Internship report: Spilling the beans Internship is a formal and mandatory exercise made at the university level. Almost every student, who wants to complete a degree has to join a firm, company, institute, etc., as an intern to learn the practical aspects of his/her respective field. The duration of this compulsory practice can range from eight to 12 weeks depending upon the nature and requirement of the internship. After the successful completion of an internship, the concerned authority of the organisation; where the internship was done, issues a certification as proof of your having assisted in the work there. The certification also tells what the student learnt throughout the internship by stating his or her major duties and responsibilities. This is the first stage which is easily completed by most students, but the second stage which is submission of a detailed report over the experience of internship really troubles most students. Collecting the internship certification and producing it before your university board is not enough to achieve the desired marks. The documentation of your internship should comprise at least nine main segments including a brief description of the field, introduction of the organisation, structure of the organisation, goals of internship, internship plan, training programme, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis of the organisation, conclusion and recommendations. The very first section of the report should carry a detailed and current overview of the sector (eg. agriculture, banking industry, engineering, medicine, media, or social/development sector, etc.) where the candidate intended to work. Subsequently, a description of the chosen organisation must also be added stating its brief history, nature and competitors in the market in the second section of the report. At the third stage, the structure of the picked organisation is shared, giving details of its head office, branches, departments, organisational hierarchy and the total number of employees. After mentioning the main objectives of the internship in the fourth section of the report, a plan of internship consisting of brief introduction of the branch and departments (where internship was done), working hours, starting date, nature of internship, must be described in the fifth part of the report. Next to the internship plan, the training programme under which a detailed description of the operations or activities of the department an intern contributed to must be given. The major tasks or projects assigned to an intern must be added, too. Moreover, a SWOT analysis of the chosen organisation must be conducted by the intern. An intern should clearly describe whatever he or she observed as its strengths — the qualities which distinguish or provide an edge to it over another organisation. There should also be a mention of its weaknesses, opportunities provided and the threats that could damage the organisation’s overall performance. It is pertinent to mention here that strengths and weaknesses are connected to the internal issues of an organisation whereas opportunities and threats are linked to the external environment of an organisation. A conclusion should be drawn after conducting the critical analysis on the current state and position of the organisation. This is where you should discuss the learning outcomes in terms of identifying whether the targeted objectives have been achieved or not. If the expected objectives were not achieved, the reasons behind it should also be highlighted in this section. Furthermore, the segment should also point out how your practical experience gained during the internship would benefit you when you enter your professional life. Also recommendations should be made in terms of providing the solutions to all the problems or discrepancies that you observed during the internship. In this regard, however, suggestions can be proposed in any area which needs improvement, but specifically with respect to improving the treatment with interns and the pattern of internship followed by the organisation. In addition, the report must include references and annexes. In references all the sources from where relevant information was accessed and utilised must be provided under the standardised format of reference styles; APA, MLA or Harvard, etc., whereas the annexes must have all the supportive material such as brochure, charts, questionnaires, reports, articles and other leaflets that helped you in the preparation of your internship report. The writer is an academic research consultant and career counsellor.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Jun 2013 16:58:22 +0000
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