The way some school students spend their holidays by getting a taste of real working conditions is creative, novel and laudable. Instead of recreation with friends they opt to take part in an internship program offered by companies.
Hats off to these companies – whose number is few but growing – who are willing to accommodate these youngsters and give them valuable experience despite the global financial crisis. Undoubtedly, the companies need to spend time and manpower to usher the school students into the adult world.
Internship programs are usually offered to university students and graduates although some senior high schools also require their final-year students to take part in such programs. It is widely accepted that such programs help to serve as a matching link between educational institutions and business.
One primary reason is because the student will have a chance not only to apply what they have learned in their school but also to be introduced to real working conditions, where they will have to learn teamwork, to understand the value of discipline and to respect internal regulations of the company that provides the internship.
At the moment, a number of internship programs are available, including those with special interests. Kompas daily, for example, starts a holiday internship program for school students called Kompas Muda, offering opportunities for them to see what it’s like to become a reporter, a photographer or an illustrator in the newspaper.
Other students join internship programs in various business sectors like hotels, shopping centers, information and technology (IT) companies.
Hundreds of students have expressed their intention to take part in internship programs. The website of the National Education Ministry has been inundated by emails from both school and university students who wish to take part in internship programs. There are hundreds of them, but there are not enough companies willing to accept them.
This only shows that we need more companies, which are willing to offer places for internship to students.
In the same vein, it is pertinent that all stakeholders – businesses, schools, universities, parents, and the government – support the internship program, particularly during holiday seasons.
It would be a good idea for the government, particularly the new government slated to run the country beginning in October, would issue regulations, requiring companies above a certain size to organize internship programs for senior high schools and to incorporate this into their Social Corporate Responsibility (CSR) programs, since the latter have already been made compulsory to all corporations in the country.
For businesses, these programs, especially when well-organized, may help to provide them with better human resources. Schools, universities and other educational institutions are expected to encourage their students and to grant certain credits for those who have taken part in this program. The educational institutions may also help their students to find businesses, which are ready to accept them as internees.
If necessary, the government needs to declare the internship program as a national program. This could help to reduce the number of registered unemployed people which is some 9.26 million.
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