Authors

Marta Cortesão

Andreea Millitaru

João Pacheco

Ricardo Couto

Design:

Marta Cortesão

Contact:

Marta Cortesão,

Marta.Cortesao@BEST.eu.org

1. Introduction

1.1. Board of European Students of Technology 1

1.2. BACo Gdansk 2

1.3. Virtual Mobility 3

1.4. Entrepreneurship 4

2. People Involved

2.1. BEST Educational Committee 5

2.2. Local BEST Group Gdansk 6

2.3. Experts 6

2.4. Participants 7

3. Partners: Virtual Mobility

3,1. PROVIP 8

3.2. VMCOLAB 9

4. Partners: Entrepreneurship

4.1. Pomerian Science and Technology Park 10

4.2. Center for Knowledge and Technology Transfer 11

4.3. Alternativva 11

5. Schedule 12

6. Sessions: Virtual Mobility

6.1. Introduction to Virtual Mobility 13

6.1.1. Defining keywords for Internships 14

6.1.2. Positive aspects of Internships 14

6.1.3. Defining the Main Goal of Internships 15

6.1.4. Obstacles of doing an Internship 15

6.1.5. Defining keywords for VIs 16

6.1.6. Creating a common definition of VI s 17

6.1.7. Relationship between Internships and Study 17 Programmes

6.1.8. Presentation of PROVIP 18

6.2. Workshop on Virtual Internships 20

6.2.1. Before VI 20

6.2.2. During VI 25

6.2.3. After VI 28

6.3. Discussion 33

6.4. VMCOLAB 35

7. Sessions: Entrepreneurship

7.1. Design Thinking 37

7.2. Pomerian Science and Technology Park 38

7.3. Communication in Project Management 39

8. Examination 40

8.1. Communication Plan 41

9. Conclusion 42

10. Appendix 43

BEST strives to develop students by providing complementary education, educational involvement and career support. Also to achieve the vision “Empowered Diversity” in a general context by bringing students, academia and companies together through various services. As a student organisation, BEST perceives students as one of the major actors in the development of education. Therefore, since 1995, BEST has been assuming an important role in the involvement of students in their education, striving to bring European Engineering Education (EEE) closer to them. This has been done mainly by organising Events on Education (EoEs). EoEs are divided in two types. The first type are BEST Symposium on Education, where students are given the opportunity to express their ideas on educational matters through discussions with professors and other experts. A Symposium lasts usually 7 days and involves 20-25 students, BEST members, representatives from European educational projects and representatives from universities. The other type of EoEs are BEST Academics and Companies Forum (BACo), which are very similar to a BEST Symposium on Education. However, unlike Symposiums on Education, BACos additionally contain a dynamic collaboration with companies, having the goal to approach the perspectives of the three stakeholders in education (students, companies and universities) through the continuous exchange of opinions and experience. Several EoEs have happened throughout the years, approaching different topics, such as extra-curricular activities, accreditation, transition from studies to your first job, attractiveness in engineering, or topics within the scope of different Thematic Networks (TNs). BACo Gdansk has focused on the topics of Virtual Mobility and Entrepreneurship, and has held EoEs together with PROVIP (PROmoting VIrtual mobility in Placements) and VMCOLAB (Virtual Mobility Colaboratory).

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EoE outcomes, which represent students’ points of view on educational matters, are usually transmitted to European institutions through presentations at Conferences by members of the Educational Committee of BEST. For instance, outcomes from the two symposiums on education in collaboration with EU-VIP (2010 in Liubljana, Slovenia and 2011 Riga, Latvia) were presented in the 40th SEFI Annual Conference.

Last year, in 2013, BEST Academics and Companies Forum (BACo) in Timisoara, Romania was held together with PROVIP. Opinions from the students participating at BACo Timisoara were presented at the European Conference INTED 2014 in Valencia.

This event was held in Gdansk, Poland, from the 28th June until the 5th of July of 2014. It provided students, companies and university representatives with the opportunitiy to have an impact on the new trends of European Engineering Education (EEE). It focused on two main topics: Virtual Mobility and Entrepreneurship.

BACo Gdansk was organised in collaboration with PROVIP and VMCOLAB Thematic Networks, under the Lifelong Learning programme funded by the European Commission, which have provided essential insights and discussion topics related to Virtual Mobility. Pomeranian Science and Technology Park (PSTP), Center for Knowledge and Technology Transfer in Gdansk, represent our partners on Entrepreneurship, which have provided insights on how to support the implementation of viable and innovative business ideas and thus ensure the insight on the market's needs.

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Virtual internships are becoming more and more common, fueled by improving communication technology and the growth of social media. The first virtual internships started in the late 1990s in information technology and software development where they are still the most common today. They are most popular among small to midsized companies and online businesses. More than one quarter of the 150 internships posted on UrbanInterns.com, a site that connects small businesses with part-time workers, are labeled virtual, where the work typically involves researching, sales, marketing and social-media development.

Internship has always been a great way to put yourself ahead of the competition when applying for entry-level jobs; an added bonus on your resume. However, as the job market becomes more competitive, doing internships will become more important than ever. A lot of internships take place in larger cities and are offered only over the summer break, making them inaccessible for many college students. Virtual internships can allow prospective employees to more easily sample a wider variety of jobs, without having to relocate. If you are in a place where you don't have a lot of internship opportunities, all of a sudden the whole world is open to you.

As in traditional internships, interns are supposed to be paid, or receive school credit for their work. Some recent graduates use virtual internships to sample different fields while holding a full-time job to pay the bills.

Virtual workers, when compared to their office-bound colleagues, might also tend to be more productive and work for the same company longer.

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Anyone can be an entrepreneur. All you need is a good idea for a start-up business and the readiness to take risks. Of course it takes much more to be successful and survive the tough competition. Entrepreneurship is the mindset and process to create and develop an economic activity by blending risk-taking, creativity and innovation with sound management. Entrepreneurship is an important part of the business world. Not only does it boosts productivity and innovation by forcing other firms to improve their efficiency and quality of their products, but it also creates job and economical growth.

