Philosophy

The summer internship is a pre-test of the business life you will start after graduation. For this reason, when choosing a place to do an internship, make sure that the company or the industry you choose would be suitable for your future goals.

Compulsory internship work is carried out in 3 different ways:

1. Within the borders of the Republic of Turkey, either in the government or the private sector,
2. Abroad,
3. Abroad but within the framework of Erasmus.

First of all, I am starting with topic 1, which is more frequently chosen and requires more bureaucracy.

1. Internship and its Conditions within Turkey

The internship is a necessary and compulsory activity for your graduation. It will be done at the end of your 3rd year of education and will take at least 30 working days during the summer term.

For this work, you have to contact the Government or the Private Sector yourself. Our department will not help you for finding or arranging institutions. The reason for this lack of assistance is that this activity will be a pre-test for your future professional life. When you are looking for a job after graduation, you will have similar interviews and decision-making processes.

When you identify the place for your internship, you visit that place by bringing the document “Internship Application Form” that I have added to this Guide as Supplement 1.

If your mutual interview is positive and you get an “informal” OK, please fill in the relevant section of the form by getting critical detailed information from the authorized person about the place of internship in this document.

You will then fill in the sections which are related to your personal information. In some cases, it is very important that the information you provide is complete. You will mail me this document at this address.

By law, you will have to be insured by the state during your internship. Therefore, the document that you will fill in your citizenship information, requested by the government, is attached as Supplement 2.

Whether you are a citizen of the Republic of Turkey or a foreign national, this document will be filled in and mailed to me. However, I would like you to send this document to me at least one month before the start of the internship. Then, I collate your individual entries and send them to METU Personnel Department. However, the Social Security Insurance (SSI) system only starts to process this information 15 days before the start of the internship. Therefore, calculate the internship start and end dates considering the 15 days’ rule. These dates are not subject to change after I sent them to the Personnel Department. You cannot divide your internship into two periods (especially for summer school reasons) since the SSI covers a block of dates Do not make complicated plans since the law states that you cannot work without insurance.

You will fill an additional document about SSI and send it to me. These documents are attached as Supplement 3, and 4 are the “Declaration and Commitment” documents.

Why two documents? In fact, you will fill out only one of these documents. If you are covered by your family insurance the document, you will fill Supplement 3. Supplement 4 is the document you will fill in if you are not covered by any insurance system. But in any case, you will be covered by the state insurance system. When you fill either form and sign it, then scan the document and send it to me.

TR-Internship Certificate (Supplement 5), which I will give to you before you depart for an internship, is the most important document. You will write your name and surname in this document and staple a passport photo in the upper right corner and put it in an envelope and deliver it to the person responsible for your internship. They will evaluate you at the end of the internship, put this document in an envelope, seal and sign it and hand it to you. This will be the 1st and most important document you will bring back to me.

2. Internship Abroad

Other than the ERASMUS system, internship work you will do in abroad parallels with the work to be done in Turkey. You should fill Supplement 1, 2, and 6.

You will also need to keep a laboratory book and fill in and submit the English version of your certificate to the person responsible for you.

But some laboratories or organizations may not allow you to keep books or take this information with you because the results of the study may be confidential. In this case, a short letter stating that the conditions are in this way will exempt you from the responsibility of the book. Before you go to your internship place, you must fill the “ENG-Internship Certificate” Supplement 6, staple the picture and put it in an envelope, and deliver it to the person responsible for you at the beginning of the internship period. At the end of the internship, please take your certificate from the institution in a sealed and signed envelope and bring it to me.

The country you will be traveling to will ask you to take out health insurance. Do it through private insurance companies.

When you enrolled in the Course BIO360 Summer Practice at the semester of your graduation, these 2 documents (notebook and certificate) should be delivered to me after an e-mail that you will receive from me before the finals start. Also, you do not need to write a page-long report. DO NOT BRING THESE DOCUMENTS TO ME BEFORE YOU RECEIVE MY MAIL.

3. Erasmus Internship

The University’s Erasmus Office fully coordinates the Erasmus internship program, and we do nothing but sign a departure and return forms. Erasmus internship work will show parallels with the documents to be filled in part 2. You should fill Supplement 1, 2, and 6.

You will also need to keep a laboratory book and fill in and submit the English version of your certificate to the person responsible for you.

But some laboratories or organizations may not allow you to keep books or take this information with you because the results of the study may be confidential. In this case, a short letter stating that the conditions are in this way will exempt you from the responsibility of the book. Before you go to your internship place, you must fill the “ENG-Internship Certificate” Supplement 6, staple the picture and put it in an envelope, and deliver it to the person responsible for you at the beginning of the internship period. At the end of the internship, please take your certificate from the institution in a sealed and signed envelope and bring it to me.

The country you will be traveling to will ask you to take out health insurance. Do it through private insurance companies.

When you enrolled in the Course BIO361 Summer Practice at the semester of your graduation, these 2 documents (notebook and certificate) should be delivered to me after an e-mail that you will receive from me before the finals start. Also, you do not need to write a page-long report. DO NOT BRING THESE DOCUMENTS TO ME BEFORE YOU RECEIVE MY MAIL.

Have a nice experience.

What to do During the Internship

Never forget that you are a METU student during your internship. Avoid excessive and flippant behavior. Especially some government/military organizations may have dress code regulations, you have to obey them.

The first step of the internship will be to hand your Internship Certificate to the person responsible for you during your internship.

During your internship, you will need a Laboratory Book where you can write the date in the upper right corner and the procedures that you learned and employed below it every day as a diary. There is no standard for this Laboratory Book, it could be any High School notebook. If the same test or technique was used the next day, simply add a note on the page of that day, by stating “Yesterday's routine was repeated”.

At the end of the internship, the last page must be approved by the person responsible for you with a stamp or signature.

At the end of your internship, you should get your certificate from the institution in a sealed and signed envelope.

Be comfortable, as this report will be “form my eyes only”. In this report: I want to see where you have completed your internship and which dates, bullet by bullet what you have learned, and a paragraph of gossip. In this last paragraph, explain how they treated you, would you recommend this place for your next year's friends, etc. Do not forget to write your name and surname and sign the report.

When you enrolled in the Course BIO360 Summer Practice at the semester of your graduation, these 3 documents (notebook, certificate, and report) should be delivered to me after an e-mail that you will receive from me before the finals start. DO NOT BRING THESE DOCUMENTS TO ME BEFORE YOU RECEIVE MY MAIL.

Supplementary Documents

1. Application Form
2. Student Information
3. Declaration and Commitment (Insurance covered by Family)
4. Declaration and Commitment (Insurance not covered by Family)
5. Turkish Internship Certificate
6. English Internship Certificate