Internship should provide interns the experience required to boost their employability.
An internship is the first step towards getting hands-on experience of corporate culture and work. Today, most candidates go for an internship to start their career. Internship provides a learning opportunity to interns, allowing them to test their learning and get experience of the job. Also, most of the companies look out for talented interns today and make them work on live projects. On the basis of their performance, they are then offered the pre-placement offer or PPO.
While this is true for only some of the companies and interns, a research by Censuswide for the Lloyds Banking Group, has found that more than 53 per cent of the millennials were asked to do menial tasks— such as making tea and picking up lunch—during their internship.
In many companies, interns are not taken seriously and asked to do things which do not add any value to their learning.
The research finds that only half of the millennials in the age group of 18 to 30 years believe that their skills are taken into consideration during a summer internship.
About a fifth of the respondents feel that internships have no or even a negative impact on future employment opportunities. Only three out of 10 millenials feel that internship increases their chances of employability.
This finding indicates that most people believe that internship helps the companies more than the interns.
However, quality internship is very important for career development. It does increase the chances of getting hired. Companies look out for quality internships and work experience while hiring permanent employees.
The need of the hour is for organisations to tailor the internships in such a way that the requirements of the young interns are met, and they are able to use the experience to strengthen their skills, abilities and finally boost their employability.