The European Union (EU) is committed to boost entrepreneurship as part of its strategy to transform its economy and build its future economic and competitive strength. However, the EU is not fully exploiting its entrepreneurial potential. It is failing to encourage enough people to become an entrepreneur. According to the statistics of Eurobarometer from 2004, although 47% of Europeans say they prefer self-employment, only 17% actually fulfill their ambitions. Regarding new entrepreneurial initiatives, only 4% of Europeans state are engaged in creating a business or to be an entrepreneur in the previous three years compared to 11% in the US. Projections indicate that, if Europe allows the current economic trends to persist, its percentage share of world production will decline, even as absolute production increases, as the emerging Asian economies catch up.

What does it mean for us? Europe needs more entrepreneurs. However it is not easy to become one, and for some it might be harder than for others. Certain fields of study are built to boost creativity or teach human resources and project management. Unfortunately many of the engineering studies don’t include any of those topics in their curricula, making it difficult for technology students to start their own business without help from others.

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Marta Filipa Cortesão

Event Coordinator

5

Ricardo Couto

Facilitator

Andreea Millitaru

Facilitator

João Pacheco

Facilitator

Tiago Monteiro

PROVIP contact person

6

Daria Dorozynska

Event Main Organiser

Damian Wilke

President

Cristophe Terrasse, PROVIP (EFMD)

Ilse Op de Beeck, PROVIP & VMCOLAB (KU Leuven)

Jacek Wójcik, PROVIP (West Pomeranian Business School)

Piotr Jankowski, PROVIP (Northern Chamber of Commerce)

Name Surname Country

Allessandro Amati Poland

Anastasija Tochevska Macedonia

Andrea Artero Murria Spain

Bence Bako Hungary

Carlos Salto Spain

Daniel Horvath Hungary

Denise Gameiro Portugal

Gabor Bruno Korondi Hungary

Gilbert Romani Roca Spain

Hristina Krstic Serbia

Jiri Marek Czech Republic

Lorenzo Rubino Italy

Margarita Stojkovska Macedonia

Maria Dmitrieva Russia

Nutiu Adrian Mihai Romania

Ognjen Bulut Serbia

Orkun Dogu Turkey

Simon Rupprecht Germany

Tereza Trefilova Czech Republic

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PROVIP (Promoting Virtual Mobility in Placements) started in autumn 2012 and will last for two years. Over 10 European companies, universities and organisations are actively involved in developing this project. PROVIP is supported by the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme and is a follow-up to EU-VIP.

It aims to promote the outcomes of the previous project with companies as a main target group. Basing themselves on the earlier outcomes PROVIP wants to develop a virtual platform that would enhance and facilitate communication between the three stakeholders. During EU-VIP, several pilot internship projects were launched that helped to develop guidelines. However during those internships several problems occurred that PROVIP aims to solve with the help of this platform. Many of the issues were connected to the social aspects and communication troubles during the placement. Also, placements varied a lot leaving some stakeholders disappointed with the outcomes or methods and tools used during the placement.

Being an active partner in the PROVIP Thematic Network, BEST is regularly involved in all the working areas. To support our partners, we participate in monthly video-conferences, and semestral live partner meetings. Besides this group involvement, we are constantly communicating by e-mail and sharing documents to improve the projects outcomes. Our main contribution is achieved by organising two Events on Education, where students can give their input to important matters inside the project, feedbacking and giving ideas to help the concept of virtual internships develop.

Pathway is the platform prepared by PROVIP to support virtual internships. It provides tools for matchmaking and communication between companies and their applying interns and mentors.

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The European project “VMCOLAB” (2012-2014) aims to contribute to the innovation and internationalisation of higher education institutions by exploiting the full potential of virtual mobility (or ICT-supported international collaboration in a learning context), and broadening the access to international learning experiences for all students.

The project therefore is working to develop a quality assurance approach for virtual mobility, to increase both institutional and students’ awareness of the potential and opportunities of virtual mobility, to develop and test a set of support services for higher education institutions willing to pilot virtual mobility programmes, and to integrate virtual mobility in institutional academic contexts.

To this end, the VMCOLAB activities and outputs are aimed at different stakeholders. For example, for higher education institutions a Quality Assurance handbook for Virtual Mobility and a Virtual Mobility Integration Kit were made available. For students, a Students’ Guide to Virtual Mobility and the dedicated “Virtual4Me” website (http://virtual4me.vmcolab.eu) have been developed.

Finally, during the end phase of the project, an event aimed at European policy makers will be organised to suggest strategies and make recommendations for integrating virtual mobility on an institutional level.

More information is available on the project website www.vmcolab.eu

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Pomeranian Science and Technology Park (PSTP) stands for innovation and entrepreneurship. PSTP is the best place for finding new solutions in technology and fostering innovative companies as it provides excellent conditions for the development of high technology-based ideas mainly in biotechnology, environment protection, computer science, electronics and telecommunication, and industrial design. PSTP is an ideal for development and cooperation and its main purpose is to concentrate several factors related to companies development. These factors enables transfer between business and technology while creating synergy.

PSTP can be described as a place with:

• Co-operation of numerous entities - educational centres, research and development centres, business entities, counselling, financial and training institutions

• Special organisational, law and financial conditions

• Supporting the technology transfer. PSTP provides numerous benefits for entrepreneurs, such as low overheads and convenient conditions for running business

• Students and graduates user-friendly backup in starting own business, rise in employment, favourable conditions for development of creativeness and regional community activation, etc.

For more information visit: http://ppnt.pl/about-pstp.html

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Centre for Knowledge and Technology transfer is a unit of Gdansk University of Technology and was established in order to promote innovation, skills and the use of innovative solutions to employees, students and doctoral students in order to transfer research results to the economy and to promote academic entrepreneurship.

