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Internships, Higher Education, & Supportive Learning - Challenges
Meenakshi .P.
Assistant Professor, Department of History
Shri Jagadguru Tontadarya Government First Grade College
Mundargi taluk, Gadag district, Karnataka state
Mail. gautammouryajan20@gmail.com
Ph : 9663853819
Abstract
This paper focuses on internships as a supportive learning resource for students in higher education streams. Internships often include field studies, service learning practical hands on experience and co-operative learning. Internships are a part of experimental learning. They support in improving interpersonal communication skills ad problems solving skills. Higher education in India can come up with better internships and support youth towards a great career. Academicians demand greater policy making in linking higher education with internships. As the Indian higher education is registering greater enrolment ratio- time has come to think of twining general education with internships. Internships need to focus on specific skill development. besides , supporting a student with his interpersonal communication skills , internships personalize learning , hence learning becomes more relevant and meaningful. Properly designed internships support a leaner to adapt to changes quickly and learn from previous experience more clearly than ever. But not all higher educational institutions offer internships that are student supportive. Only select institutions offer good internships. But there is a need for designing a uniform guidelines regarding implementation of internships.
Keywords: Internships, supportive learning, guidelines, structural designing challenges
Introduction
Education plays a significant and remedial role in balancing the socio-economic fabric of the Country. Since citizens of India are its most valuable resource, our billion-strong nation needs the nurture and care in the form of basic education to achieve a better quality of life. This warrants an all-round development of our citizens, which can be achieved by building strong foundations in education. In pursuance of this mission, the Ministry of Education (MoE) was created on September 26, 1985, through the 174th amendment to the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961.
Types of internships-
- Academic internships-
- Non academic internships.
- part time internships
- Full time internships
- Credit bearing internships
- Academic internships are linked to UG curriculum. They have special learning goals and broader outcomes than just career exploration.
- Non academic internships are those internships for which students do not receive any credit and are usually limited to work two hours per week. That area not measureable by learning outcomes.
- part time internships offer less time at work site and thus the learning outcomes are limited
- Full time internships usually are 30 hours per week which increases students learning and h eh enhance intellectual and skill development
- Credit bearing internships are very distinctive because they share common goals and offer on campus study pattern.
Benefits of internships
- the internships engages a student in any chosen discipline and alerts him about major work pattern
- the internships improves self confidence in a learner
- the internships helps to apply a variety of learning styles and thinking styles
- the internships improves skills in research application
- the internships supports group communication
- the internships helps to improve interpersonal communication
- the internships makes interns to observe keenly
- the internships personalizes learning hence learning becomes more relevant and meaningful
- the internships helps to put learning into context to improve understanding and retention of concepts
- the internships provides networking and mentoring opportunities
- the internships support a leaner to learn from mistakes adapt to change
- the internships makes a learner a lifelong learner
The crucial structural components include
- Writing a Learning Plan
- Engaging
- Complete Understanding of the Problem
- Writing Assignments
- Creating a Learning Portfolio.
Institutional support - These internships often provide institutional support if they are designed appropriately as shown in this diagram
Structural design -
- Enhancing on – campus excellence – the internship programme should be integrated with and enhance the mission of the institution and curriculum
- institutional excellence and integrity- for internships away from campus the organization offering the internship program should be have an appropriate management structure staff and policies to support the provision of a sound and high quality internship program that includes concurrent curricula support services and learning resource.
- Academic excellence- the internships need to incorporate a defined project resulting in outcomes and products of benefits to the organization and involving college level learning on the student’s part.
- Appropriate internships- Internships should be designed to support the students educational program and help them in future.
- Appropriate course work- the internships should provide course work that facilitates the experiential learning process
- Diversity – the internships programs need to introduce student to participate in a larger world of all ages and nationalities and to a variety of ideas and opinions.
- Assessment and evaluation – the students progress and learning should be assessed based on learning outcomes in other words students should be able to articulate and apply what they have learned,
Internships- The following are some of the important internships
- ICTE Internship- The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), invites applications from young and bright candidates for the appointment of part-time paid Interns. The All India Council for Technical Education is the statutory body and a national-level council for technical education, under the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development.
- NITI Aayog Internship Scheme Government of India invites students pursuing Under Graduate/Graduate/Post Graduate degrees or who are enrolled as Research Scholars in recognised Universities/Institutions to apply for internships.
- Google Summer Internship- As a Software Engineering Intern, you will work on our core products and services as well as those who support critical functions of our engineering operations. Depending on background and experience, you will be working in one of the following areas: Product and Systems Development and Engineering Productivity.
- UNESCO Internship for Graduate Students invites applications for internships in the following areas: Natural Sciences Sector, Culture Sector, Communication and Information.
- United Nations Internship Opportunity New Delhi invites applications for Internships (Public Information) for the year 2020. This internship is located in the United Nations Information Centre in New Delhi, India. UN interns work full-time, five days per week (35 hours) under the supervision of a staff member in the department or office to which they are assigned.
- Internship at Paytm- Paytm are always looking for innovative interns who have a strong passion for understanding people, their needs, their problems and their aspirations. The internship offers an opportunity to work on various digital products and services such as Wallet, Payments Bank, Movies & Entertainment, Travel, Insurance, Shopping, Chat and many more.
- Asian Development Bank- The Internship Program is a project-oriented learning opportunity for graduate students to gain experience through research assignments based on ADB’s current operational needs.
- Amazon Internship (Software Development Engineer)The SDE Intern experience is unique at Amazon. You get to rub shoulders with outstanding software engineers and researchers with industry-leading technical abilities, solving challenging engineering problems that affect millions of Amazon customers.
- Internships- Greenpeace India- Greenpeace India provides opportunities for students from top educational institutions to undertake an internship at their offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore or Patna.
- Intel Graduate Intern Intel, Bangalore is looking candidates for Internship Opportunity. Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, in Silicon Valley.
Other than these mentioned companies, many more like P&G, Cisco, WWF, WII offers a great opportunity for engineering and management students. On the other hand, Lok Sabha India also invites interns every year. Many internships companies offer online/ virtual or work from home internships to students in India.
The challenges of internships- Just introducing internships is not the end of the problems there are several challenges as well.
- The need to design appropriate guidelines for monitoring internships at college level.
- The proper feedback and certification is also necessary for each internship if they have to be popular with the youth.
- The policy guiding internships need to be uniform across all higher education institutions
- The uniformity of syalbi , curriculum and learning materials need to be cautiously selected to suit both urban and rural student.
Conclusion
Thus, internships need to focus on specific skill development. besides , supporting a student with his interpersonal communication skills , internships personalize learning , hence learning becomes more relevant and meaningful. Properly designed internships support a leaner to adapt to changes quickly and learn from previous experience more clearly than ever. But not all higher educational institutions offer internships that are student supportive. Only select institutions offer good internships. But there is a need for designing a uniform guidelines regarding implementation of internships.
References:
- Perlin Ross- Internships- New economy demands- Black swan publication 2017
- UNESCO report How internships work > WHO internships 2020-09-12
- Google internships 2020
- Indian higher education sector-& internships- a review 2020-09-12
- The All India Council for Technical Education _AICTE on internships
- NITI Aayog Internship Scheme Government of India – New Delhi 2020
