Courses vs. Internship Programs
What is a project on Riipen?
A project is a problem or an area of opportunity for a business that students can help provide value to. Employers looking to collaborate with students can connect with educators by creating a project describing their business needs.
What is a course on Riipen?
Courses allow educators to expand their classroom and incorporate experiential learning into their syllabus. Projects are embedded into your course curriculum. Prior to your class starting, your instructor has teamed up with one or more companies to carefully craft projects for you to complete throughout the semester. These projects will take what you are learning inside of the classroom and apply it to real-world projects which are run by real companies.
For example: A marketing professor who typically has students create a marketing plan for a hypothetical business, ABC Carpets. In the Riipen version of this experience, the professor would post a course that allows students to create a marketing plan for a real-life small business. Companies see this in Riipen's marketplace and apply to the opportunity. Then, students interact with the company to create a real deliverable to use as part of their marketing strategy.
What is an internship program?
Internship programs are short work placements that have a single area of focus for the project. Students are usually paid for their work as opposed to completing a project for a course. Internship programs are a great way to apply your knowledge from the classroom to the real world. Unlike courses, students must apply to an approved project in order to work on it. Internship programs on Riipen require you to take similar steps to applying for a regular co-op or internship placement. Riipen's model for internship programs:
- The process starts with the school: educators create an internship program.
- Then, companies submit projects to any internship program posted in the marketplace.
- If accepted by the school, their projects become available to students at that school.
- Students apply individually or in teams to the accepted projects.
- Then, companies can accept or decline the students’ applications after conducting interviews with the students.
Applying to Level UP
If you're looking for information about the Level UP program, please visit Riipen Help Center's Level UP FAQ.
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