This unit’s responsibilities are:

• Supporting entrepreneurs and researchers in establishing mutual contacts

• Cooperation with the business environment

• Transfer of technology from the University to the economy

• Promotion of entrepreneurship among students and academic staff of the University

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Alternativva is dedicated to project management, business coaching, personal branding, networking and public speaking. Patrycja Bronk, the owner of the company, is an experienced manager, certified project manager, coach, and business and interpersonal skills trainer.

For more information, please visit: http://www.alternativva.pl/

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Time Saturday 28th Sunday 29th Monday 30th Tuesday 1st Wed 2nd Thursday 3rd Friday 4th Saturday 5th

07:30 Wake up Wake up Wake up Wake up Wake up

08:00 Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast

08:30 Wake up

09:00 Breakfast

09:30 Transfer Agenda

10:00

10:30

11:00

11:30 coffee break coffee break coffee break

12:00 coffee break

12:30

13:00

13:30

14:00

14:30

15:00 Transfer Official closing

15:30 Transfer

16:00 coffee break

16:30

17:00 Transfer

17:30 Transfer PROVIP

18:00

18:30

19:00 Transfer Transfer Transfer Transfer Transfer

19:30

20:00Dinner

20:30+ Social Activity Social Activity Social Activity Social Activity Social Activity Social Activity Social Activity

Dinner

Cultural Activity

Virtual Recruiter

- company

presentation

The

EXPERIMENT

Science Center

Discussion

Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner

Cultural Activity

VMCOLAB

Transfer

WS - BeforeExam preps

Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch

Cultural Activity Building project

teams (virtual

and multicultural

environment)

WS - After ExamIntroduction VM

& PROVIP

Schedule

Arrival

Departure

Transfer Transfer Transfer Transfer Transfer

Lunch

Pomearian

Science and

Technology Park

WS - During Exam prepsOfficial openingFeedback and

Public Speaking

Introduction

This session was the first one related to the topic on Virtual Mobility, and it was meant to set the participants mind into the general topic of discussion of this Event on Education – Virtual Mobility.

Therefore, with this introductory session, the facilitators wanted to focused on 4 essential keywords:

• Internships

• Virtual Mobility (VM)

• Virtual Internships (VI)

• Study Programmes

As a result of these 4 key-words 4 main goals were defined as:

• To make participants aware of the topic of Virtual Mobility and its current state in Europe;

• To standardize the participants’ knowledge of Internships, VM and VI;

• To gather input about the relationship between the students and the universities on the topic of Internships.

• To find out the students’ opinions concerning internships within their study programmes

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6.1.1 - Defining keywords for Internships

As an introduction, and to set the participants mind in the session topic we propose them to Brainwrite all the key-words related to Internship. Hence, the main question addressed was: What comes to your mind when you hear the concept “Internship”?

Outcomes

The most often used keywords were: Practical, experience, short-term, job, networking, contacts, responsibility. Following is a graphic representation of all the words used by the participants.

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We have generated an “Open Discussion” tackling the main question: Why would participants be attracted to attend an internship? Therefore we ask them what were the positive aspects of doing an internship.

Outcomes

Participants could get a job out of it, as well as get a clearer idea of what to do next in their life. Participants also agreed that they could get more teamwork experience, gain more independence and more knowledge while doing an internship. On the other hand, participants agreed on the money side of an internship, as it is frequently payed.

Participants concluded that an internship would help them to learn to be more efficient. Also, internships improve their CV as it offers students the opportunity to develop different skills. Contacts and networking were two other key-words participants pointed out.

Knowing the processes and working-methods of the company for which students would work was another advantage of attending an internship, as students found it would also help them to build their own company later on as graduates.

Also, the possibility of getting free medical insurance, or other additional services, would count as a plus for internships compared with a normal subject in their study programmes. The opportunity of traveling to a foreign country consists on another advantage. All participants agreed that they would gain more responsibility and self-confidence. Specially because they would work with people studying different things, with different backgrounds, with higher social status, etc.

The main outcome was the participants conclusion in which internships would really help students to progressingly go from student-life to professional-life, as they would get the opportunity to apply the theory learnt in university into the practical side. This was due to the development of soft skills such as time management.

Participants have also agreed that they would be more competitive and motivated after an internship.

It was important for students to realise what was the main goal, the main advantage of internships as a whole. For this, we used the method of an “Open Discussion” in which we adressed the main question: What is the main goal of an internship?

In the end participants agreed that the main goal of internships was to:

Prepare students to work in a company environment, establishing a bridge between universities and companies.

To find what were the students opinions’ on the obstacles of doing an internship, we established an “Open Discussion”, based on 2 main questions.

What are the obstacles of doing an internship? When would you like to do an internship?

Overall participants agree that the low salary of an internship, compared with a first job opportunity, was the main obstacle in order for students to attend an internship. Also, companies often want experienced people attending internships.

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Participants also agreed that timing is a problem, as attending an internship during their study programme, students often have to postpone graduation. On the other hand, sometimes internships are mandatory in certain timeframes or specific companies and do not offer flexibility to students.

The lack of financial support is another disadvantage. As well as the possibility of some companies to not know how to work with undergraduate interns, having the risk of non-challenging tasks for interns.

Having an intern out of the European Union, may be another obstacle for companies, as they might have to deal with a lot of bureaucracy. Also, companies sometimes only accept full time interns, not part-time.

In your university, what obstacles do you have?

Participants mention the lack of connection between universities and companies, and lack of awareness in the universities, lack of information for students.

Students also said hat teachers might have connections, but sometimes they don’t want to help students (lack of availability, for example, or close-minded teachers - “students should finish their studies before start working”).

Participants also agreed on the lack of transparency in the job market

In this part of the session, the facilitators used Brainwriting, to address the questions: What comes to your mind when you hear the concept “Virtual Internships”?

