Mentorship - Treasure of the Economy

Internships help interns gain work experience in the field of their knowledge and interest, this increases their industry skill set and boosts up their chances of getting accepted for a job. Therefore, it is mandatory in almost every field of study for college students to at least have completed one summer internship program during their course. It is stated that 57.5% of students who complete their internships receive a job offer. Therefore, completing internships can increase job offers by 16%.

When the applicants are equally qualified for a job, the employer tends to choose the candidate who has internship experience. Students who complete at least one internship receive an average of 1.17 job offers [1]. The internship helps the intern apply their classroom learning in a professional work environment and provides them various opportunities in developing their careers and skillsets.

Most internships pave their way into becoming a full-time position later on as 70% of companies offer their interns a full-time job [2]. While interning and trying different types of work where their core lies also helps them make better decisions for themselves such as realizing and understanding where their skill sets match and which type of job will be good for them that enhances their strength and would want to pursue such jobs in the future.

Unfortunately, the internships are not taken seriously by most students be it, undergraduates or postgraduates. They take these opportunities for granted and try to find loopholes in clearing these mandatory summer internships. Students do not understand the importance and impact that these internships create in their life and society. Institutes should take this into consideration and help their students in finding internship opportunities and meet the needs of students by having a placement department work on it. This will eliminate the other alternative ways that students opt for in completing such reports to receive good grades.

 There are several alternatives that students take up, one of them being using readymade reports and projects. Many students tend to be a part of such forgery. The institutes should be more careful and critical about such projects and even if the reports feel doubtful some action must be taken against it and make sure that it's an original report done by the student. It was brought to notice that lack of knowledge and support had led to students opting for such practices. Thus, the national employability report of engineering graduates in 2011 stated that only 17.45 percent of engineering students were fit for employment [3].

With proper guidance and support, such problems can be resolved and would create huge impacts on the development of the student’s career. Mentors provide such students with the right direction concerning their internships and guide them on how to get such internships for their mandatory summer internship programs.

Once students are subjected with the right knowledge and guidance the case of forgery and finding alternatives of getting done with their reports would reduce at a great level. Also, mentors can make sure that students don’t get involved in such practices and do their internships with the right intentions, and actually gain and develop their skill set which will eventually lead to career development.

When all students gain experience in their field of work and professional environment the number of capable employees for this society will increase drastically and reduce the case of unemployment. As it is seen in many cases, students with certified engineering degrees are often stuck at doing the job of an employee that only requires a 12th pass qualification.

This is because even after getting the degree they are not as qualified and do not possess the proper knowledge that an engineering grad student requires. Therefore, mentoring on the educational level would result in the upliftment of the economy as today’s students are tomorrow’s workforce and, in this case, tomorrow’s much more developed, skilled, and qualified workforce.