Internship on Cyber Security Engineering Study Programme

It is possible to complete the internship either under the normal procedure or under the simplified procedure.

Under the normal procedure, the student:

• passes the required prerequisites
• finds a suitable internship position
• coordinates the internship with the university (internship supervisor) at the beginning of the internship
• the student goes through an internship period under the supervision of the employer's supervisor and keeps an internship blog during the internship period
• the supervisor evaluates the student's performance at the end of the internship
• the student prepares an internship report and adds it together with the supervisor's evaluation sheet to the application for practice in ÕIS by the required deadline
• the student defends the internship report in front of the internship defense committee
• in case of successful performance, the credits are transferred to the performances of the corresponding semester

When completing an internship under the simplified procedure, the student:

• has acquired a minimum of one year of experience in the profession (cumulative in full-time accounting) and has passed all required prerequisite subjects
• submits a short certificate of work experience signed by the employer to the internship curator
• prepares an internship report
• submits an internship report to the application on practice in ÕIS (the report does not need to be additionally defended before the committee and the assessment is given on the basis of the report)

You can read more about the different stages in the subsections below.

The required prerequisite courses must be completed before starting the internship.

In the case of the simplified procedure the prerequisite courses must be completed by the time of the submission of the internship assessment application in ÕIS.

As an exception, one may pass 160 hours of internship without completing the prerequisite courses. The remaining hours of internship can be passed after completing the prerequisites (the full amount of internship to pass the subject is 560 hours). NB! The credit points will be credited once the full amount of internship has been defended. 

Prerequsistes for IVSB are:

• ICA0002 IT Infrastructure Services
• ICS0004 Fundamentals of Programming
• ICA0013 Fundamentals of Networking or ICA0019 Fundamentals of Networking
• ICA0001 Operating Systems and its Management (does not apply to IVSB 17/21 and beyond)
• ICS0003 or ICS0002 Introduction to Cyber Security
• ICS0009 Governance and Management of Cyber Security

For the curriculum Cyber Security Engineering (IVSB) the student must complete tasks in at least one of the following areas:

• administration of an IT infrastructure services, computer network or communications system, operating system or database system and analyzing data security solutions in the internship report based on the internship experience;
• administration of data security solutions;
• ensuring the security of information systems;
• participation in the development project of a database, information system, software, or web application, and analyzing the data security solutions in the internship report based on the internship experience;
• designing and constructing of a distributed system or a real-time system and analyzing data security solutions in the internship report based on the internship experience;
• on the subject of another course passed within the curriculum module of Cyber Security.

NB! Analysis of cyber security aspects related to your job tasks should be one of the focus points of the report even if your daily tasks are not related directly to cyber security issues. 

Internship can be passed in a private or a public company or organisation in Estonia or abroad.

Internship can be completed as an uninterrupted process (in one company) or in parts (in one or several companies). Although the period of internship can be passed in parts, the subject of the internship cannot be passed in parts and the subject will be assessed after the required period has been passed in full and the final report (covering the experience of all the parts passed) has been submitted.

The required full amount of internship is 14 weeks (full-time, 560 hours of work). The internship period can be completed by working full-time (40 hours per week) or part-time (the period in weeks is then longer). 

As a rule, a student shall find the host organisation by himself/herself; if necessary the internship curator shall provide help.

Please contact the internship curator Grete Lind (Grete.Lind@taltech.ee) if you seek more information regarding finding an internship position.

Useful links:

• www.workinestonia.ee
• Internship and job offers (School of Information Technologies) 
• Career councelling

A trilateral internship agreement must be signed between Taltech, the student and the internship organisation before the internship period can start.

Before starting an internship period a student must fill in a questionnaire describing the host organisation. An internship specialist will check the suitability of the information presented and give feedback and further guidelines to the student regarding the next steps and will prepare the trilateral agreement if everything is in accordance with the requirements. 

Under the standard procedure a supervisor must be appointed to the intern in the internship organisation. The supervisor is responsible for supporting the intern during the internship period and for evaluating the performance of the intern at the end of the internship period.

The supervisor must fill in and sign the supervisor evaluation form at the end of the internship period. The signed form must be added to internship assessment application in ÕIS. 

Under the standard procedure period summaries must be submitted every two weeks of the internship period in the form of blog posts.

The internship specialist will provide guidelines on preparation of blog posts at the beginning of the internship period. Preparation of period summaries is one of the requirements of passing the internship subject.

The internship subject is not declared. To have an internship assessed, the student must submit an application in ÕIS together with an internship report and in the case of the standard procedure the evaluation of the supervisor.

