an organised and unified platform for filling out forms, and eliminates errors.

The Career Platform is a virtual space that enables the job offers and demands of companies and students to meet, as well as companies to advertise job opportunities, project work and internship opportunities for BUEB students.

Starting with the academic year 2020/21, all administrative tasks related to the internship is done on BUEB online Career Platform. All necessary data will be recorded on this platform, and all necessary documents will be generated by the platform.

Students must ask the partner institutions to register on the online platform. This should be done once a preliminary agreement between the student and the partner institution has been reached.

The Career Platform and online internship form filler can be found at: https://karrierplatform.uni-bge.hu/

Students can enter using their Neptun ID codes and passwords.

This statement is filled out by the partner institution, stating the acceptance of the student for the internship program. The student must provide the following information for the partner company:

·        Name

·        Neptun ID code

·        Faculty

·        Degree course

The student receives the statement of acceptance prepared by the partner institution through the online system (Student Statement). The student then must confirm his/her wish to do the internship at the given partner institution, in the position stated, and during the time period given. The student must also accept that the University will share his/her personal information with the partner institution in order to prepare a Cooperation Agreement; moreover, the student must state that he/she will finish his/her course requirements by the beginning of the internship.

Then, the instructor responsible for the Department’s internship programs will decide whether the position is acceptable from a professional point of view. Both the partner institution and the student will receive the decision (Statement by the Department).

Any questions regarding professional aspects of the internship should be addressed to the following instructors responsible for the Department’s internship programs:

·        Students in the Hungarian language-programme should contact Dr. Csilla Szalók during her office hours or by email at: Szalok.Csilla@uni-bge.hu

·        Students in the English-language programme should contact Ágnes Weninger during her office hours or by email at: Weninger.Agnes@uni-bge.hu

·        Students in the German-language programme should contact Dr. Adrienne Nagy during her office hours or by email at: Nagy.Adrienne@uni-bge.hu

The deadline for submitting the Statement of Acceptance is two weeks before starting the internship. 

The Cooperation Agreement is made between the University and the partner institution through the online system. The Agreement states the legal issues, including the rights and obligations of both partners during the internship.

The Agreement created through the online system must be printed by the partner institution, signed and stamped, and then sent to the Career Office. The Agreement is valid during upcoming semesters without having to sign it again.

The online system contains all partners that already have Cooperation Agreements with the University. 

The student, under the supervision of the partner institution’s instructor or professional guide, performs the internship during the time period stated in the online system. Any significant change from the conditions described in the Cooperation Agreement and any problems must be reported to the university by the student or the partner institution.

Three evaluations are made at the end of the internship:

- The partner institution fills out the form titled Internship Certification and Evaluation Form. The performance of the student is evaluated in several aspects, giving percentages.

- The student prepares a 10-page report, uploading it to the Career Platform together with the consultant’s statement.

- The student gives feedback to the University by filling out a form titled Internship Partner Evaluation. The average values of student evaluations will be available through the system, giving information to prospective students planning their internships.

Deadline: one week after the last day of the internship.

Beginning with the 2nd semester of 2018/2019 academic year, the internships of Tourism and Hospitality BA students specialising in Tourism and Hotels will be evaluated in two parts, using grades 1-5.

In order to establish the rankings necessary to determine state scholarships, the first half of the internship must be evaluated by 11 July 2021. It is, therefore, necessary that the new Internship Certification and Evaluation Form – completed by the partner institution – be handed in on paper at the Career Office by 21 June 2021. At this first round of evaluation, only the personal data and the percentages of the evaluation are necessary to be completed.

As a second step, after the completion of the internship, the Internship Certification and Evaluation Form has to be submitted by the partner institution through the online Career Platform. 

The partner institution has to evaluate the internship twice – based on the given aspects, giving percentages. The internship will be finalised based on these evaluations. If the second evaluation – given at the end of the internship – is significantly different from the first, then the final evaluation will be modified. These closing documents have to be completed on the online platform. The student’s report has to be uploaded together with a statement of acceptance by the consultant.

Formal requirements of the internship report:

·        Cover page (see below) – in addition to the 10 pages minimum,

·        A minimum of 10 pages with 1.5 line spacing (font size 12),

·        The report can be enhanced by tables, photos, and graphs, but these are in addition to the 10 pages minimum. They should be attached to the end of the report. 

Content requirements of the internship report:

·        General introduction of the partner institution.

·        Description of the business and main activities of the partner institution (e.g. health tourism, congress tourism, event organisation).

·        Description of the partner institution’s functioning and position in the domestic and international markets. This should include positive and negative aspects, explaining whether or not the company’s products can be sold (including the student’s own opinion).

·        Description of the company’s clientele from several aspects (nationality, age, interests, length of stay, average spending, etc.).

·        Do the services satisfy current demands by markets and the clientele?

·        If the company is part of an international chain, what kind of demands does this entail? Can these demands be met? Is it an advantage or a disadvantage?

·        Description of activities and tasks done by the student.

·        Suggestions and evaluations about experienced areas at the institution.

·        The report will only be accepted if the student’s own opinions are included.

Students in the English-language programme must prepare the report in English.
Students in the German-language programme must prepare the report in German.

If a student does the internship at two different partner institutions, then two certificates must be obtained, and the student report must be prepared for both partners (minimum 10 pages each).

Contents of the Cover page:

Report on the Internship

(name of the partner institution)

Name:

Neptun ID code:

Tourism and Hospitality BA programme

Specialisation in Tourism and Hotels

Full-time student

Date:

Deadline for uploading: One week after the last day of the internship. 

The online system is available both in Hungarian and in English. Therefore, the procedures for internships done abroad are the same as those done in Hungary.

Students doing their internships abroad must also state that they will take care of their own health, safety, and other required liability insurances at their own expenses and responsibilities.

The Declaration on Liability, Health and Accident Insurance form can be found in Documents.

There may arise a good reason why a student wants to change the partner institution where he/she has started doing the internship. In this case, please contact both the instructor responsible for the internship and the Career Office.

In case of choosing a new partner institution, the original internship has to be closed in Career Platform by both the original partner (filling out the Internship Certification and Evaluation form) and the student (Internship Partner Evaluation form).

The new partner institution has to start the process by indicating the remaining time-period in the Career Platform.

If the University accepts time done at both internship partners, then the total time done at the two partners must add up to the required number of hours of the internship.

At the end of the internship, a separate report must be uploaded about time spent at each partner.

In case a student has past work experience that corresponds to the internship requirements (see 8.2 of the curriculum) a Completion of internship with work experience credit form must be filled out and submitted through Neptun. The request will be evaluated by the Department.

The request must be accompanied by a description of the work experience for acceptance. The formal and content requirements are identical to the Internship report described in 4.4 Evaluating the Internship, above.