Internships for Higher Education Students to Promote the Local Sustainability of Rural Places

Nieves García-Casarejos and Luis Antonio Sáez-Pérez
Additional contact information
Nieves García-Casarejos: Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zaragoza, Calle Doctor Cerrada 1-3, 50005 Zaragoza, Spain
Luis Antonio Sáez-Pérez: Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zaragoza, Calle Doctor Cerrada 1-3, 50005 Zaragoza, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-25

Abstract: Sustainability and population have a complex relationship. Popular versions of the first are usually based on the premise of reducing the population. However, in some remote rural areas with a low density, this condition needs to be reconsidered, as it would put the viability of the local community at risk and lead to environmental, economic and, above all, social losses. Although repopulation is impossible, since remote rural areas have an ageing demographic structure and an extremely low fertility rate, we can propose the regeneration of their human, social and relational capital by attracting talent and commitment. To achieve this, the Desafío Programme ( Rural Erasmus ) enables university students to do internships in companies and institutions in sparsely populated areas, living alongside their residents. Despite being an experimental policy with a narrow scope in statistical terms, the Desafío Programme is an inspiring experience supported by those who have participated in it and contributes to the social and economic regeneration of areas in decline. This is a practical case of applying a sustainable strategy to a rural area in crisis, which can be transferred to many other countries facing a similar problem.

Keywords: higher education; sustainable development; shrinking rural areas; social capital; human capital; talent; internships; sparsely populated areas; experimental policy; sustainable strategy; rural erasmus (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/12/4926/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/12/4926/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:12:p:4926-:d:372534

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().