Taavi Salum, third year electrical engineering student at TTK UAS who did his internship at Ericsson Estonia, was declared the winner in the higher education category at the ‘Praktik Cum Laude’ competition organized by the Estonian Employers’ Confederation.

According to the company, Taavi, who had interned in the company for the fifth time, stood out for his persistence, every time taking a different engineering role and analysing the areas he needed to grow in.

Taavi’s main tasks at Ericsson were looking for errors, testing the products, putting together new electronic circuits, lab testing new products and supporting the company’s global cooperation partners. The company noted that his work helped to diminish considerably the percentage of the return of products transferred to mass production and the additional value, both practical and financial, created by Taavi was impressive. “Ericsson would hire him immediately without an interview,” declared the company.

“For employers, employees with great practical skills are worth a fortune. This is the reason we are organising the ‘Praktik Cum Laude’ competition – to highlight these people,” said the CEO of the Estonian Employers’ Confederation Arto Aas. “According to employers, the interns were of real use – they provided new knowledge and vivified teams, taught their colleagues and performed a lot of necessary work. The benefit is mutual – many of them already received a job offer or an invitation to return to the internship in the coming year,” said Aas.

“When educational institutions and entrepreneurs join forces in organising internships jointly, all parties and the society as a whole benefit from this. Interns will gain invaluable experience which will provide courage to enter into the world of work. Companies will gain employees the training of whom they themselves have participated in. Schools, however, have the opportunity to take the needs of companies into even greater consideration when organising studies,” said Minister of Education and Research Mailis Reps.

The ‘Praktik Cum Laude’ competition took place for the fifth time with a record number of candidates (57) presented by employers all over Estonia. The cooperation is organized by the Estonian Employers’ Confederation in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Research and the Education and Youth Board. The project is funded by the European Social Fund, the Republic of Estonia, and the Estonian Employers’ Confederation.

For more information and link to the ceremony: https://www.employers.ee/en/news/the-best-interns-in-estonia-have-been-determined/