FAQ - The most frequently asked questions at a glance

Prospective students are recommended to complete the entire basic internship before the start of their studies. If this recommendation is not adhered to, considerable delays in the course of studies must be expected, as the lecture-free periods are taken up by examinations, examination preparations and intensive consolidation of the lecture material. In addition, the basic internship before the start of the study program is useful because it promotes the understanding of the courses already in the early semesters.

The entire basic internship must be recognized in order to register for the examinations of all modules that are scheduled according to the study plan of the respective study program from the 3rd semester inclusive! For the examination of the application by the Internship Office, a processing time of 4 to 8 weeks is to be expected. The Internship Office can only guarantee that your application will be reviewed in time for the examinations of the winter semester if the application is submitted by December 1 at the latest. Examinations in modules of the Department of Business and Economics can be taken without proof of the eight-week basic internship.

Due to the intended qualified activities, the specialized internship should be carried out predominantly in higher semesters. Corresponding activities already before the beginning of the study program or during the first semesters can, however, also be credited for the specialized internship if the contents are the same. The internship is not a prerequisite for the registration of the Bachelor thesis. It can also be completed after the Bachelor thesis. If the specialized internship represents the last examination performance in the Bachelor's program, the date on which the application for recognition is submitted marks the completion date of the Bachelor's program.

It is possible to divide the internship between different companies. If possible, the internship period in one company should be at least 4 weeks. Shorter periods are permissible, but are not recommended due to the training period.

The complete documents for recognition of the internship must be submitted in the Online-Portal no later than 6 months after completion of the internship or internship section.

For internships that were completed before the start of studies, the 6-month period begins on October 1 of the first semester, so that the complete documents for recognition must be submitted by the end of March 31 of the following year.

Plan a sufficiently large time buffer until your internship report is read and the internship is approved. The processing time by the Internship Office is usually 4 weeks. During peak periods, processing can take up to 8 weeks. If you are in your 3rd semester and need the recognized internship to register for exams, you should submit your complete paperwork by December 1. A later submission is possible, but a recognition until the date of the exam registration cannot be guaranteed!

The knowledge of manufacturing processes to be imparted in the internship, the observation of the economic mode of operation as well as the empathy for the social side of the work process can only be acquired in medium-sized and large industrial companies as well as in companies that operate extensive technical facilities. These include, in particular, companies in mechanical engineering and the motor vehicle and electrical industries. In the basic internship, the company should be recognized by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce as a training company over and above its suitability in principle. For parts of the specialized internship, engineering firms and research institutions are also suitable.

Generally not suitable and therefore not admitted are - irrespective of their size - craft enterprises of the maintenance and service sector that do not carry out manufacturing in the industrial sense (e.g. automotive workshops or craft enterprises whose services are predominantly provided on construction sites at the customer's premises). Furthermore, businesses of relatives are not permitted.

Current internship offers can be found on the homepage of the Department of Mechanical Engineering as well as on the Job portal of TU Dortmund - stellenwerk.

Since the positions for a basic internship are usually not advertised, it is best to contact the companies directly (e.g. by telephone) and ask specifically about the possibility of completing a basic internship. For proof of training positions, you can contact the responsible chamber of industry and commerce or the career counseling service of the employment agency. The Internship Office does not arrange internships and does not name a pool of possible companies.

For further assistance (e.g. a check of your application documents), the university team of the employment agency as well as the Career Service of the stellenwerk of TU Dortmund are available.

The University of Duisburg-Essen has compiled numerous tips on finding and applying for internships in the handbook "Successfully applying for internships".

No personalized certificates of mandatory internship are issued by the Internship Office. Nor will the company's own pre-formulated forms be signed. The students themselves must indicate to the company or the social insurance agency whether your internship is a compulsory internship or a voluntary internship. An Information letter for submission to the company is available under Downloads.

All absences, e.g. due to vacation, exams, illness, company vacations, bridge days, strikes or lockouts, must be made up, so that the 20 weeks correspond exactly to 100 working days of the intern. The only exception are public holidays at the location of the internship company, these do not have to be made up. In the event of absences, the intern should ask the training company for an extension of the contract in order to be able to complete the internship section that has been started in a coherent manner. Compensation for absences through overtime or work on Saturdays is possible, but this must be explicitly confirmed in the internship certificate.

Activities can only be recognized if they can be assigned to the activity areas of the internship guideline. Please deal intensively with the internship guideline before the internship and discuss the planned activities with the company in the interview. The Training plan provides an initial overview of the areas of activity. In appendices 1 to 3 of the Internship guideline, you will find detailed information and examples of which activities fit which area of activity. Please also note the information on the minimum and maximum duration of individual areas of activity and the requirement to complete a minimum number of different areas of activity.

