The project “InternshipConnect”:

• Project Coordinator: La Mission Locale Picardie Maritime (France)
• Project implementation period: September 1, 2025 – August 31, 2027
• Project No: 2025-1-FR01-KA220-VET-000351411
• Website: https://www.internshipconnect-europe.com/

InternshipConnect

The Problem: Currently, internships often fail to reach their full potential due to difficulties in finding host organizations, lack of participant preparation, insufficient support during the placement, and poor recognition of the skills acquired.

The Solution: The project develops an innovative European model called the “gateway to immersion” device, which structures the experience into three key stages:

1. Prepare: Supporting the participant, the host organization, and the sending organization beforehand.
2. Immerse: Implementing a supervised, adapted, and monitored professional experience.
3. Secure: Validating the skills acquired to facilitate the next steps (employment, training, etc.).

A Collaborative Approach: It relies on a “win-win” collaboration between employment/training sectors and businesses. It integrates new practices like mentoring, enhanced support, recognition of soft skills, and creates new support roles (like facilitators and mentors).

InternshipConnect is a transnational cooperation project designed to strengthen pathways into employment by improving how internships are prepared, supported, and managed. The core objective is to develop a structured support model that enhances participants’ employability skills, improves the quality and security of professional immersions, and fosters stronger collaboration among key stakeholders within local and European labour ecosystems.

The project addresses a critical transition phase between education/training and employment. By introducing innovative bridging mechanisms and coordinated support structures, InternshipConnect seeks to make internships more effective, inclusive, and sustainable as stepping stones into long-term employment.

The project is structured around four interconnected work packages:

1. Work Package One: Project Management
2. Work Package Two: Creation of a Pilot and Innovative Bridging Device, Facilitating and Securing Professional Immersions
3. Work Package Three: Installation of Experimental Support Hubs in Territorial and Transnational Ecosystems
4. Work Package Four: Communication, Dissemination and Capitalisation

The project relies on a multidisciplinary consortium that brings together professional integration organizations, training bodies, enterprises, and experts in territorial innovation. This diversity makes it possible to cross-reference approaches, share best practices, and build a model that can be transferred across Europe.

• La Mission Locale Picardie Maritime (France) – Project Coordinator
• Le Cube Consultants (France)
• Ballymun Job Centre (Ireland)
• Območna obrtno-podjetniška zbornica Kranj (Slovenia)
• AMC (Portugal)
• Italian Hospitality School SRL (Italy)
• HOTEL SCHOOL Hotel Management College (Latvia)

The project involves 24 months of European cooperation, a €400,000 Erasmus+ budget, and aims to support 210 participants through 210 immersions.

Events of the project

• November 25–27, 2025, First Transnational Project Meeting in Abbeville, France

• March 24-36, 2026, Second Transnational Project Meeting in Riga, Latvia

The project No. 2025-1-FR01-KA220-VET-000351411 is co-financed by the European Union.