Technical Communication Internship Requirements in the Academic Economy: How We Compare among Ourselves and across other Applied Fields

Abstract

This article reports a study of internship requirements in technical communication programs compared with three established professions and one emerging profession that have certification or licensing requirements for practitioners. The study addresses three questions about technical communication internship programs: 1) Are internships offered as a way to fulfill program academic credit requirements? 2) If internships are offered, are they required or elective? 3) What are the minimum/maximum academic credits allowed for internships toward fulfillment of program requirements and the number of workplace hours of internship required? To answer these questions we focused on three elements of internship program management: academic credits, workplace hours per academic credit, and total workplace hours required. Our findings indicate that there is considerable disparity for these factors among programs in our field and that we lack criteria similar to those used in established professions for internships.

Moving From Student to Professional: Industry Mentors and Academic Internship Coordinators Supporting Intern Learning in the Workplace

“…328.) Savage and Seible (2010) also note the importance of professional-level work in the internship as evaluated by professionals in the field. Clearly, professionalism is an important component of the internship experience to industry mentors.…”

“…The literature has explored ways to ensure that these internships are quality experiences for students, from required number of hours (Savage & Seible, 2010) to practitioner surveys (Jennings, 2012; Sapp & Zhang, 2009) to intern case studies (Bourelle, 2014; Smart & Brown, 2002). Kohn (2015) has suggested that part of successful mentoring is the scaffolding by both academics and industry professionals for workplace tasks.…”

“…Professional-level work is one requirement that helps clarify the types of tasks in the internship (Katz, 2015), and some internship coordinators, like Tovey (2001), make specific mention of avoiding clerical internships for students. Internship coordinators require a minimum number of hours of workplace experience, and previous research has reported the average ranging between 81 and 160 hours of work (Savage & Seible, 2010, p. 63). There may also be an internship class that requires portfolio work or reflective report assignment (Bloch, 2011; Corey & Killingsworth, 1987; Henze, 2006; Katz, 2015; St.…”

“…Often, it is difficult to communicate to industry mentors our academic expectations, or it is sometimes difficult for these professionals to know how to scaffold students. The literature on internships places importance on finding good and qualified mentors (Bloch, 2011; Gaitens, 2000; Savage & Seible, 2010; Tovey, 2001). Can academic internship coordinators optimize industry mentoring?…”

New Perspectives on the Technical Communication Internship: Professionalism in the Workplace

“…However, it is only with more reported success stories of internships that we can move forward toward the standards Savage and Seible suggest are missing [18]. I urge readers to consider the undertaking of linked courses and internships, writing and publishing reports of the challenges they have faced, but most of all, of the successes they have encountered, no matter how small.…”