By Amanuel Endris

Kombolcha Polytechnic College has conducted an awareness creation training on the implementation of internship and cooperative training held at Weizero Siheen Polytechnic College Auditorium. Dean of the college, Mr Melaku Aragaw opened the training platform.

Tesfaye Hailemariam, who provided the training, said that an internship is a temporary work opportunity offered by an organization to students, recent graduates or individuals looking to gain experience in a particular industry. Interns are provided with on-the-job training and have the chance to work on meaningful projects that help develop skills and knowledge. According to Mr Tesfaye, the main objective of internship is to provide exposure to work life, enhance graduate’s professional skills, and help them gain insights into a career path.

Participants during the training.

While giving a cursory view on the importance of internship, Mr. Tesfaye underscored that it provides students or graduates with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in their desired field while still in school or after graduation. He further highlighted the relevance of internship programs as to expose graduates to different work cultures, help build professional networks, and enable them to develop essential skills that are highly valued by employers. He added that an internship can also serve as a trial period for both the intern and employer to see if there is a good fit for a permanent employment role in the future.

Mr. Melaku Aragaw, Dean of the college, noticed that the biggest challenge faces when getting into action. He mentioned that there are many issues that have not been addressed or seen in the implementation guideline, including issues such as not deciding where interns will work; payment of allowance; the issue of Occupational standard is not well defined in the document.

Mr Metiku Teshager, coordinator of the satellite campus, expressed his opinion that if the relevant stakeholders had participated in the preparation of the document or guideline, the implementation of  the internship and cooperation training could have been better.

Finally, the training session came to an end after various ideas on the contents and the overall preparation of the implementation of the training guideline were raised, and discussed by participants of the training. The EASTRIP project sponsored the overall preparation of the internship and cooperative training document or guideline.

The Writer is a Communication Officer for Kombolcha Polytechnic College