Outcomes

Most often used keywords: Skype, internet, computer, work online, evolution, distance

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All words:

“A Virtual Internship is a short-term working experience set up in a remote environment”

The facilitators set an “Open Discussion” to address two main questions: Thinking about your experience, what is the relationship between internships and your Study Programmes? Are internships promoted in your university during your studies?

Outcomes

Do you have internships within your study programme? How is the process?

Most participants don’t have internships in their study programme. Only two of them gave their opinion:

• In some universities in Spain, there is mandatory internships during the studies. The university prepares it and students with higher marks get the internship

• In Romania there’s a selection process to get a one year internship

• In Serbia there’s a five days “internship” as a part of the study programme

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• In Germany, there is something related with study program, but it has to be the student going seeking contact

What would you do to find an internship?

Overall, participants said their own University would give information about internships.

What would we gain from internships in the study programme?

• Adapt the study programme according to the market needs

• The need of more time to finish the course, as it would be more demanding

• Having one semester only for internship

• The interns would have the internship belonging to the study programme

Would you have a VI? Why not?

• 15 Yes, 4 No.

• Some participants considered the over-experience as a drawback

• It’s more stimulating to work with people on the spot, not looking to the computer all the time

• Learning from experts can be difficult

6.1.8 – Presentation of PROVIP

In this part of the session the facilitators wanted to make participants aware of PROVIP thematic network and its involvement with BEST. Therefore PROVIP was presented with a Powerpoint presentation.

Outcomes

Students have acknowledged their role in the event: future interns which have the opportunity to give their opinion on Virtual Mobility, in order to improve PROVIP’s main service – Pathway – and to help to establish Virtual Internships in European Education.

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Conclusion

The main goals of this workshop were to make participants aware of the topic of VM, to standardise the participants’ knowledge of Internships, VM and VI and to gather input about the relationship between the students and the universities-specially concerning the study programme-on the topic of Internships.

Our main conclusions were that, in general, there was a good and clear idea of what virtual internships are but not how it is implemented. Also, it became clear that virtual internships and virtual mobility offer some solutions towards the limitations of internships and the obstacles students face when taking the decision of getting one.

Finally, it became evident that, in the majority of cases, the universities either don’t help or facilitate students’ access to internships, or when they do the integration with their curricula is not well-structured.

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This workshop on Virtual Internships consisted of three parts: before the VI; during the VI; after the VI. Participants took into account the use of PROVIP’s platform as a tool for communication in all three steps of a VI. Therefore, the purpose of this workshop was to make students understand the process of virtual internships and for them to give their detailed expectations on how the process would be.

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Before VI

• search for a VI • PROVIP’s platform

“Pathway”

During VI

• How would a VI work • Communication

between universities, intern and Companies

After VI

• Feedback the feedback tools

• Communication in the follow-up

Introduction During this session, participants were put in a scenario that they were researching for a Virtual Internship. Taking this into consideration, students reflected upon the actions that should be taken in order to find a VI which fulfilled their interests and about the most relevant information to search for. After the aforementioned reflection, students were presented the platform Pathway and, after exploring it, they provided feedback and improvement points according to their needs. By structuring the session in this way, participants were able to think firstly for themselves what was the most important information to search for and, afterwards, to link the their previous thoughts with the current tool developed by PROVIP in order to provide more feedback and improvement points.

Methods

For the first part of the session, Brainstorming and Brainwritting techniques were used in order to collect individual input from students. To begin the session, participants start to reflect about where to find opportunities for a Virtual Internship.

Outcomes Predominantly, researching on the Internet was the one mentioned the most by students using searching engines, social media and forums. Additionally, approaching universities and professors who might be aware of this possibilities was also mentioned. Regarding companies, students think that interested people in Virtual Internships could either research this option in companies or even request the company to try out this new possibility. By knowing the companies who already had Virtual Internships, students suggested asking previous interns of these companies about opportunities inside the company they were employed at and even in other companies. Finally, participants suggested using job fairs to approach companies directly to ask for Virtual Internships.

Before analysing the platform itself, students watched the promotional video of Pathway. Afterwards, they were asked what features of the platform they remember from the video and what would they improve in order to make the video more attractive.

What students remember right after the video:

• Depending on the stakeholder, there is a platform personalised for each one of them

• It allows a better facilitation from the company and the mentor of the virtual internship

• Students and HEI are able to read the job description of the internship

• The platform allows virtual communication between the 3 stakeholders

• It’s possible to track the progression of the work done by the intern

• Students can fill in their CV in their profile

• According to the workload, it’s possible to make a schedule with the availability of the people involved

• Seems to be simple to use the platform and many features can be used to improve the communication between the stakeholders

What would students change in the video in order to improve its quality:

• The Legos might be interpreted as inappropriate for the topic for some people

• There could be more movement of the Legos. Being static, it becomes tedious and not dynamic

• In the beginning, there are words appearing and disappearing too fast. It’s difficult to read and to follow what the speaker is mentioning

• There’s a too high contrast on the dynamics of the video. Firstly, the words are popping up quite fast and afterwards the Legos are very static. It could be more coherent

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• It could be more interesting for some people if the point of the video would be mainly to inform how is the platform useful, instead of teaching how to use it. Students think that one should learn by exploring by himself

• In some parts of the video, it was visible that the user was doing some typos while typing down some information and, consequently, backspaced the aforementioned. This creates the impression of unprofessionalism

In the third part, the facilitators aimed to get specific input on Pathway platform. After reflecting about where to find opportunities for Virtual Internships, students mentioned what information should be considered when choosing a VI. Therefore, participants were divided in 3 groups to explore different sections of the platform and each group wrote down their ideas on a flip chart. What is the most relevant information to search for:

What is the most attractive information to look for when choosing a VI:

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• location of the company • abstract of the project • connection of internship with student field of studies • learning points of the internship • job content • seriousness of company towards the VI • salary • having contact with companies • duration, with specific beginning and ending time • possibility for a future job in the company

• description of the position • information about the

company • other people’s experiences

know if there are other interns currently working in the company

• information regarding whether the company is currently working virtually

• working conditions • expectations towards the

intern • functions of the intern

• know if the intern has a coach/mentor

• technical aspects • connections with employer • future opportunities • required skills

The final part of the session was reserved to exploring Pathway and,afterwards collect feedback and improvement points from students. Two out of Three accounts were explored by participants: students and companies platform accounts. Due to technical problems, the university platform was not properly analysed and therefore the outcomes are considered irrelevant when compared to the 2 other analyses made. Students had the Pathway manual as a handout in order to better analyse the accounts potential (http://provipproject.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/pathway-manual.pdf).

