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• Academic Excellence
• Administrative Excellence
• Effective Orientation
• Internship and Practicum
• Job Placement Assistance
• Personal and Financial Counsel
• Pre-Enrollment Assessment and Testing
• Sector Involvement
• Student-Centric Core Value

Summary

Internship and Practicum

Several of the colleges we surveyed have developed practicum components to enable students to practice what they have learned in the classroom. This enables students to gain a better understanding of the work environment they are training for, even prior to participating in off-campus internships. Students who had participated in such training indicated that it was confidence building and that it was one of the most rewarding parts of their program of study.

In addition, off-campus internships provide students with work experience relevant to their chosen field of study. There appears to be a strong link between internships and high employment rates, with between 50 and 90 percent of students who completed internships being hired by the employer who provided the internship experience.

Case Study

Internship and Practicum

The Institute for Human Services Education in Truro, NS, utilizes internships as a structured learning experience for students.  For example, students enrolled in the early childhood education program complete teaching and activity plans during their internship.  The college provides students with a structured notebook in which they must record their activity plans, along with a brief self-evaluation and supervising teacher evaluation of each plan.  A supervisor must also complete a detailed evaluation of the student.  Again, this evaluation is very structured and has been developed to provide an objective evaluation of the intern.

Embedding this type of accountability in off-campus internships can help students gain maximum learning benefit, thereby increasing their chances of gaining employment with the same employer after graduation.

Innovative Ideas

Internship and Practicum

Here are some student internship and practicum strategies and initiatives that your private career college might adopt:

1. Develop an off-campus internship for your students. If you do not already have an internship strategy, you might want to start with just one program. In developing your program, talk with another college about their program and what makes it successful.
2. Engage local employers to explore the possibility of expanding the number of internship placement sites. Your local Chamber of Commerce or other business groups provide an excellent network of contacts for exploring potential internship sites.
3. Develop a detailed evaluation plan and process for students completing internships. Adopting this structured approach will ensure that students’ internship experiences are well documented and will facilitate placing students with an employer at the end of their training.
4. Consider asking employers if they would be willing to complete letters of reference for students completing internships at their business. This could help students in securing employment following completion of their training.