Building employable skills in engineering students through a pre-internship program: An approach to reducing unemployability in students

Pillutla, Ravi Shankar; Mandaleeka, Narayana Gpl

doi:10.1109/ghtc.2015.7343970

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…In India, however, these features are not systematically addressed in the internships that the undergraduate higher education curriculum, especially in technology, prescribes for its students. This has led to many calls for improvement in design and implementation of internship programs (for instance, Bansal, 2004; Goel et al , 2010; Parashar and Datta, 2012; Pillutla and Mandaleeka, 2015). It has also led, as a survey in 2014 (Chand, 2014) revealed, students to seek out internships, not so much to make the transition to membership of a profession but to engage in short-term projects that offered an opportunity to “learn-by-doing.” Such opportunities were inadequate to meet the demand, and the websites which aggregated information on these opportunities did not present any technology-mediated internship openings that could have supplemented the limited onsite opportunities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing the undergraduate internship challenge in developing countries

Chand

Deshmukh

2019

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Purpose The difficulties higher education institutions in developing countries face in finding adequate and relevant onsite student internship opportunities make a case for online internships. The purpose of this paper is to present an online internship model, developed over a two-year period, which challenged students to engage in learning-by-doing projects that addressed a key barrier in the implementation of ICT policies in public education, the paucity of audio-visual content in local languages. Design/methodology/approach The design of the model comprised the development of instructional videos by 340 interns, the evaluation of the videos by two interns and their testing by 31 interns through a field experiment using a between-subjects pre-test – post-test design in 54 schools. The process was repeated the following year with the field experiment replaced by the development of teaching manuals. The changes in reflective learning among 112 of the 119 interns who developed video content in this repeat round were assessed. Findings The field experiment found that the intern-developed videos improved Mathematics and Science scores among school students but not the attitudes to these subjects. Participation in online internships improved reflective learning. Research limitations/implications The evaluation of change in reflective learning is based on self-reported measures. Practical implications The online internship model presented in the paper can address concerns related to inadequate internship opportunities, while addressing gaps in public policy implementation by systems such as education, health and rural development. Originality/value The paper outlines the design of an online student internship model and a methodology for implementing it. The study indicates the feasibility of a low-cost, large-scale online model of internship.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing the undergraduate internship challenge in developing countries

Chand

Deshmukh

2019

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“…The existing research also discussed requirements for successful learning outcomes by examining internship programs in different areas such as engineering, business, marketing, and design-related disciplines. The research investigated the value of internships to enhance necessary skills to prepare for jobs in the industry (Ranabahu, Almeida, & Kyriazis, 2020;Ktoridou & Doukanari, 2017;Pillutla & Mandaleeka, 2015). The results of these studies identified employable skills of undergraduate students and measured work placement expectations, yet little attention is paid to researching undergraduate programs in the industrial design discipline.…”

Section: The Challenges In the Design Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Industry Insights: Assessing Canadian Undergraduate Industrial Design Practica through a Company Lens

Kim¹

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This research is a qualitative assessment of current undergraduate industrial design practica that are implemented in four-year-based accredited Canadian schools through industry expert insights.Bachelor of industrial design programs in this study offer hands-on industry experience to students between 3rd and 4th years who have completed preliminary program requirements to be considered as eligible candidates. While students take on the real-world experience through industrial design practica, some challenges are anticipated as students navigate multiple tasks in a company environment. To validate the effectiveness of current industrial design practica, the research is organized in the following methods.1. A case study of six Canadian industrial design practica through program handbooks and school websites.2. Semi-structured interviews of eight practicum advisors and thirteen company experts by using the Delphi Method.Research findings from academic and company insights propose ways to enhance the current industrial design practica by examining the roles of a key supervisor at a work placement, availability of student resources, degree of interactions within assigned departments, the need for funding sources, and understanding industry expectations. The research data also extracts other collaborative learning opportunities for undergraduate students through industry partnerships.

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