Next, the input of students of the companies and students accounts of Pathway is presented, focusing mainly on improvement points.

Companies Platform • when currently on a page, there should be marked an active icon on the left side menu in

order to know where the user is every time • the position of the guide icon it is located in the middle of nowhere at the right side. It should

be changed in a more suitable position • settings: know what to write in the job description, for example, use some guidelines of what

to write in this field • market place: make a filter to better search relevant information. Also, when clicking in the

name of an user, it doesn’t open and it goes on the top of the page

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• scroll disappears in “company” (counting selection) • staff: create a form to add a colleague, and a position • pop-ups: create a tick box “not show this message again” • opportunities: make a form to add a new position; window of mentors it’s

not good • necessary skills should be more readable, it’s hard to read because all the

information is in one line • Dashboard was not working properly

Main problems

Students Platform

Conclusion

Although in the beginning, the participants’ knowledge of Virtual Internships was blurry, at the end of it the expected outcomes were achieved. The techniques used adapted perfectly to the goal of each part of the session, which enabled us to gather a good amount of high-quality input from students on relevant information when choosing a VI and on how to improve the current platform Pathway.

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• good information for the companies (sector, homepage, language) • good design • help menu for users • simplicity • the sidebar on the left side of the page • good design of the market place • easy process to apply

• clearly state the language to be used during the internship • remove “how to contact?”, because it’s the same as “contact person” • the sidebar is covering up part of the website screen • lack of legend/description in the post menu. For example, what’s the

meaning of HEI? • lack of explanation of the dashboard • some things are incomplete, for example, the help menu (settings

menu) • settings: nationality. There should be an option for typing the first

letter of the language • internship description: contact (should be interactive) + problem with

contact formular • market place: add filter option and missing help in market place • no information about salary • does not work with iPad - not responsive design • no category of internships

Positive Points

Improvement Points

Introduction

The session was designed to cover all the aspects of “how would a VI work?”, from the communication established between universities, interns and companies, to the definition of some parameters for the recognition process and paperwork. In this way, participants were able to find themselves in an “imaginary virtual internship”, stating their expectations on how a Virtual internship should work in their own point of view as future virtual interns.

Methods

This session took 2 hours and focused on 3 main subtopics, representing 3 general milestones found during the process of a Virtual Internship. Therefore the Virtual internship was deconstructed in 3 parts:

“First contact” – refers to the beginning of this online experience, where the

student gets to know the company, their mentor and future work. Also to the different ways to better communicate between virtual intern-company-university.

“After the first task” - it was considered as a second milestone in a virtual intern’s life, representing the communication that would be established after getting familiar with the work, tasks and schedule, as well as the setting of the following steps to be taken in the VI.

“Before the end of VI” – it was meant to tackle the establishment of the recognition process of the virtual intern’s work, as well as the establishment of future opportunities that may come after attending a VI.

The facilitation method used in the session was “The Learning Café”, also known as the Knowledge Café. It is used in meetings with a wide variety of topics to be tacked, in order to have an effective and productive discussion with better outcomes. In this way, we get input of all the participants with more accurate results.

How does it work?

Participants were divided in small groups (4-5 people), and one of them was chosen as a facilitator of the discussion (named also the “table host”), resulting with 3 different facilitators, responsible for the 3 main discussion topics. After 10 minutes, each member of the group moved to a different table, except the facilitator. After everybody went through all the topics, the Learning Café was concluded and the outcomes were ready to be shared.

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1

2

3

Outcomes

1. First contact

In the students’ opinion this is the most crucial period, and there were defined 5 main focus areas to be taken care of:

General Information needs to be provided by the company about the platform, working tools and software. Even if the work is done online, it was considered important to get to know the people that you get to work with and to have a quick look into the company’s history.

Expectations should be define from both sides and also the main tasks should be set.

The mentorship system should be clear since the beginning and the mentors should be always in contact with their interns and also some general information about who to contact in case of difficulties in one specific field.

Working related - at the first contact, students should be aware of how to do their first task, working hours, schedule, deadlines and the templates for reports and results. Also there was a high need of flexibility and knowledge transfer during this period.

Paperwork should be communicated to the intern at first contact, both by the company and university.

2. After the first task

After the aclimatisation period, when the students should know the basics, the main scope is to get more involved by receiving new and more challenging tasks. Right after the round of feedback is finished, the expectation must be reviewed. Goals and regular check-ups must be defined as well. Also, in case of mistake with the first task, the intern should be approached by mentor and advised.

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General Information

Expectations

Mentorship System

Working

Paperwork

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General info

Expectations

Mentorship system

Working methods and tools

Knowledge transfer

Paperwork

First round of feedback

Improvement points

Review expectations

Knowledge transfer

More challenging tasks

Setting goals

Feedback

Knowledge transfer

Evaluation

Paperwork

Recognition

Official certification

3. Before the end of VI

The aim of this period is to close the activity, receive the final feedback and official certification. Some ideas about the methods emerged from the brainstorming in order to increase efficiency:

• Final feedback and evaluation can be done using written reports with improvement points or visuals like charts or graphs to show evolution of the intern during the internship.

