This format gives organisations scope to involve students in more substantial work and build awareness of the organisation and its opportunities at an early stage in their studies. 

Business, data and technology combined

The bachelor programme in Business, Economics and Data Science (BEDS) integrates data science and digital technology skills in business administration and economics. To facilitate students’ understanding of how their curriculum relates to real business activities they have the opportunity to dedicate their fourth semester to an internship.

Students acquire basic skills in accounting, economics, finance, marketing and technology management during the three preceding semesters. They moreover receive training in Python programming, data analytics, applied statistics and mathematics. AI tools and applications are an integral part of the curriculum.

What characterises BEDS students?

Students develop interdisciplinary skills that enable them to:

• analyse possibly unstructured data and use it to generate decision relevant insights

• connect organisational needs with technological opportunities

• identify opportunities to improve or automate work processes

• contribute to the development of digital products and service

• explore how programming, data and digital tools can be utilized in an organisation

• understand how AI tools can be applied to specific business problems

• communicate and collaborate across business and technical disciplines

Feedback from completed internships

Our BEDS students have received very positive feedback from their employers, working across a wide range of tasks. The following excerpts are some examples from employer evaluations: 

“The intern has worked at the intersection of IT and business, providing business insights and value from available data. He has worked with Microsoft Fabric, with Power BI as the primary tool for visualizing and interacting with data.”

“The intern performed a wide array of tasks: coding with AI-assisted development tools as well as some manual coding; collaborating on and implementing design features; taking part in strategy work; and developing a differentiated go-to-market strategy.”

“The intern participated in customer service, sales support, product handling, inventory management, and general retail operations. A particular focus was marketing and brand communication through social media, especially Instagram”.

“Our expectation was that automated documentation of database objects would take one to two months. The student delivered a production-ready solution in just two weeks.”

Practical information

The organisation must:

• offer the internship during the student’s fourth semester—the spring semester
• provide no less than 450 hours of work (approximately three months), completed by mid-June
• assign one or more realistically scoped tasks, to be completed independently or as part of a team
• ensure that the tasks are relevant to business, economics or data science
• make clear whether the internship will be paid or otherwise compensated, in accordance with the regulations of the country where it takes place
• provide the student with a designated contact person in the organisation
• facilitate that the work is carried out mainly on the organisation’s premises
• specifiy admissible working language(s): While the BEDS program is an English language program there are no formal requirements for working languages in the internships.
• enter into an agreement with the student before January 15 of the internship semester. The student is responsible for applying to NHH for approval no later than 15 January
• confirm that the student has completed the internship and provide an evaluation of the student’s work, no later than 15 June of the internship semester.

Contact Beate Sandvei for more information about how your organisation can offer an internship to a BEDS student.