With the current Fellows in the final leg in their Scottish Externships, I am getting quite excited about graduation...
I met this week with a decent egg who works with students. Our discussion centred around student internships. My view is that an intern accepts an internship as there may be no jobs for them in what they want to do, simply no jobs or they actively wish to pursue an internship as part of their preferred career ladder. The period of internship can vary. However, I am putting forward 8-12 weeks. During this time, travel and lunches can be provided. But more importantly, the intern gets real life experience, a role to play, development and hopefully a great CV booster leading to a job or the skills necessary to open their own enterprise.
Is this too long? Is it exploitation of a young person? Is it just enough time to get to know them, assess them and develop them?
Our interns do 8 weeks and the Fellows 12 weeks - unpaid.
I would love all feedback on this one? I know what we all have gone though to develop ourselves as scholars and Fellows- so is offering this elsewhere a good thing or as has been suggested - cheap labour?
Thanks, Jim
I think most penultimate year students view internships as a way of getting a job, with many offered a graduate role on the back of an 8 week placement. Indeed some of my peers genuinely wondered why I was going for an internship that didn't offer the prospect of a job offer, though I took it as a bit of jealousy that they weren't heading to somewhere like Boston! I do think it would have been much harder to get a grad job without my internship experience; the application processes are pretty grueling and without that experience I would have struggled to answer the questions asked with any degree of quality. It's maybe cheap labour but it does make the subsequent grad hiring easier if they've seen someone at close quarters over 8 weeks, so I think there are certainly benefits to both parties. Perhaps making it unpaid allows you to target those who are more driven on gaining experience rather than just a foot up in the job search.
TYVM you've svloed all my problems