ABSTRACT
Digitalization of educational activities has emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic in all dimensions of the education system, including the higher education institutions. These were forced to adapt their teaching and research activities to an online format, as physical interactions were restricted in the Romanian case for two years (March 2020-March 2022). Internships are a strong tool for developing students' competences, and they also faced the challenges of forced digitalization. This paper investigates the quality of the internship programs delivered in a digital format during a pandemic context, as perceived by the tutors from academic environment. Using an online distributed questionnaire, data collection was conducted in the first months of 2022 and resulted in a sample of 60 respondents, all academics from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies. The analysis uses a mix of quantitative (statistical) and qualitative methods, making use of various visual representation tools. Principal component analysis (PCA) is also conducted in order to identify the main factors influencing the quality of internship programs from tutors' perspective. The five factors that resulted from the PCA are: knowledge transfer, collaborative activity, personal development, administrative environment, and student evaluation. The results show that most of the interrogated academics have a favorable opinion regarding the effectiveness of the internship programs in a pandemic context. They appreciate that most of the companies have the facilities for delivering internship programs in a hybrid or online format. Also, these programs are increasing students' competencies and self-confidence. However, tutors are more reluctant towards the personal development of students in a hybrid or full online format of the internship.
ABSTRACT
There is consensus on the fact that COVID-19 crisis goes far beyond its medical roots and poses great challenges for entrepreneurs all over the world. Not only specific business models are provoked, but also the underlying principles of our economic and social system, based on human interaction and consumption as prerequisite for growth, prosperity and well-being. The pressure on the public system, national and international institutions and authorities, which were urged to come with rapid solutions and answers in order to bail-out and support the entrepreneurial ecosystem is enormous. The present paper aims at investigating the main challenges faced by Romanian entrepreneurs and the support schemes and public measures, as they were perceived by the interviewed persons, owners of small and medium-sized enterprises from Romania. After delivering a brief introduction of the specific features of the Romanian entrepreneurial environment and the impact of COVID-19 crisis on Romanian companies, the paper focuses on the policies and support measures offered by the state. Different categories of support schemes are depicted and critically analyzed within the broader European context, but also from the perspective of several Romanian entrepreneurs, target population of the aforementioned measures, participants in a qualitative study, based on in-depth interviews, conducted in the time framework July- December 2020. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.