Icelandic project partners Arnarlax and the University of Akureyri have created a unique trainee program named “The Bridges Internship program” that puts the intern at the forefront of decision making.
This was encouraged to facilitate a bottom-up approach in the design and implementation of cross cultural and cross-company internship program creation and organisation. The internship also presents pedagogical models for the incorporation of entrepreneurship within trainee/internship program curricula by educational providers in partnership with industry. This includes examples of how learning through pedagogical entrepreneurship may be organised and embedded. The internship facilitates a circular economic methodology that encompasses every aspect of a young professional's potential experience, from the transfer from education to industry, to the successful communication of their experiences to others. This “intern-first” approach is a paid internship that will be tried and tested from February - July 2024. Isobel Stuart, a recent marine biology graduate, was selected to be the intern for this pilot program.