• Paperwork needs to be prepared in advance together with all the information necessary for administration.

• Recognition and certification are one of the most important motivators for students to apply as a virtual intern. Because, they see in this also an opportunity to have a full job after it, and if the performance was better than expected, an salary raise.

Conclusion

The students were very receptive and proactive. It was said that the requirements for a VI would not be very different from the regulations of a real-life internship. The things that might have to be improved and well maintained are the constant communication and feedback between company-intern-university, guaranteeing that the student’s opinion is also taken into account, as well as the flow of knowledge during the VI. Most of the participants will most probably take the challenge of engaging in a Virtual Internship.

Timeline for a VI:

Introduction

This session was prepared in order for participants to feedback the feedback tools, and think of how the communication in the follow-up would work. Therefore our main goals with this session were:

• To understand what would be the ideal feedback tools for the platform;

• To gather feedback about the currently implemented feedback tools;

The first part of the session consisted on a quick introduction to feedback tools, followed by the participants’ assessment of “What would be a perfect feedback tool?”. The participants worked in groups, presenting their outcomes after discussion. Each group had a template to follow: What is the tool? Feedback from who to whom? Why to use this tool? How it would be implemented?

Outcomes

Feeback from intern to company (mentor) should consist of an open question survey with guidelines, in order to make improvement for future interns. The questions should tackle skills, experience, treatment, fulfilment of expectations, etc.

Participants agreed that one of the most important feedback would be given from the company to the intern. Therefore, feedback from company (mentor) to intern should consist of a report with charts, percent of improved skills, in order to get to know the weaknesses and strengths of students and to sumarise the job done by the student in the internship. Examples of this reports would be: pie charts, percent of improved skills through time visible in a chart, etc.

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It could also consist on a personal meeting on skype, in order to know what to improve and also for the company to know what was the job done by the student. In this meeting, there should be included a report with statistics, expectations, comparison with other interns, working style, soft skills improved, future tips, etc. In this report, a picture of the student, as well some charts about the aforementioned should be included

Feedback between all stakeholders should consists of a module for pathway platform, in order to know how to improve generally the whole internship and its communication, as well to make an evaluation.

Method used: Work in groups with presentation of the outcomes. Each group was responsible for one of the two tools: PROVIP Platform Survey and Guidelines for the Phone interview. Both tools can be found in Appendix 1 and 2, respectively.

Outcomes

Feedback for PROVIP Platform Survey - question by question:

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• change from student to intern • already in account

• have a field to put comments, not only marks • it should be a non-optional question • have a middle option

• have a middle option • have 3 categories instead of “not applicable” • there are many options. it would be better to have only “good” and “bad” • it should be automatically put what kind of stakeholder the user is, depending on

the question 1 • use numbers or scale instead of “very satisfied”, “satisfied” and so on…

• there are many options • there should be a middle option

• open questions may give a more useful information • there should be a middle option • internship progress should be specified • it’s difficult to understand what is asked in this part

1

2

3

4

5

6

• shouldn’t be optional with the minimum amount of 100 character response

• not very clear question

• give examples

• can be removed

• it should be non optional

• for example?

• it’s kind of duplicating question number 2, maybe?

• group categories in clusters

• too many options

• Yes <-> No

• not optional

• use numbers

• a rate without scores? should have scores + description

• there should be a middle option

• twice written “the” and missing “is”

• how the contacts will be used in legal agreement

• make it shorter: “for more information…”

• send a confirmation email to people who want to be contacted

• not necessary to put your cellphone number. If you want to be contacted, put your email

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7

General feedback/new ideas:

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9

10

11

12

• add question: “would you suggest this company to other interns?” • there should be 2 different modules: student and company • the interface should be more different than other typical surveys • add question: “would you like to be contacted for a phone interview?” • there should be an open field to suggest anything for improving the platform • ask if they have seen some problems with pathway (technical problems), make a list with those

possible problems

add question: was the interviewers expectations fulfilled?

it’s a bit long, should be simpler

use the name “Pathway”

add question: “how did you get to know this internship?”

add question: “how did you find the platform?”

add question: “what was your main motivation for the internship?”

vocabulary in C?

add why

add how

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General feedback/new ideas:

Method used: Open discussion

Outcomes:

• survey about the platform: should not be mandatory

• survey about the VI: mandatory

• use more graphical feedback (with charts, graphics and so on), with visuals about the performance

4

5

6

7

3

Feedback for Phone Interview - question by question:

• simplify the vocabulary • add question: would you recommend the platform to others? • should prioritise the questions in case you don’t know what to say • add question: did you need support? did you get it? • add question: was it useful? • add question: would you apply for another VI? • shorten the 5th question

Survey

• give a prize (or something in return) for the people who fill in the survey

• make a technical survey of usage of the platform

• share the feedback of others - statistics or graphs

• open and visible in an anonymous way

• ask in this survey if they want to be contacted for phone interview also, but pay attention not to ask the same questions

• go into details (can be after a phone call)

• make it standard for each stakeholder (questions may differ)

• should be interactive and easy (even fun) to fill

• ask closed and direct questions

• might not be a good idea asking feedback in phone interview, might not be effective

• it might get expensive and time consuming

• people can be in a hurry or ignore the questions

• ask mainly open questions, closed questions can be asked in survey

• ask question about the whole process of the VI

• it’s difficult to get information of improvement points

• phone interviews are subjective and might interfere with the outcomes

• skype should be used for phone interviews in order to see each other faces and therefore outcomes of the phone interview might be better

• there might be language barriers, in case of the spoken English is not good

• other communication channels might be explored in order to get better feedback

Conclusion The main goals of this workshop were to understand what would be the ideal feedback tools for the platform and to gather feedback about the currently implemented feedback tools.

The participants were already immersed in the world of Virtual Mobility and Virtual Internships and had a good knowledge of the Pathway platform, from the previous workshops, which made the input given from this workshop very valuable.

