The relationship between higher education institutions (HEIs) and society has been largely studied, especially from the perspective of technology and knowledge transfer. However, the specific dynamics on how the relationship with the society from the perspective of the pedagogical mission, and particularly on how traineeships have been put together and managed in higher education institutions still lacks understanding. With different approaches at bachelor and master level, and different structures and procedures to manage traineeships, the assessment of the whole process is sometimes left aside. HEIs should have in place procedures to assess the success of the traineeships in each course and at the individual level of each student. In our study, we present the results of the in-depth interviews with 15 course directors and two department directors at University of Aveiro which aimed to understand their perceptions on the goals, benefits and challenges of traineeships for the students, the university and the organizations involved. We covered the period before, during and after the traineeship. Specific bottlenecks and good practices were identified, as well as improvement areas.

Keywords: Value creation, HEI, traineeships, university-society cooperation.