Internship: How students perceive it.

Every CPUT student’s dream is to do their internships in one of South Africa’s leading companies and be permanently hired after they are done with their internships. This result in students not being aware of what these so-called in-service programs are actually about, this is also one of the reasons that those who manage to fulfill this dream struggle to maintain it. 

This dream clearly outlines that students do the training for the “benefits” it offers such as money and good passing marks. In–service training programs are designed to equip students with skills and knowledge in their field of expertise, internships are a hands on approach where students actually gets to experience what really awaits them in the industry. Hence the institution is named as “Technikon and totally differs from universities because it is more practical than them. 

Suzanne, who is a mentor in the department of co-operative learning and held classes whereby she invites potential employees to come to the school and do presentations as to what type of inter ns they are currently looking for in their companies and organizations. 

She has confirmed that a lot of students tends to go to the corporate world because they want to make quick bucks or purely get good marks so that they can be able to graduate at the end of the year, this attitude makes it difficult for them to put up with the pressure that the industry will throws at them. 

“I have had students whom their employers will call in my office and report lot of problems they got from the students, its either absenteeism, negative attitudes they portray or simply laziness, they immediately want to jump into big tasks and undermines the small tasks given to them”, students has also laid their own complaints saying that they are not being treated professionally, they are given tasks that are not related to their careers such as making tea for the big bosses, making photocopies, faxes and typing” said Suzanne

Both these complains needs to be taken into a lot of consideration as they are the barrier between the students and the employer. 

It seems students are not aware of the fact that they are competing with other scholars out there and that if they continue with this kind of behavior they will have a bad reputation in the industry which can lead in them not being able to specialize in their professions. Students need to do a research and know more about the company

According to Garrick Donavan of Leap Communications, the following are the traits that employers look for in their interns:

• Communication – students should be enthusiastic, and be willing to communicate with every member of the company, most importantly they should ask questions frequently because that shows us that they are willing to learn and are interested in the company
• Act professional – you need to act, dress and talk in a professional manner
• Be proactive – Do not wait for someone to assign you to work, if you finish a task, create a new one
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Ability to multi – task
• Taking constructive criticism well into consideration
• Punctuality

The other reason for students to struggle to find internships could be because of the courses that they choose which might have rare job opportunities. This has been witnessed by  a third year Entrepreneurship student who has been struggling since the beginning of this year to find an internship, desperate as she was, as time was against her she wanted any job that she could possibly find, regardless of whether it is not on her specialized field. 

http://lccc.wy.edu/workforce/internships