What Students Learned through their Internship and Tips for improving the Internship System
Support for interns is crucial yet in need of improvements
SALASUSU has partnered with the International Business Chamber of Cambodia (IBC) to offer an internship initiative program, Pathway to Employment (P2E), in Cambodia. We would like to see what impact the program has had on the students as well as the lasting effects.
P2E Provides Learning Support for Interns
In the last article, the main topics addressed were the current state of the skills gap in Cambodia, internships as a solution to this gap, and what we are currently doing at P2E in order to improve internships as well as some possible ideas for the future.
The objective of P2E is to offer opportunities for students to gain practical learning through their internship and contribute to closing the skills gap in Cambodia. Furthermore, SALASUSU aims to (1) help schools improve their pedagogy practices in order to meet the needs of the industry based on students' learning from their internships and feedback from companies, and (2) to ensure that students are properly equipped with soft skills for when they do seek employment.
P2E has a pre-service learning program to learn about soft skills and other topics. In addition, the program supports learning through coaching sessions approximately every two months to provide reflection. Typical Cambodian internships do not offer learning support such as pre-learning sessions or coaching, but P2E offers these because the goal is for students to learn from the internship, not just to find a job. Furthermore, the internship period is set at 6 months so that the interns can achieve results within the company in addition to learning.
P2E additionally has the following characteristics:
Accepting both university and vocational school students
6-month internship periods
50% part-time commitment
Pre-training sessions for soft skills, etc
Coaching to support interns' learning
Providing management training for supervisors
Motivation to Learn New Things Drives Students to Participate in P2E
Although this is a new program that just began dispatching students in September 2021, 11 university students and 6 vocational school students are now participating in the program. So what are the students' motivations for participating in P2E? Let us take a look at the motivations of two students in particular.
College junior, Banking & Finance major: “I would like to know more about the actual work environment. I am an introvert and would like to improve my confidence and communication skills.”
Junior college student, interior design major: “I thought this was the best program because I could learn a lot and gain new experiences in a real work environment.”
These two samples indicate that students are eager to learn new things in the workplace and improve their abilities and skills, which has motivated them to apply for the internship program.
Interns’ Work
The actual work performed by the interns is as follows.
Internship in the accounting department of an insurance company
Providing translation support for English to Chinese and Chinese to English documents
Participating in marketing team projects
Assisting in the certificate of insurance
TVET ICT major Internship in the university's IT department
Back-office networking systems for the university.
Supporting class implementation
Programming support services for professors
Although there is a lot of support work, they are given as many practical tasks as employees and this is a place where they can put into practice what they learn at school.
Three takeaways that students gained through P2E
Here are three important takeaways that students have gained from participating in the TVET students program.
1. Improvement of soft skills
The majority of students said that their soft skills had improved. Specifically, communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills were seen to have improved.
One student was hesitant to talk with other students and instructors in the pre-training session and the first coaching, but from the second coaching, he started to actively express his opinions. The reasons for this may be that (1) the supervisor provided a lot of encouragement and support, and (2) because of the support in (1), the student had become familiar with the work and thus became more confident in himself, therefore, enabling him to think, speak, and move actively on his own.
Other students also made the following comments.
・”I can now communicate with people inside and outside the company without tension.”
・”I can now accept other people's ideas more.”
・”I'm now used to working in a team.”
・”I now know how to solve problems in my own business.”
2. Technical Skills
Many students are improving their technical skills through the program. Although this varies depending on the student's specialty, by observing their supervisors' work and performing their own duties, students are learning practical skills in the workplace that cannot be gained by learning theory in school alone.
・”I Improved my document creation skills by watching and learning from my supervisor's Excel, PowerPoint, etc.”
・”I learned new things about the tools and materials used on construction sites.”
・”Learned new programming skills.”
3. Foreign language skills
P2E dispatches students to companies belonging to IBC, and many of them are dispatched to global companies. Therefore, most of the workplaces have foreign bosses, and students use English and Chinese in their work. Some students struggle at first, but they become very motivated to study because they need it for their work. After a few months, the students are used to communicating in a foreign language and are steadily improving their foreign language skills.
・”I had a hard time at first because my boss is a foreigner and I needed to speak English, but I gradually became accustomed to communicating in English and my English skills improved.”
・”I have a strong desire to be able to speak English, and I continue to study English.”
・”I have a Chinese supervisor, so I have opportunities to use Chinese, which is good practice for me.”
Hints for good interns seen from student changes
During the coaching and interviewing of students, we also kept a record of changes in motivation and performance. The following are some tips on how to read student changes and make a good internship where students can maximize their takeaways.
1. The duration of the internship should be at least 6 months.
We kept track of the motivation and performance of students during the interviews, and it was found that on average, it takes about three months for students to get the full picture of the job and become familiar with the workplace and their duties. After that, it would take about three months for students to learn through their work and to achieve further results for the company. Therefore, we believe that a period of six months or longer would be ideal.
2. Support is important to understand the work and relieve anxiety.
From the coaching and the interviews, it was observed that in the first couple of months when they did not understand the job, and some of them became anxious because they did not understand what their supervisors were saying, thus decreasing their self-esteem when they did not meet the work expectations.
Therefore, we believe that, especially in the first couple of months, opportunities for interns to confide their concerns about their work and receive feedback, such as 1-on-1 meetings with company supervisors, school teachers who support their learning, and coaches, are important to relieve interns' anxiety and keep them motivated.
When SALASUSU gave a presentation to teachers at vocational schools about learning in P2E, we were also asked by teachers how we could support their students. Many vocational schools offer internships, but they only dispatch them, and most schools do not provide mental and learning support for students, which is an issue for the future.
3. Earlier timing of assigning practical work is a good motivator for students.
One college student was not given any responsibilities or discretionary work for the first two months or so, and often had to read manuals or watch his supervisor work side by side. Therefore, there were times when they were dissatisfied with the internship. However, after the third month, they were given tasks such as supporting their supervisors, and they tried to work hard and learn as much as possible outside of the tasks they were assigned.
In addition, one vocational student working at a university was initially assigned many support duties for classes but was gradually assigned to assist professors with programming and other tasks, which greatly increased his motivation because he was able to learn new things.
Since students are doing internships for workplace skills and to learn new things, companies need to create a system in which interns are entrusted with practical tasks that they cannot get at school, and employees need to support them in these tasks.
Summary
Students participate in internships because they want to learn new things, especially practical skills, that they cannot get just from school. They actually learn and acquire soft skills, foreign language skills, and specific technical skills in the workplace. However, since this is often the student's first experience in the workplace and he/she is initially anxious, support from the company or school is important. In the future, we would like to further analyze the challenges and factors of the current internship program at vocational schools and come up with new and innovative solutions to improve it.