ABSTRACT
Introduction Degrees in Pharmacy, Biotechnology and Nutrition & Dietetics courses offer a wide range of career opportunities, but many students are unaware of these and feel disorientated when deciding on their professional future. In a global context, employers demand qualities such as intercultural communication skills, team-working skills, networking abilities and international collaborative experience. The COVID-19 pandemic has limited access to global mobility. Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) programmes enable students to gain an international experience without travelling abroad. In this COIL project, students from Torino, Coventry and CEU-San Pablo Universities worked collaboratively to research the worldwide professional opportunities related to their degrees Method: This COIL included: Introductory session with icebreaker and intercultural activities;Teams' online meetings, where professors from three Universities guided and supervised the students'' work;Interviews of the students' teams with two to three professionals of Pharmacy, Biotechnology or Nutrition & Dietetics;Conferences by relevant professionals;and International Congress where information gathered by the students through oral communication was prepared and presented. It also included plenary conferences and a workshop on LinkedIn Results: This COIL programme involved three Universities, 38 professors, 111 students and 76 professionals (from 11 countries working in 60 institutions). More than 400 people from 40 different countries and 60 Universities were registered at the Congress. 41 interviews with professionals, 12 conferences by 32 speakers and one International Congress were organised. More than 80% of the students agreed that the COIL allowed them to improve their soft and intercultural skills, made them more employable and increased their motivation to work abroad. 90% of the students considered this COIL to be useful for their professional future Conclusion(s): These excellent results highlight the benefit of COIL programmes for students and their careers. This led the authors in 2022 to organise a second edition of the COIL programme with a possible international visit included.