Why should students and professionals attend an internship program


Internship programs are basically to enhance the knowledge and skills of students or professionals in a niche area and are undertaken in view of the overall career goal. This article discusses what an internship is and how it is beneficial to the participants.

What we understand by Internship

For a student or a professional we can define internship as an activity taken up to enhance ones learning in a niche area, which is related to ones career goals and attainment of professional ambitions. Some experts call it as a structured experience relating to the individuals aspirations. So internship is definitely a useful academic activity during the education period or afterwards for enhancing ones knowledge and calibre to search a job or rise significantly in one's existing career or profession.

Types of Internships

When we talk of internship there is a plethora of them to choose from and their durations range from a short period to even a year. One can manage them in part time or full time. Govt as well as private organisations have varieties of internship programs in various subjects and areas. Some companies pay the interns during the internship period in lieu of their contributions made in the running project of the company. Some Govt organisations also offer scholarships to the interns for learning new knowledge pieces in select areas. Today, we have online as well as physical mode of internships being undertaken by the aspirants and there is a lot of flexibility available to them in respect of devoting time in these internship programs.

Many companies have summer and winter internship programs facilitating the students to use their vacation time fruitfully and constructively. Internship can be theoretical as well as practical. Some companies provide practical hands-on training-cum-internship to the interested candidates who want to learn the basics of that industry and its working patterns. Generally the internship would be under some professional who would be watching and guiding the interns time to time. They are the main anchors in the process of this additional learning. Many companies recruit students from their campuses itself for short duration internship courses and even remunerate them. Some of these outstanding students are again called by the company for absorption in the company units or workplaces once the students complete their main education programs. Today, there is a big number of internships existing in our country in various knowledge and skill areas and not only the students but the professionals are also joining them for their carer enhancement and smooth progression in their respective jobs.

There are a number of informative articles on internship courses in this site (ISC) and the readers can access them for details for knowing more about a particular internship program. For example, if a student of statistics or operational research doing PG or research may be interested in internships conducted by Ministry of Programme Implementation while students from commerce, finance, statistics or economics discipline can think of doing a summer placement internship from Reserve Bank of India. Similarly, an IT student can consider doing some internship in a niche area with Microsoft Technology Associate India while those from Zoology, Botany or Microbiology background can think of doing an internship in varied topics in life sciences from VJ Biotech.

These are only some sample internship opportunities. Explore more internship.

Benefits of an Internship

Internships help a student or professional in many ways and some of the perceived benefits are as under -
  • Searching for a career - When a student attends an internship program then he is exposed to the practical world associated with that learning and comes in contact with the industry professionals and the peer group attending the different different internships. This gives a broad vision to look for career goals in ones life and in particular helps in understanding the way of workplace life where one is undergoing the program. Learning in a workplace environment is totally different than learning in an isolated classroom.

  • Team building and leadership - The intern is also exposed to the concept of team building and working in a group for common objective as envisaged in the project where one is associated during the internship program. It inculcates many new ideas and applications in the mind of the intern as how to progress ahead while working in a group. If assigned a role of a group coordinator, it brings added responsibilities of making the project successful and this experience is definitely useful later when the intern joins a regular job. Working in a team helps one to avoid the inherent human shyness and work openly and boldly for the overall progress of the team. This phase also teaches an intern as how to organise the tasks in an orderly and scheduled manner without wasting the time as well as getting most out of it.

  • Better CV presentation - Once a person has completed a particular internship program, one can reflect it in the CV and it has definitely a weight when one goes to apply for a position in a relevant industry or company. This would provide the necessary advantage to the candidate over others who could not do any such internships due to the varied reasons.

  • Skill Development - This is something which is very important in the present context as all the academic education is of no avail if the student has not acquired certain knowledge tools and skills to do a particular job. Skills are the fundamental things in ones professional life and without skills the outcome of tasks would be unrealistic. Internships are a good path for attaining skills and those who had not been able to acquire them during their routine educational pursuits have now a great opportunity to grasp and gather them.

  • Networking - Today we are living in an age of networking and we require support from other people to come to know about opportunities elsewhere, where other people have their own network. So, information dissemination is one important area and that can be achieved when one is preset in a network getting all important information through the peer groups, industry professionals, key company people under whom many student complete their internship. So doing internship has this hidden advantage of exposing one to the concerned industry network. It is only networking that gives people advantage of having mentors and guides for job hunting and career enhancing.

