Sammendrag
The European Union’s (EU) Erasmus+ program provides students funding to complete a traineeship, internship, or work placement abroad. While the Scandinavian country, Norway is not a full member of the EU, it is a member of the European Economic Area (EEA) and thus takes part in the Erasmus+ program. In Norway, traineeship mobility is lower than in other Scandinavian and European countries. Moreover, traineeship mobility differs between Norwegian higher education institutions. In this qualitative case study, I examine Erasmus+ traineeship mobility at three Norwegian higher education institutions: the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and the University of Oslo (UiO). The purpose of this research is to investigate why some Norwegian higher education institutions use the Erasmus+ traineeship grant to a greater extent than others and ultimately to illuminate how these institutions can increase traineeship mobility. I argue that traineeship mobility varies between NHH, NTNU, and UiO for two primary reasons. First, by prioritizing internship-based learning, NHH, which proportionally has the highest traineeship mobility, created more opportunities for students to receive the traineeship grant than NTNU and UiO. Second, NHH provides more support for internship-based learning and the Erasmus+ traineeship grant than NTNU and UiO. This research addresses several important gaps in the literature. Currently, few studies examine the Erasmus+ traineeship grant, the perspective of higher education institutions, or variations in traineeship mobility.