They created new and realistic feedback tools that were idealised as adjusted to properly feedback both the Virtual Internship as well as the Pathway platform. Also, they gave clear and detailed feedback to both feedback tools.

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Phone Interview

Introduction

During the first discussion sessions of BACo Gdansk, several topics related to Virtual Mobility were brought up by participants. Facilitators took those ideas and ended up with 4 relevant topics to be discussed in this session.

Methods

Participants were split in 4 groups, each one approaching a topic related to VM:

For this session participants in each group Braistormed and Brainwrited all the ideas that came up to their minds on a flipchart.

Outcomes

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Recognition and Credibility

of a VI

Benefits and Selling Points

of VI

Importance and Impact of

Interns Feedback

Relationship established after the VI

Recognition and Credibility of a VI

Objectivity Suport from HEI Standardisation

Study plan Essay and presentation after internship

Certificate Europass Document

Thesis degree Letter of Recomendation Support from Company

Building up interns professional network

Get to know influential professionals

Advantage in case of job interview

Connection with companies linked with the employer

Alumni association

Get contacted for new openings

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Benefits and Selling Points of VI

Students

• English • Mobility • Job • Knowledge • Money • Training • Contacts • Collegues

Companies

• Employee • Youth • Freshness • New ideas • Contact

network • Free office

space • Feedback

Universities

• Cooperation • Attractiveness • Internationality • Experience • Contacts

Importance and Impact of Interns Feedback

Relationship established after the VI

• Feedback as a service

• Show students the result of their feedback

• Feedback will raise awareness of companies about needs and values of students

• Companies should present what they implemented from students feedback to encourage students to continue to do so

• Companies should do direct speeches with practical examples to show that their opinion actually matters

• include bold keywords • make chapters, every chapter should begin in a new page • insert headings in every page • in pages 12 and 13, spaces should be checked • include information of what kind of studies VM is recommended for • include some examples about what kind of projects VM offers

Introduction

BACo Gdansk had the opportunity to have Ilse Op de Beeck as VMCOLAB representative during a 1 hour session. At the beginning, Ilse Op de Beeck made a 30 minute presentation in order to explain to students about the aim and goals of the project. Afterwards, students analysed and gave feedback to two pieces of material currently being used by VMCOLAB: the Student Guide and Position Paper.

Methods

For the presentation, he normal classroom format was used. The VMCOLAB representative had the support of a Powerpoint presentation during the session. Regarding the analyses of VMCOLAB material, participants were divided in 4 groups in order to collect a big amount of feedback in a short period of time.

Outcomes

After collecting all the input from the 4 groups, the outcome for the Student Guide and the Position Paper was the following:

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• topics listed as questions • examples of VM projects’ companies separated on blended and virtual • design of pages 12 to 15 using text boxes • a lot of useful information • nice green color • use references • interesting topic

What students like

What should be improved

Conclusion

Since the material asked to be given feedback were oriented towards students, it was slightly easier for the participants to state actively their opinion on the aforementioned material. The fact that participants were divided in groups helped a lot in gathering even more new information and improvement points.

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• use more graphical information (less text, more pictures) • there is too much text • different styles of organising information when comparing pages 12 to 15

with page 19 • in the chapter “VM step by step” it would be better to use points (for

example: 1…; 2…; 3…) • should include more pictures • incomplete definition page 7 • there are some errors in formatting • avoid long sentences using bullet points • improve design • more spacing between texts, in order to read easier the information • most useful information should be highlighted • some mistakes were spotted

• include bold keywords • use shorter sentences or use concepts instead of sentences • justify the text • some points repeat the same concept, it should not happen • teaching practice part should appear in the guide • include the word “almost” in the following sentence (5th bullet point):

“Virtual exchange can be introduced into almost any university…” • 6th bullet point should be rephrased

What should be improved

A lecture was given by the Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer of Gdansk University of Technology, which aimed to give an overview and make students understand both the concept and the steps of design thinking (emphasize, define, ideate, prototype, test).

Today’s organisations face multifaceted problems that are part of increasingly complex business models. Continued expansion of global transactions, supported by partnerships that can span large ecosystems, create both unique opportunities and unique challenges for businesses.

These challenges demand multidimensional solutions and require going beyond basic applications of current products and services. This is where design thinking comes into play. By applying this framework, organisations can not only address everyday business problems and challenges but also gain a competitive edge. In order to stay relevant, companies must innovate without disruption to drive growth and profitability. As Tim Brown, CEO of the Palo Alto-based design and innovation firm IDEO, puts it in a Forbes.com interview, “Design thinking is all about upgrading within constraints.”

In its simplest form, design thinking is a process, applicable to all walks of life, of creating new and innovative ideas and solving problems; it is not limited to a specific industry or area of expertise. It can be as effective in technology or education as it may be in services or manufacturing. It could result in new products and services for customers or improved processes and productivity gains for internal operations. If applied with equal fervor, it could transform HR, finance, marketing, or operations teams, turning them into lean and agile profit centers.

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The main aim of this company visit was to show how to run a start-up. Therefore participants went to the Pomorski Park Naukowo Technologiczny in Gdynia.

• Barbara Horiszny, the responsible for development and cooperation held an 1 hour of lecture. In the lecture, participants met two brands: Offiserv and Alekseon.

• Participants were also presented the mission and vision of PPNT.

• The film `Startup kids`, about entrepreneurship with all the testimonials was presented in the session.

• In the end participants visited the PPNT´s laboratory, meeting the angel of business – Jozef Balicki.

Science and Technology Park

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Introduction

Communication has become an essential skill for the next generation of professionals. Nowadays, being an entrepreneur requires a big amount of interaction with the people inside and outside of the working team. During this workshop, participants became more aware of the importance of communication while working in a project and learned about the most common barriers which make communication ineffective.

