Internships are a crucial part of any student's path through their education. The importance of the internship is widely established. They help build resumes, give applicable experience, and establish young professionals within their field of work. However, these types of experience, while touted as the true value of an internship, are not all that an internship teaches students and aspiring professionals. The value of an internship goes far beyond a resume builder.
Experience:
Internships offer interns a wide range of experience. An internship often gives interns hands-on experience in the field of their education. They help expand and refine an intern's skillset, provide certifications, and build portfolios that interns can use as they continue on in a certain field. However, the experience an internship provides is more than these niche, field-specific skills.
Internships on a general level equip interns with the basic understanding of professionalism required to succeed in a corporate or professional space. The process of finding and internship often teaches young interns how to build a resume, effectively job search, and determine their own qualifications. Once reaching the hiring process, interns are learning, often for the first time, how corporate interviews are conducted, how to communicate successes and weaknesses, and how to pitch themselves to others. Internships are often where young people learn how to exist in a professional space.
Connections:
In addition to experience, many often overlook what I think is the second biggest learning aspect of an internship: the art of the connection. An internship brings young professionals into a space where they may, possibly for the first time, not know anyone they must work with. Interns learn how to communicate with strangers in a new setting, and they are offered a myriad of opportunities to connect with and learn from those around them. This is also a time that interns learn how to build meaningful and long-lasting connections with others in their field of interest, and this is the first time that connections have the chance to play important roles in the student's future.
The internship is an integral part of education. Without it, young professionals would not gain the invaluable experience and connections required to succeed in the professional space!
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