Internship activities abroad are strongly encouraged, but they must comply with this policy in all respects. In the case of an internship abroad, the report may also be written in English. If the report is not written in German or English, a certified translation must be attached in the original.

A report must be kept for the entire duration of the internship activity to be recognized. The report must be self-written. The report must reflect own activities, observations and findings. General representations without direct reference to one's own activities (e.g. transcripts from specialist knowledge books) are not recognized. Optionally, the report can be supplemented by pictures.

The report consists of a structured activity overview. In the activity overview, the self-performed work is listed for each day with key points (no continuous text!). Repetitions are to be avoided. In the case of similar activities on several days, the level of detail of the description is to be increased so that differences are recognizable. The scope of the activity overview is at least 300 characters per day without spaces per word processing program. An example of the structure of the internship report can be found in Appendix 4 of the internship guideline.

The reports must be confirmed by the company. For this purpose, they must be submitted to the responsible supervisor. The internship certificate must contain the sentence "The internship report of ... pages accurately describes the activities performed." must be noted. As an alternative to this sentence, a stamp and signature on each page of the report are also possible. If your reports are stamped on each page, please upload the scanned version as well as a version where text can be marked in a joint PDF file in the online portal as a report.

The report to be uploaded in the online portal must be markable so that the Internship Office can use electronic comparison tools (such as the "Turnitin" software) to check for cheating attempts with little effort (without OCR text recognition). Markable means that the report is converted directly from the word processor to a PDF file. Scans or photos of printed reports usually do not have the text markable. If your reports are stamped on each page, please upload as a report in the online portal the scanned version as well as a version where text is markable in a common PDF file.

The internship certificate to be uploaded can and should be scanned.

The internship company issues an internship certificate to the intern on original company paper with letterhead. The necessary information in the internship certificate can be found in Appendix 5 of the internship guideline.

You can see the current processing status of your application in the Online-Portal. By opening the application of your internship, you can see how many weeks have been recognized in which fields of activity. Only complete basic or complete specialized internships are entered into the BOSS system.

For the purpose of fast processing of all applications, please refrain from individual inquiries regarding the processing status of your application. Applications will be reviewed in the order in which they are received. Thank you for your understanding!

An interdisciplinary project internship requires that activities from different fields of activity are completed. The difference to the "regular" internship is that you do not work in the different departments on a weekly basis, but work across departments within one or more projects. If you would like to complete your specialized internship as an interdisciplinary project internship, please describe your planned activities to the Internship Office by e-mail in advance of the internship. Without prior approval, the internship will not be recognized! Job advertisements are often not detailed enough. In this case, it is advisable to discuss a concrete task with the company during the interview (1/2 DIN A4 page with bullet points about your planned activities is usually sufficient).

Primarily acquisition-oriented activities, which nevertheless promote training in the sense of the internship guideline, can be credited if they are carried out in the required areas of activity and suitable companies. Activities as a student or scientific assistant (SHK/WHF) are not recognized. Required are a certificate in accordance with Appendix 5 with the additional specification of the total hours worked during the contract period and reports in the form of a continuous text with a length of 3,000 characters without spaces per week of an activity area to be recognized, in which the activities and experiences are described (replaces the bullet-point activity overview of each individual day).

Completed vocational training can be recognized for individual weeks in certain areas of activity or as a lump sum for the entire basic or specialized internship, depending on the training and the chosen course of study. For recognition, contact the Internship Office prior to applying for recognition via the online portal. Please describe the facts of the case by e-mail and attach scans of the following documents: Training certificate from the company, examination certificate from the vocational school, and the certificate from the Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

If you are studying Industrial Engineering with the profile Management of Electrical Systems, the professional supervision as well as the approval of an interdisciplinary project internship is done by the Internship Office of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (ETIT). However, the submission procedure is governed by the regulations of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, so please also use the Online-Portal. The report will be forwarded internally to the Internship Office of the Department ETIT for review. When creating an application for recognition in the online portal, the additional field "Electrotechnical internship" is available for selection in the subject internship. Please change there from "No" to "Yes".

Strange question? True! You should not ask yourself this question! If you do think about it, here is the answer:

When applying for recognition, you must affirm under oath that you completed the internship and wrote the report yourself. You will receive the following information in advance: Whoever intentionally violates a regulation of a university examination regulation concerning deception in examination performance, acts in violation of the regulations. The administrative offense can be punished with a fine of up to € 50,000. The Chancellor of Dortmund University of Technology is the competent administrative authority for the prosecution and punishment of administrative offenses. In the case of multiple or other serious attempts at deception, the examinee may also be exmatriculated. The submission of a false affirmation in lieu of an oath is punishable by imprisonment of up to 3 years or a fine. If necessary, the Technical University of Dortmund will use electronic comparison tools (such as the software "Turnitin") to check for misdemeanors in examination procedures.