  • Taking a stock of things - People might argue that knowledge can be attained by reading books. It is true; but practical skill-based knowledge cannot be attained from books alone. Here is where internship has an edge over isolated reading. The person can assess the business environment and understand it and take stock of the matter precisely through skill-based practical internship programs.

  • Selecting a right career path - While carrying out an internship, one can assess one's liking for a particular job or task and then accordingly decide the future job options and, to that extent, the internship is a big opportunity to exclude those ill-fitting jobs which one does not like. This is nothing but selecting one's interest area by excluding the unwanted ones.

Conclusion

Most graduates nowadays go for some sort of internship to enhance their career growth and to achieve the desired aspirations in professional life. It makes sense to go for a relevant and skill-based practical internship program in the vacant time like summer or winter vacation or alternatively opting for part time weekend courses. Today there is a strong need of enhancing ones knowledge and skill levels to cope up with the increasing competitions everywhere. Internship is one way to achieve that.


Related Articles

Top reasons why some students dislike to study

This article explains various reasons why some students do not like to study. The reason can vary from not following a strict timetable to having many distractions. It can also be due to having a different learning style.

Behaviour of Modern Students

Are you parent of a child? Do you want your child should be on top in character and should bring a great name to him/herself. Read this article to know what is the behaviour of the latest generation and what are the tips to be followed

Memory Tips for Students and Others Struggling With Recall

Forgetting and memory recall are sometimes the worst situations where one can fail and this happens most of the times with students who have to remember a lot in studies and during examinations. This article gives tips for good memory in students and improving recall.

More articles: Students

Comments

Author: Umesh13 Oct 2020 Member Level: Diamond   Points : 5

Long back there was nothing like an internship. After the course or during the course, the student was asked to do a project and that was the best that could be done at that point in time. Today the situation is completely different as there are so many specialized branches in every subject and industries are also looking for people having expertise in different sub-subjects. Some company says that they would recruit engineering students but knowledge of Python language would be preferable. Other company would say that they also want engineering graduates but some experience in data science would be desirable. So everyone is asking some add on from the students in every type of recruitment or induction. In this scenario, it makes sense to go through some internship program to learn and acquire that add on skill and then try to compete with the other candidates who are in the fray for any vacancy or job. So, the internship is gaining move and more importance in recent times and as a result of which so many internship programs are running in the country at different levels.

Author: K Mohan11 Aug 2021 Member Level: Platinum   Points : 3

When a student embarks on the big studies, the ultimate culmination of the result is to have the internship attended as all these years they were getting the feed and answers from the book and now this is the time to experience the real thing. For example, my daughter is doing MBBS and this the fourth year she is going to join and now onward she would be alerted to have the internship in the last year so that she gets accustomed to the clinic and the patient behavior for sure to get the first-hand knowledge of what is happening when it comes to disease and how to treat. Of course, the seniors would be always there to guide and make progress but the initiation of getting more information and then connecting to the case is much important to arrive at the right diagnose of any case and this internship paves way for confidence and interest in the profession.

Author: Sheo Shankar Jha11 Aug 2021 Member Level: Diamond   Points : 2

The employers of the current times would recruit such aspirants having their practical experience in some other areas with which they can boost up productivity apart from the acquisitions of their minimum qualifications for the said post. Being a computer engineer is not enough but their exposure to data analytics, python, or any language which will result in achieving their targeted outputs would certainly be helpful in maximizing their ultimate targets. Hence instead of maintaining the attitudes of complacency, the need to focus on certain areas is helpful in enhancing their skills with the appropriate internships. They should look out for the demand of the present situation and should act accordingly.

Author: Swati Sharma16 Aug 2021 Member Level: Gold   Points : 1

A nice article is given by the author. An internship is a program that gives a person a glimpse of the challenges and possibilities that come up during the job and at the same time instills self-confidence. This process becomes a great medium in giving you practical knowledge and it is also said that even if you need bookish knowledge to get any job when it comes to staying connected with that job for a long time, then this you get through the medium of an internship.



  • Do not include your name, "with regards" etc in the comment. Write detailed comment, relevant to the topic.
  • No HTML formatting and links to other web sites are allowed.
  • This is a strictly moderated site. Absolutely no spam allowed.
  • Name:
    Email: