Abstract
The concern about the relationship between academia and industry has been increasing across the world over the decades. The government of Sri Lanka addressed the weak relationship between the two sectors and set a policy goal to fill the gap in the ‘National Policy Framework on Higher Education and Technical and Vocational Education’ in 2009. Consequently, the government encourage the public higher education institutions to develop a strong relationship with industries. Therefore, higher educational institutions have taken several steps to build the relationship with industry using different strategies, such as providing opportunities for guest lectures, internship opportunities and collaborative research. The Faculty of Social Science, University of Kelaniya also revised the syllabi and include internship programme as a credited course for students of the 2011/2012 intake. The main objective of the paper is to examine and analyse the success and challenges of the internship programme after implementation of six years. The researcher used a mixed-method approach to collect and analyse data. Both primary and secondary data used for the study. The positive effects of the internship programme are pre-training on institutional arrangements and working patterns, develop some skills like teamwork, network building and time management. However, the programme still conducts with various weakness and challenges such as the insufficient number of dates allocated for the programme and lack of recognition for the training and has become a useless effort when entering the job market. Keywords: Internship programme, Political Science Special Degree, University of Kelaniya, Teamwork, Network building.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 2019 |
| Event | ASAIHL International Conference-2019: Revitalizing Higher Education for Sustainable Development - Galadari Hotel, Colombo, Sri Lanka Duration: 9 Dec 2019 → 10 Dec 2019 |
Conference
| Conference | ASAIHL International Conference-2019 |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | ASAIHL 2019 |
| Country/Territory | Sri Lanka |
| City | Colombo |
| Period | 9/12/19 → 10/12/19 |
| Other | ASAIHL is an association of higher educational institutions comprised of 245 member institutions from Europe, Oceania-Australia, and Asia. The association was founded in 1956 as a non-governmental organization aiming to promote global higher education, strengthen the research culture and enhance the quality of the higher educational institutions. It serves as an international organization for providing regular opportunities for academic and scientific discussions. To achieve its objectives, member institutions organize bi-annual international conferences and the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, will host the ASAIHL International Conference 2019, which is to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 9th and 10th of December, 2019. The theme of the conference is “Revitalizing Higher Education for Sustainable Development”. Under this theme, there are three sub – tracks. 1. Revamping higher education with the application of innovative technology 2. Empowering educational dynamics through transformation of curricula 3. Integrating academia and industry for sustainable development The conference will be a platform to meet educators, researchers, and scientists of both local and foreign universities and related academic institutions. We are inviting our member institutions and any other interested academics/ practitioners to participate for this international conference and thereby share your knowledge on reshaping higher education for sustainable development. |
Keywords
- Undergraduate
- Sri Lanka
- Internship
- Political Science
- Employment
- Job-ready Training