It's time to relook Summer Internship

Summer Internship Assignment or Summer Internship Project (SIP) is a very important part of Management Education or MBA program, at least in India. Over the years, with mushrooming of B-schools the purpose and standard of SIP has been compromised seriously.

There are three parties to the SIP : 1. The Organization, 2. The Institute and 3. The Student. All three play very important role in making it worthwhile and fulfilling the intended objective of the SIP. A well structured and well executed SIP is a win-win situation for all the three parties.

The Organization: It plays a very important role in making it a life time experience for the student. Organizations can be divided into four major categories as far as SIP is concerned : 1. Serious Players : With well defined policy for SIP; 2. Honest Players : With good intentions but no clear policy for SIP; 3. Rough Players : Consider interns as a free / cheap resource; 4. Confused Players : Everything is vague.

1. Serious Players : These organizations and people here are clear about their need for interns and the purpose of hiring interns. They invest good amount of resources in the interns. They hire interns with proper selection process and most of the time the experience of the students and institute is good. These organizations are also serious about offering Final Placements to the students who perform well during their internship. A lot many organizations in this category are moving towards recruiting among the interns by making a pre-placement offer. This model encourages students to become serious toward internship.
2. Honest Players : These organizations have individuals who really understand the worth of an Internship. The organization may lack a clear cut policy for SIP, but the individual managers / executives make it a great experience for the interns. These managers / executives hire interns with a particular clear task or assignment in their mind and get it done through interns. The intern learns a lot because of the personalized mentoring by the Guide. The selection process and stipend may not be structured. Sometimes interns feel discrimination among interns or among the institutions they come from, by the organization.
3. Rough Players : The third category of the organization is the most destructive category. Here the people think that interns are free or cheap resources for 2-3 months for all kind of "Donkey's Job". They don't have any intention of value addition to the interns or learning as an objective. Mostly these organizations have no internship policy in place. They hire interns from B and C category institutions and deploy them in activities like Direct Sales, Business Development, Door To Door Sales, Tele Calling, IT and Non IT recruitment etc. In absence of any guidance or proper project, the sufferer is the intern. He ends up with very bad experience.
4. Confused Players : This category of institutions is mostly very small / self grown organizations and PSU, where there is complete lack of professional environment. Neither the organization nor the individual manager / executive is bothered about interns. The interns come from personal references of the employees with an objective to get a certificate of internship. It's like a "Full Time Pass" for the inters. Even if a serious student goes there as an intern, he ends up with bad experience as he is not having access to guidance, information or other resources.

The Institute: Can be a key to the learning experience the students has with its SIP. The institutes can be divided into three categories : 1. Serious Players : With well defined SIP policy and strict follow up; 2. Not So Serious Players : Lack seriousness in SIP policy or follow up; 3. Non Serious Players : Lack complete focus on SIP or Student Grooming.

1. Serious Institutes : There are institutes which are very particular about the quality of internship offered. These do not compromise on the standards of SIP. Their main objective is Learning and Experience. Most of the students are sent for internship through a proper Intern / Summer Placement Program. Organization with a proper assignment in store, participate and pick-up interns for these assignments. Institutional mentors / faculties are in place, who provide constant support to the interns. These institutes believe in SIP as the first step towards the career of the students. Students end-up having a great learning experience and many a times a PPO / PPI.
2. Not-so-serious Institutes : These institutes understand the importance of Summer Internship but people in charge of the process are casual in approach. The problem is execution and individual related. Proper policy is not in place in most of the cases, if the policy is in place the individual responsibilities are not fixed. Some students get internship through campus efforts and others by their own efforts. Mentoring and follow-up from the institutional guides / mentors does not take place during SIP in most of the cases. Students struggle for proper guidance.
3. Non-serious Institutes : In the third category of the institutes nobody cares for no one. These are mostly B-schools attached to Universities or promoted by politicians and small businesses. The promoters are looking for some quick returns. There is neither the policy nor the mechanism in place to help students for SIP. Since, SIP is part of curriculum, students somehow arrange an internship in some organization for the sake of certificate. The students here fall in trap of the Rough Players in the industry and end up having a very bad experience. The students are not having any idea about SIP, Organization is not interested in paying for their efforts hence the students don't put in any effort and want internship in home towns.

The Students: It's ultimately on the student that what kind of experience s/he wants to have. The best of the organization and best of the institutes can't change anything if the student is not willing to learn. The students can be divided into two categories : 1. Serious Learners: Willing to walk extra mile to learn things and 2. Casual Learners : Take everything for granted / casually.

If all the three stakeholder want it to be a great experience, they will have to work together. It's in the interest of everyone to make it work. For this Industry-Academia interaction has to be increased. The greater responsibility is with the Institutes. They need to reach out to the industry and understand their requirements. They need to be flexible with their internship programs. After all MBA is not another degree program, it is a Professional Course where main objective is preparing the participants for Corporate Life.