The credit points of internship shall be credited to the outcomes of the semester during which the student has received a positive assessment for the internship.

Students with at least 12 months of previous professional experience related to the study programme have the right to apply for assessment of the internship according to the simplified procedure and write the internship report based on their previous work experience.

Applying for the right of simplified procedure

To apply for assessment of internship under the simplified procedure you must submit an application to internship curator (Grete.Lind@taltech.ee) and add to it documents proving previous work experience (usually a signed proof from employer stating the period of employment, work load and main tasks).

You can submit the application before passing all the prerequisite subjects to receive assurance, that your work experience is suitable for simplified procedure.

You can also apply for simplified procedure at the same time you submit your internship report, but it is recommended to receive the right for the simplified procedure before and then to write and submit the internship report.

Submitting the internship report

To pass the internship subject, one must submit an application for the assessment of internship in OIS (documents > applications) and add the internship report to the application.

The prerequisite subjects must be passed by the time of submitting an application to assess the internship.

Evaluation of the report under simplified procedure

In the case of the simplified procedure the reports need not be defended before a committee. The documents submitted will be assessed by two assessors, (appointed by the programme director). If necessary a third assessor is also appointed (in case the assessments of two assessors differ).

The assessors have the right to ask additional questions form the intern during the assessment process. 

Deadlines

Students can submit the internship report for evaluation via simplified procedure throughout the semester, but before the examination period. As an exception, the report can be submitted also during the examination period, if there is there is a justified reason (for example, the result of a prerequisite subject will be fixed during the examination period). Submitting the report during the examinations period must be coordinated with the internship curator beforehand.  

Under the normal procedure:

For students not planning to defend also the final thesis this semester:

• 20th of May 2024 at 10:00- the deadline for submitting the application for practice in ÕIS (together with internship report and evaluation of the supervisor)
• 3rd to 7th of June- the period of internship defense (exact dates will be fixed about one month before the defense)
• end of February - the last date to start the internship to be able to defend it in spring semester

For students planning to defend also the final thesis this semester:

• 29th of April 2024 at 10:00- the deadline for submitting the application for practice in ÕIS (together with internship report and evaluation of the supervisor)
• 13th to 17th of May- the period of internship defense (exact dates will be fixed about one month before the defense)
• Middle of February-the last date to start the internship to be able to defend it in spring semester

Under the simplified procedure:

Students can submit the internship report for evaluation via simplified procedure throughout the semester, but preferably before the examination period. The report can be submitted also during the examination period, if there is there is a justified reason (for example, the result of a prerequisite subject will be fixed during the examination period). Submitting the report during the examinations period should be coordinated with the internship curator beforehand.  

The aim of an internship report is to present an overview of the internship tasks and analyse the internship experience.

The volume of the report should be approximately 15 pages (the title page, table of contents, references and annexes not included).

Recommended content

• Table of contents
• The list of definitions and abbreviations
• Introduction
• Description of the internship organisation and position
  • Purpose of the internship, initial expectations for internship, description of previous work experience (in the case of the simplified procedure, this chapter is not relevant)
  • Description of the internship organisation (field of activity, main products and services, structure, number of employees, positioning on the market, etc.)
  • Description of the internship position: description of the structure/team, in which the internship was completed, description of the intern’s role
  • Overview of the organisation of work and work environment, including description of the resources, tools and methods used or other relevant information
• Description of the experience
  • Overview and description of the main tasks during the internship period
  • More detailed analysis of 1-3 tasks (initial task, solution, problems encountered, methods used to solve them, the end result with reasoning and analysis)
  • Analysis of cyber security aspects related to internship tasks (relevant to study programs IDCR and IVSB)
• Analysis of the experience
  • Assessment of assignment performance and new knowledge and skills acquired
  • Assessment of applicability of the knowledge/skills acquired in the course of studies in practice
  • Assessment of the suitability of the selected host organisation for fulfilling the objectives of the internship subject and assessment of cooperation with the supervisor (not relevant in case of the simplified procedure).
• Summary
• References
• Annexes if necessary

General recommendations

• NB! Analysis of cyber security aspects related to your job tasks is one of the focus points of the report and defense even if your daily tasks were not related directly to cyber security issues.
• Be relevant when describing the internship organisation - the main focus should be on description and analysis of your experience and not the description of the organisation. Point out only the information necessary to understand the context of the internship.
• Don’t be too general when describing your role - the report should give a clear understanding of your input and role.
• Explain and justify your choices, activities, solutions.
• Pay attention to the formatting requirements and follow the guidelines set for final thesis (except for abstract and author's declaration). 
• Academic style of writing is expected (use full sentences, accurate definitions, logical structure).