In our fourth installment of our engineering survey findings we summarise what our respondents told us about their internships. Including if they had undertaken an internship and if not why; the sector of their internship and how they found out about their internship.
Only a minority of students and graduates had undertaken an internship and it is notable, that according to our survey, the universities had limited impact on connecting people to industry, personal contacts were by far the most successful way of finding an intern position.
Respondents indicated four main areas of learning from their internships:
- Teamwork and working with others
- Enhancement and application of technical skills, many respondents specifically highlighted health and safety
- Integrity, attitude and timekeeping
- Learning how to take the initiative and think outside the box and being committed and dedicated to achieving an outcome.
Finally respondents were asked what would have prepared them better for their internship. The focus of many of the responses was on how they could have got more out of their internship. There were only a couple of respondents who indicated that they were fully prepared for their internship. Responses received to this question can be summarised by the following comments:
- “A well structured internship program that would ensure that I make the most of the time I’m in the company.”
- “Having a set of objectives to be achieved at the end of the internship period, both from the supervisor’s side and the intern’s side. A plan for achieving the objectives in the short period of time that the internship lasts.”
- “So many concepts in mining were new to me. Would I have read ahead it would have bettered by internship time of learning”. This comment was received from someone who had studied mining but similar comments were replicated in other study / sector areas.
- “Having a detailed summary of all the departments in the organization in order to know what departments you could fit and learn to get the most out of the internship.”
- “Being a bachelor student 60% of work covered is theory design work. Lots of practical work at the University would have made my internship less challenging. But I am still glad that the institution equipped me with lots of invaluable skills.”