Internship
An Internship is an opportunity offered by an employer to potential employees, called interns, to work at a firm for a fixed period of time. Interns are usually undergraduates or students, and most internships last between a month and three months. Internships are usually part-time if offered during a university semester and full-time if offered during the vacation periods.
An internship should give you practical skills, workplace experience and greater knowledge of that industry, in exchange for the employer benefiting from your labour.
An internship can be either paid or voluntary. The trend is increasingly (and rightly) towards the former, as voluntary internships are often cited as exploitative. As you would expect, internships that pay well are usually the most competitive.
Benefits of an Internship:
1. Career Exploration
- Learn about a career field from the inside and decide if this is the right career field for you.
- Work alongside a professional in your chosen career area.
- Observe the workplace and see if it matches expectations.
- Gain knowledge about a specific industry.
2. Leadership and Skill Development
- Experience – One of the recurring themes in any entry level job search is lack of experience. “Where do I get experience if no one is willing to hire me?” The answer is simple: Get an internship.
- Learn new skills and add to your knowledge base while gaining confidence in your abilities.
- Opportunity to practice communication and teamwork skills.
- Provide evidence that you have initiative, are reliable, and have a sense of responsibility.
- Apply some of the ideas learned in school and provide a bridge between school and the professional world.
- Achieve a sense of accomplishment by contributing to an organization.
- An internship offers you the chance to learn by doing in a setting where you are supervised by a work-place professional and have the opportunity to achieve your own learning goals, without the responsibilities of being a permanent employee.
3. Networking and Establishing Mentors and References
- Meet new people and practice networking skills while establishing a network of professional contacts, mentors, and references.
- Open to door to advice on the next steps to take on your career path.
4. Resume Enhancements
- Gain valuable experience and accomplishments to add to your resume and/or enhance your application to graduate school.
- Create an advantage over other job or graduate school applicants.
Potential worker/performer is selected or will get for a full-time job offer at the end of the internship based on your performance.
Course
Professional courses are special courses, offered at many colleges and universities, that put emphasis on professional development. Unlike academic courses, these courses usually do not require prerequisites, sometimes do not offer credits and are specifically oriented toward professionals wanting to enhance skills useful for their specific work environment. The courses are usually categorized under “Continuing Education” or “Professional Studies” at universities or institutions. You are awarded a professional certificate upon completion of a professional course.
A professional course feeds our continuous need to upgrade our skills. It enables candidate to identify their strengths as well as weaknesses. These professional courses are frequently adjusted according to the need of the industry which benefits both new aspirants and working professionals.
Benefits of a Professional Course:
1. Keeps you in form
When you take up a professional course, you are exposed to not only the new and fresh ideas but it also keeps you updated with everything that is going in your area of interest. You are constantly faced with challenges running in the market such that solutions for the same can be generated. It helps in keeping you in form through constant learning.
2. Sets you apart from others
In today’s competitive market, employers look for people who have a distinct quality to offer to their business. You get to inculcate new things and advanced concepts that give you the ability to face the challenges with a more tactical approach. You get to take more creative and innovative perspective toward solutions that will set you apart from others.
3. Ability to contribute more
As you inculcate knowledge through constant learning, you have much more to contribute to your organisation than your counterparts who haven’t been a part of this professional development. Moreover, you are exposed to new ideas, perception and knowledge that gives you a competitive edge over others.
4. Enhances your creativity
Creativity is something that never stops evolving but it needs constant feeding. Learning different ways to do a thing and getting acknowledged with the ongoing trends, enhances our creativity. You just can’t get stuck to your old means of doing things. By trying out different approaches continuously, you can improve your creativity and further sharpen it.
5. Professional approach to customer demands
Professional course teaches you the best way to attract and engage your customers. Through this you can meet your clients’ demands more effectively and in a more professional manner. This increases the trust of your customers on you and they keep on coming for more.
I hope this article may let you understand about the internship program and the course and how both of them have their own benefits in professional life.
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