The invisible power of internships – Rajesh Nair
A few measures on the side of the intern and the institution can easily make this process rewarding for both entities.
A clear plan for internship: Look at each project from the lens of a clear step by step roadmap with clear milestones and deliverables. A lot of ‘action and movement’ does not necessarily mean ‘work’. Interns should think through some of the activities with a quizzical mind, and not be afraid of questioning what is happening around.
Bridge to the organisation: This is a great opportunity for the intern to evaluate the organisation and understand the inherent culture – ‘the informal way of – how things work here’. For the organisation, there is no better time to check the cultural fit of the individual to the company ethos. In most cases, it is not the technical knowledge that is lacking, but the sheer fit of the person in the organisation.
Internship as a ‘prototype’: This is also an opportunity to put your skills to test. Use some of the frameworks, used in the cases studies and experiments in college work?It is a lot better to put the frameworks to use on paper than reading about them in textbooks and literature.
Internship as a ‘finishing school’: We often hear about how some of the fresh graduates and post graduates are ‘unemployable’. It is often a combination of our teaching methods, the dearth of faculty who have the empirical knowledge to embellish theory with practical examples and the lack of motivation for the students to apply their minds rather than pick theory by rote. Internships give you the opportunity to observe a working entity, the ‘invisibles’ of people at work, and the deadlines and timelines.
Internship– a platform for skill building: Internships arethe best platform for skill development. A robust internship network can do leaps and bounds for building skills than most skilling schemes.The recent spate of policies like DDUKVY – DeenDayalUpadhayaKaushaVikasYojana- and the PMKVY – Prime Minister’s KaushaVikasYojana-, are evidence that the government realises this aspect and have made interesting provision for not just skilling but employment.
At the end of the day, internships and an ecosystem that promotes internships will positively improve not just employ ability but also give the right fillip for employment!
RAJESH NAIR
Director, Ernst & Young LLP Rajesh is also
the president of the Kerala Chapter of TiE Global
Photo Courtesy : Google/ images may be subject to copyright
