What is Internship
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What is Internship
Having prior real-world experience is becoming a crucial requirement that employers look for while recruiting new employees. Students should participate in on-the-job training to gain relevant experience and skills that would increase their competitiveness, and internship offers the perfect opportunity for such. Such structured experience offered by the employer to potential employees, usually undergraduate and post-graduate students, concerning their areas of specialization and career goals, strengthens the student’s academic skills, career, and enhance their personal development (Ripamonti et al., 2018). Internships take specified durations, usually three-to-six months, under the supervision of a professional, and can be paid or unpaid. Overall, internships work as a cross-boundary between the student’s academics and work experience and are an integral part of a work-based learning experience.
Universities and colleges have long used internship programs to enable the students to develop their workplace skills, away from everyday classwork. Employers have become more aware of the importance of on-the-job training. Prior work experience, skills, the ability to apply the ideas learned in schools, and evidence of an initiative, have become a requirement during recruitments (Ripamonti et al., 2018). Through compulsory internship programs, students get to face competing requirements, as well as different views on professional knowledge and practice. Finally, the students build networks of people in the same profession, thus increasing their employability.
Several factors, however, compromise the effectiveness of internship programs, resulting in low-quality outcomes. Many students get a less-than-ideal work environment to build the necessary skills and advance their careers. The challenges of payment, work overload, and employers’ expectations, do compromise the program (Rutschow & Taketa, 2019). Employees should strike a balance to professional development, as well as the well-being of the interns for effective outcomes.
References
Ripamonti, S., Galuppo, L., Bruno, A., Ivaldi, S., & Scaratti, G. (2018). Reconstructing the internship program as a critical reflexive practice: the role of tutorship. Teaching in Higher Education, 23(6), 751-768.
Rutschow, E. Z., & Taketa, J. (2019). College to Work: Findings from a Study of the Career Readiness Internship Program. MDRC.