Enriching Students’ Internship Experiences in the Next Normal

The Youth I.D.E.A.S. announced its latest report on
“Enriching Students’ Internship Experiences in the Next Normal”

The Youth I.D.E.A.S. (established by HKFYG Youth Research Centre) has released its study on “Enriching Students’ Internship Experiences in the Next Normal”.

For the surveyed 877 Hong Kong university students who intended to join internship this year, near half of them cannot work as intern as planned, 20.7% of their internship being cancelled or postponed, 27.3% failed to find an internship.

Survey result showed that, for those 457 students who secure an intern opportunity during the pandemic, 54.3% of them have used virtual internship mode. Those students thought that virtual internship can increase flexibility at work（74.2%），save money and time cost（65.3%），and also allow them to familiarize with the future digital trend. On the other hand, Youth Interview Cases revealed the difficulties they faced during virtual internship, which included less chance to experience working culture, low communication effectiveness, lack of working resources which lead to fewer learning opportunities.

An expert interviewed pointed out that future internship can adopt a hybrid mode as it is important for students to acquire the skills of both virtual internship and face-to-face internship to in line with social development trend and industries demand.

The study recommended corporates to set up an internship protocol and information kit, launch a virtual buddy support scheme, and adopt two-way communication model during virtual internship. The report also suggested schools and NGOs to provide other learning opportunities such as social community scheme, develop a virtual internship information and matching platform.

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