The Challenge of Change in Africa's Higher Education in the 21st Century
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The Challenge of Change in Africa's Higher Education in the 21st ...

Chapter 1:  Africa's 21st-Century Renaissance in Higher Education: The Need for Strategic Planning
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Table 1.1. Summary of student, employer, and educational institution benefits from internship programs and processes.

Student benefits Employer benefits Educational institution benefits
    • Earn salary that can assist in financing studies
    • Receive academic credit for career-related experience without attending class
    • Experience and evaluate career choice prior to graduation
    • Learn valuable practical job-seeking and job-holding skills; become more informed about career choices
    • Gain exposure to latest trends, technologies, and practices
    • Develop maturity, professionalism, and self-confidence
    • Earn more money and advance more rapidly in the chosen career field upon graduation
    • Improve grades as classes become more meaningful following work experience
    • Acquire better time management and communication skills; better self-discipline, heightened initiative, and an overall better self-concept (Harris, Knouse, & Tanner, 1999).
    • Decrease anxiety surrounding job search process
    • Build confidence and social skills beneficial in employment interviews
    • Learn the importance of becoming a responsible, productive citizen.
    • Gain a talented performer at a reduced cost and with no need to provide benefits or obligations; train future workforce
    • Increase exposure to latest academic theory and educational literature
    • Gain assistance with special projects and/or ongoing support services
    • Bring fresh ideas and enthusiasm to the work place
    • Build a pool of qualified candidates for recruiting future employees
    • Develop a support relationship with a specific university or school or department
    • Become involved with key faculty or staff members on a university campus
    • Gain visibility as a community player
    • Build a pool of former interns, who are usually more loyal employees and, once hired, do not need the training and adjustment periods required by noninterns (Swift & Kent, 1999)
    • Reduce recruiting costs and turnover rates
    • Enhance employee diversity, especially through the recruitment of female employees in the public and private sectors in Africa.
    Build a wider range of practical, hands-on learning opportunities for students
    • Groom graduates who are better equipped for industry
    • Prompt enhanced graduate employment rates
    • Create potential to increase student retention and graduation rates
    • Foster better alumni from a capital-campaign, fundraising perspective
    • Make curricula improvements based on student and employer evaluations
    • Gain an enhanced reputation in the employment community
    • Help reduce unemployment rates, which are uncomfortably high in much of Africa
    • Facilitate both formation and maintenance of business school advisory boards—which in turn are vital to student employment (part time and permanent), curricula revision, and development, fundraising, and other institution-employer partnerships, outreach programs, and outcomes—through the student-employer-institution interaction.

breadth and depth of the intern's performance and experience, a form should be designed that asks employers to assess interns on four major attributes, namely the following:

  • Work performance: This category includes evaluation of attendance and punctuality, technical preparation for the job, quality and quantity (and accuracy) of the work done, as well as time management skills.
  • Employability: This category captures such attributes as willingness to work, relations with supervisors, coworkers, and clients, as well as ability to apply one's education to the job.
    •