Jacob Larsson is in his second year at the Human Resources – program at Linköping University. For five weeks he’s been at Linköping Science Park for his internship which includes writing a report about reversed mentorship. He is also a part of the student board at the Science Park. We have met with Jacob and he has shared his thoughts on the internship, reversed mentorship and the student board.
-A big part of my internship is to work with different competence related questions. Another part of the internship is to find newly graduated international and swedish students who want to work at the companies here in the park.
Jacob explains that in the Human Resources – program they learn more than just how to recruit. They work a lot on competence development and how to get organizations to keep the competence within the company, even though a senior and experienced employee might quit.
Reversed Mentorship
-I am writing a report which focuses on how to implement a new mentorship-program called reversed mentorship into organizations.
The purpose of reversed mentorship is that a younger and inexperienced employee is a mentor to a senior and more experienced employee. Through this the organization can benefit from new ideas and fresher knowledge on a specific subject.
-It is beneficial to hear other points of views and to throw ideas around with someone who doesn’t know everything that a senior employee does, that opens up for fresh ideas which can help the company grow in ways they didn’t even think of.
Volkswagen is one practical example of a company that has tried reversed mentorship. Jacob states that both parties were pleased with the knowledge exchange, however Jacob continues by saying that there are not many practical examples of this method. That is the aim of his study, he will try to research the quality and value of this method at companies in Östergötland.
-This might give Östergötland a chance to get ahead of the curve and to be able to take care of all the competence that exists within an organization.
The Student Board
The internship is not Jacob’s first connection to Linköping Science Park. He is also part of the student board. Which is a composition of students from different backgrounds, with the aim to support the Linköping Science Park board in different questions. Through the student board the Science Park keeps a good relationship with the university and is also able to keep up with the students wants and needs, Jacob explains.
– We in the student board are there to come with insights and inputs which may differ from the park’s ordinary board.
Jacob applied to the student board as a chance to gain experience and because it seemed like an exciting task. He also states that today Linköping Science Park has a close collaboration with LinTek, which is the technical faculty at Linköping University. However there is room for improvement involving students from other faculties as well.
– I think it is important that the voices from other students, who are not studying at the technical faculty, are heard and that their perspective is not lost.
He continues on by saying that Linköping Science Park is ahead in their way of work regarding Human Resources related questions, and that he is excited to see what the future will bring for the park.
The application for the student board opens up in the near future. More information will be coming soon.
