| Chapter 1: | Africa's 21st-Century Renaissance in Higher Education: The Need for Strategic Planning |
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to their education, and how their specialization prepared them for these internships.
Conspicuously absent from St. Amant's schema is the employer feedback loop. In their study, Ross and Ogbonnaya (2002) also specifically sidestepped the employer question in pointing out that the article did not try to examine employer perceptions of student preparations because that was beyond the scope of this chapter. To fill this gap, in this chapter we advocate an internship approach that does include employer evaluations of the students' performance on a number of key criteria and, by implication, how their education has prepared them (or fallen short of equipping them) for the real world.
Why Internships?
The importance of student internships is captured, at its most basic level, in the simple expression “Education + Experience = Jobs (E + E = J).” In other words, a student in a typical African university (getting an education) who undertakes an internship program as part of his or her education (experience) is a lot more ready and marketable in the real world once he or she graduates (jobs). Wesley and Bickle (2005) made the important point that internships provide students with the opportunity to apply classroom theory in practical, hands-on experiences while simultaneously developing skills that improve their course performance. Further, they point out that this experiential opportunity increases a student's probability of securing a full-time position upon graduation.
For many students, internships may be the first real chance to experience work in their field of study or in a closely related area. For university students, the E + E = J equation should typically involve four principal players: the student (intern), an internship provider (company or organization), an academic advisor (or head of the student's department), as well as a career services advisor who may have the most immediate contact and links with potential internship providers.
In a 2006 experiential education survey carried out in the United States, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (2006)