Methods

Since it was a workshop, the trainer (Patrycja Bronk) interacted a lot with participants, making an exercise at the very beginning, asking participants their opinions on the topic and dividing them in small groups to practice what they have learned during the session. Participants were given a training which tackled the topics of: Definition of communication, the Kotler communication scheme, The formula for the amount for the communication channels, 3 directions of communication, 3 main ways of communication, and main communication barriers.

Outcomes

This session had the goal to raise the participants awareness and knowledge about communication, the main outcome was taken individually by each participant.

Conclusion

Taking into consideration the input of students during this workshop, it was noticeable the lack of knowledge of participants on the topic. In order to make students more ready to face communication issues in their professional lives, they should be more aware of these in their university studies.

Introduction

For examination, students were split in 4 groups where they had to role-play a start-up on Virtual

Mobility (VM) whose main service is an online platform called “Pathway”. This platform aims to

facilitate the communication between Higher Education Institutions, companies and students in

the establishment of Virtual Internships (VI).

Methods

Participants were proposed to promote their project in an oral presentation lasting 10-15 minutes.

In this presentation students tackle 3 main topics.

• What is VM?

• Why should students engage in VM?

• How is the collaboration between students, universities and companies established?

• Present the communication plan (inside of their promotion strategy) for students,

universities (higher education institutions) and companies

• Present what would the promotion material be (posters, facebook covers, etc). What is the

key message you want to transmit with that promotion material? To whom is the message

transmitted to: students, companies or universities?

Outcomes

Regarding the outcomes of the examination, we will present the Communication Plan, which was

elaborated as being integrated in a potential promotion strategy of Pathway together with the

concept of Virtual Internships, towards students, companies and universities.

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1. Virtual Mobility?

2. Promote Pathway

3. Draft of Promotional Material

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Stakeholders Reason Message Channels

Students

• Easy to find internships

• Conduct pratical experience, get ready for a successful career

• Get international experience

• Get use to company culture

• Improve CV

• Open yourselves to the work from your home

• A lot of opportunities in one place

• Save time

• Social media • Youtube • T-shirts • Leaflets • Presentation at

universities • E-mail • Student

associations • Infodesk • Student

newspapers

Universities

• Provide students with new experiences

• Ease the connection with students while supervising it

• Link between students and companies

• Expand offers to the world

• Promote excellence

• Make university more attractive, innovative and competitive

• Simple connection with companies

• Modern methods, modern school, modern experience

• Meetings • E-mail • Conferences • University

networks • Presentations • Training for

Professors

Companies

• Find skilled trainees to integrate in company’s workforce

• New ideas, innovation • Mid-term investment • Screening for

employees

• Access to qualified employees worldwide in the future

• No borders • Students start to

work immediately • More connection

with other companies and universities

• Magazines • Conferences • E-mail • Professional

social network • Annual report • Other users’

experience • Website adds • Paper invitations • Coorporative

Fairs

BEST Academics and Companies Forum in Gdansk, has provided both organisers and participants with the opportunity to acknowledge the state of the art of Virtual Internships in Europe. From the 28th of June until 5th of July, students from all over Europe got involved in the development of Virtual Mobility in European Education, due to the work of BEST Educational Committee and its cooperation with European thematic networks such as PROVIP and VMCOLAB. With the organisation of this event, different working methods were applied in order to obtain different outcomes on several topics tackled in more than 20 hours of sessions. BEST and PROVIP got to know the European students’ vision on Virtual Internships, as well as their opinions and ideas to improve and better establish this novel form of academic internship. While searching for the best ways of communication between students, academia and companies before, during and after a Virtual Internship, the participants of BACo Gdansk played an essential role in the development and usage of PROVIP’s main service – Pathway. On the 28th and 29th of August the outcomes of BACo Gdansk will be presented at the PROVIP partner meeting. This meeting will happen in Odense, Denmark. PROVIP TN is planned to finish in November 2014.

Acknowledgements

The authors of this report would like to thank our partners on Virtual Mobility, for the availability and support given to this event, namely: Ilse Op de Beek, for joining us at several sessions and the examination on behalf of both VMBOLAC and PROVIP; Christophe Terrasse for joining us at the sessions and examination, giving the participants food for though on Virtual Internships; Jacek Wójcik and Piotr Jankowski, also for joining us at sessions, making participants aware of their importance on this kind of events; and Mariet Vriens, for the constant support given to the organisation of this high-quality event. We would also like to thank the main organiser, Daria Dorozynska and the core team for putting their time and effort into this amazing event. Thus, we would also like to thank Local BEST Group Gdansk and its members, for the motivation to host this BEST Academics and Companies Forum.

Last, but not least, we would like to thank all the participants, for the motivation and interest put into the sessions and all the positive energy they have provided the event with.

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The aim of the phone interview is to get qualitative feedback and information from stakeholders who participated in the pilot phase of the Pathway platform in order to facilitate its future exploitation. Normally two or three representatives from each stakeholder group will be interviewed. The idea is to let them freely express their opinion on the platform without following a rigid “question-answer” scheme. The questions provided in this document only serve as guidelines and will be used to steer the discussion.

Draft interview questions

1) Please tell us your function/title and the name and sector of activity of your company/HEI

2) Did you have any experience of a virtual internship before this? If yes, please describe it. If no, what motivated you to try it?

3) What is your overall experience of using the platform?

a. (let the person describe the experience)

b. In particular, do you think it helped (made things easier, simplified the process) in terms of:

i. Organisation of the internship

ii.Completing the tasks of the internship

iii. Facilitating the communication between the student, the company and the university

4) What was your motivation for joining the platform?

5) Please tell us a bit more about your experience with the Pathway platform in terms of:

a. User friendliness

b. Effectiveness in matching you with an intern/company

c. The suggested internship charter between student, study programme and company

d. Organisation of the online communication flow

e. The follow-up system of the intern

6) What did you like best?

7) What would you suggest to be changed?

8) Other comments?

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