Internships offer possibilities to come to know professional fields with their specific needs and possibilities for action. Students are given the opportunity to review their own professional motivation and see whether their choice of study subjects fit their future plans. In addition, the experience in an internship often provides an occasion to reflect on the further shape of study or about future career prospects. Therefore, you will complete several internships in the course of your studies, which differ depending on the career goal.

About internships at schools you will find the necessary information on the hompages of the Didactic Centre (diz in German). On this page all information about the practice modules in the subject history in the BA-programme are listed, see about:

• Orientation internship (outside of schools) for all students (plus accompanying course)
• Pre-vocational internship for students with extracurricular mit außerschulischem career goal (plus accompanying course)

Search and Find: the work experience placement

• The executive regulation in History provides that all extracurricular internships must be completed in the field of cultural history. This includes for example museums, archives, historic preservation, journalism and public media, public relations, culture management, but also libraries, historical societies and history workshops, adult education, political institutions, research institutes, universities and research companies.

• Students are expected to find their own work experience placement. There is a large number of potential internships providers. You should carefully consider in advance which areas you would like to know and which skills you want to acquire for the start of your future job. Of course, individual situations determine  the decision-making also. Before you apply you should get detailed information about the institutions of your choice and also clarify e.g. by phone whether and in which form trainees are selected.The earlier you apply, the higher might be the chances of acceptance. In principle, internships can be completed all over Germany, but also abroad. Even if an internship seems most convenient at your own university and/or in your hometown, above all keep in mind substantive criteria when making your decisions and take the chance to broaden your horizons.

• A small selection of possible contacts/ institutions to address in your search, you may find on page 2 of the guide. (in German)

Timeframe

• In the subject history you may do your orientation intership (usually during the semester break of the second semester) and the career field internship  (usually during the semesterbreak after the fourth semester) see the graph below about the duration of the specific variations of internships. Each practice module exists of the internship itself and a accompanying course.
• The accompanying course in the subject history takes place as a blocked course of two parts - usually on a Friday afternoon or a Saturday morning. The first block (in the summer semester) serves as a general preparation for the internship, the second block (in the winter semester) for reflexion and postprocessing. The accompanying course in the subject history are interlinked in content with basic module 4 (history as profession).They offer the opportunity to actually use and deepen the "Key skills of historical processes of mediation" that can be learned in the very same tutorial.
• Students who know from the start of their BA-studies that they want to achieve an extracurricular Bachelor have the option to do a (longer) career field internship instead of an orientation internship (see variant III on the graph below).Against the background of the executive regulations the variants II and IV are identical in History. Information on the scope and ECTS calculation, please refer to the chart from the BPO enclosure 3.

Registration

• You can register for the orientation internship at the end of the first semester (usually in the beginning of February) at the Didactic Centre diz. There is no need to register for the career field internship.
• You can enrol for the accompanying courses via StudIP. In case you should change the direction of your subject in the course of your search for a placement and change into the accompanying course of your second subject, please be so kind to de-register because the number of students enrolled are an important prerequisit for planning the course. The title of the course is:"Begleitveranstaltung Orientierungspraktikum Geschichte" or "Begleitveranstaltung Berufsfeldpraktikum Geschichte".

Recognition

• The complete recognition of the internship module is done by the examination office (P-Amt), if there is proof of a training in a state-approved apprenticeship.
• A part recognition through the module coordinator of History will be possible if at least a three month full time employment or a three month whole day internship in a history cultural field of activity was done that is not older than six years. In this case the internship period will be recognized, but the accompanying module still has to be done. That means that you will have to write a report among other things and be able to relate your experience to your current educational situation.

• Volunteer activities that have been done over a period of one year (orientation internship) or the equivalent of 400 hours (career field internship) are only eligible if they were done in a historical cultural field, e. g. in the context of a voluntary cultural year. The volunteer leadership of a youth group (e.g. in a music or sporting club) or a membership in the volunteer fire department are not a reason for recognition in History.

General Information

• The exam is an internship report in all practical modules. It includes written documentation of the practical tasks during the internship, a critical evaluation and a final oral presentation in a multimedia-based presentation.
• The examination component of the orientation internship will not be graded; in the professional field internship the report will be graded (incl. speech / presentation).
• Report and presentation have to be handed in to the representative for internships (Dr. Maren Ullrich) in digital form, the report can also be a print-out. The form Bescheinigung über die Ableistung eines Praktikums has to be signed in the placement and attached to the report. The exact deadlines you will find Stud.IP.

Internship report

• Subject of the report are not your personal experiences, but the relevance in view of the competence in practice, professional orientation or entry into career. It proved to be helpful to write a kind of diary during the internship already and to take pictures of chosen working processes and document them. Tipps on how to write internship reports you can find in current guide books around studies and profession.
• In the appendices to the report materials to illustrate the institution, above all the main activities can be outlined (texts, photos, created material, archive items, etc.). Literature on the various professional fields can be found in the handset "Orientation Course" at level 2 of the library. It is expected that in addition to that literature is found and used for the report. The bibliography must include at least five titles, including two academic title of the career field. Its processing is demonstrated by comments in the report. 
• The same formal requirements as a written paper (or source interpretation) apply to the report. The quotation rules of the Institute of History are to be followed. The title page contains the following information: placement type, internship institution, internship duration, name, address, e-mail study programme, subjects, number of semesters, date.
• The report is 10-12 pages long and structured into: introduction (about ½ page) description of the profession and the internship institution (about 2 pages) description of the activities carried out (about 2 pages), a detailed analysis of two focal points (4- 6 pages), reflection and evaluation of own activities (about 1 ½ pages; What have I learned and what are the prospects for work and study), bibliography and attachments.

Speech and Presentation

• The lecture is to be limited to 15 minutes of actual speaking time and must be supported by a multimedia presentation. During the presentation, the following structure has to be followed: Presentation of the institution (maximum 2 slides), Overview of own activities (maximum 2 slides), detailed description of a focus (maximum 10 slides).
• The Basics of presentation are subject of the tutorial "key skills of historical processes of mediation" (BM 4) the visit is recommended in the 2nd semester.