Pre-placement – Information for students
In accordance with Section 3 of the study and examination regulations for degree programmes
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
- Bachelor's Degree in Renewable Energy – Electrical Engineering
- Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering – Electromobility
Any admission candidate who has not completed technical or practical vocational training must undertake a 6-week pre-study internship.
Graduates of the FOS Technik programme and students on dual study programmes are exempt from the pre-study internship. Similarly, students are exempt from the pre-study internship if the required skills have been acquired as part of a relevant, completed vocational training programme. Employment undertaken prior to the degree programme that covers the relevant content may also be recognised following assessment by the work placement coordinator.
The pre-clinical placement must last at least 6 weeks and should, where possible, be completed as a continuous period (i.e. no more than 2 separate blocks, and no shorter than 2 weeks) before the start of your studies.
Days missed due to absence or illness do not count towards the 30 working days (6 weeks) and must be made up. Public holidays do not need to be made up.
However, the pre-placement can also be completed during the lecture-free time by the end of the fourth semester at the latest. Please note, however, that the pre-placement is an admission requirement for the practical semester, which takes place in the 5th semester.
Therefore, if you complete the pre-placement during the latest possible period (the lecture-free time
between the 4th and 5th semesters), you will only be able to start the placement for the practical study semester once the pre-placement has been completed and proof of completion has been provided. Please note: The lecture-free time between the winter and summer semesters lasts only 5 weeks and is therefore not sufficient to provide full proof of completion of the pre-placement!
This means that the internship (22 weeks) will extend beyond the examination period at the end of the practical semester, which limits your ability to prepare for exams.
Tip: In this case, to speed up the process of providing proof of the preliminary work placement and obtaining the university’s approval for the practical semester contract, please contact the work placement coordinator in good time.
No. The easiest way to find out what counts as a lecture period and what does not is to check the HM website
.
A waiting semester is a regular semester and is therefore not suitable for the pre-placement either. A leave-of-absence semester may be recognised. Please check with the placement coordinator beforehand.
No. The pre-study placement is not a compulsory placement within the meaning of higher education (unlike the Practical Training Semester), as it is intended to be completed prior to commencing the degree programme. Catching up on this practical experience – which was actually intended as one of the admission requirements – is therefore not part of the degree programme. This also explains why students are required to complete it outside of lecture periods.
Training objective
- Gaining an understanding of the typical working environment for engineers through an insight into technical, organisational and business management contexts
- Becoming familiar with various pieces of equipment, processes, working methods, systems and materials
Training content
: Practical training/involvement in a field of work to be selected in accordance with the training organisation’s capabilities and the trainee’s preferences and abilities. The following fields of work, amongst others, are possible:
- Basic materials processing
- Manufacturing
- Testing and measurement
- Assembly
- Commissioning
- Service
- Organisational, personnel and social structures within the company
Please note: Pure software development, programming work or administrative tasks will not be recognised!
The preliminary work placement can, in principle, be carried out at any organisation (e.g. in industry or the skilled trades), provided that work in line with the training objectives and content can be guaranteed.
Subject to this condition, the trainee must endeavour to find a suitable training placement. Unlike the practical semester
(5th semester), however, no training contract is required.
When looking for a training placement, in addition to the usual sources (company websites, recommendations from family and friends, recruitment fairs such as our university’s HOKO, etc.), we also refer students to our department’s Moodle page [Internship Search Guide].
It’s not about the company, but about your role and what it involves.
If you have any specific questions regarding this, you can contact the placement co-ordinator, but please always describe the (planned) work or tasks involved.
If you have completed a technical vocational training programme or undertaken the practical technical training at the FOS (vocational secondary school) in the 11th year, it is sufficient to enclose the relevant certificates with your application for a place at university and to mark them as evidence for the academic credit transfer of prior work experience.
If you have completed a pre-study internship, you must have this certified, stating the period and the tasks carried out.
Unless it is clear that the prior work experience was undertaken before your studies at the HM or during the lecture-free time (e.g. work lasting over 1 year), you must confirm that the prior work experience was completed over at least 30 working days (6 weeks) – excluding sick days – during the lecture-free time. (Public holidays do not need to be made up.)
A sample certificate is available for download here as a WORD or PDF file.
Please note: There is no prescribed format for the certificate. The sample serves merely as a guide to the information that must be certified.
Submit this certificate to the Examinations Office or upload it to Primuss.
Please upload the relevant certificates to Primuss in the section where proof of prior work experience is required.
If you are enrolled on a Verbundstudium (academic study combined with vocational training) or a Studium mit vertiefter Praxis (academic study with intensive in-company training), you do not need to complete any separate forms. Your prior practical experience will be automatically recognised up to the start of the practical semester on the basis of your work at the partner organisation. Should any problems arise (e.g. if you change your degree programme), please contact the practical placement coordinator.
