Pankaj Sharma, president, The Lexicon Group of Institutes
Students have slowly started attending physical classes. Perhaps you are one of them!
One of the most standard reports from students today is that their undergraduate experience has not got them ready or prepared adequately for life after college. While most students rightly expect to use their degrees to find their dream jobs, they are mostly unsatisfied with their employment outcomes.
Research shows that the majority of students across educative segments understand the need for experiential learning and the need for internships incorporated into their educative curriculum.
Given the increasingly competitive job market, there are various things that we as educators can do to help and prepare the next generation to enter the workforce and create successful careers.
The COVID -19 pandemic turned the world upside down, and every educational institute has had to adjust. As the economy shifts, it is essential for institutions to consider how they can best prepare their students for careers. Incorporating career readiness into all levels of higher education is the key.
One of the most significant routes to a better student learning experience is by implementing a number of impactful practices in the educational curriculum. These courses must be a combination of educational opportunities that involve in-depth academic inquiry, and experiential and collaborative learning.
Educators today are aware of the limitations of lecture-based learning and are consistently working towards creating enhanced academic lessons for students in colleges and MBA courses.
These experiences involve group projects, service-learning, market research, projects, student exchange, and internships. It’s through these diverse learning techniques that students get a chance to learn and understand the value of teamwork, become independent, they learn to develop leadership skills and apply classroom learning to real-life situations.
With students getting ready to embrace their careers, internships always have an advantage in learning and prepping students for their work-life.
Paid or unpaid internships have been around, but they were never a high priority in the curriculum up until recent years.
Internships make students get off the college campus and explore real-life experiences in their chosen career field. It gives them a more wide view in contrast to their more stagnant lectures in the classroom. In order to get a good useful job exposure, students need to apply for internships. This participation helps students get practical training and guidance from professional, hands-on mentors.
Through these opportunities, interns learn more about their intended profession while connecting with others who may even be their future employers. As a result of their experiences and new connections, many students can leverage their internship opportunities and convert them into full-time careers.
Employers today usually won’t take chances with untested college pass-outs. Having at least one internship can improve a student’s chance of getting hired.
Internships are important, however the ongoing success of a student also depends on their ability to adapt to changing professions as well as to function in the increasingly global and technological society.
We need to change the fundamental nature of higher education by pursuing an education that incorporates high-impact practices such as Live lectures from industry experts, writing-intensive classes, research, and projects that incorporate the entirety of a student’s academic career, college students can learn how to process and analyse and learn a lot through these techniques.
With this students interact and engage with people from different cultures through service – learning thus teaching them to consider and appreciate diverse perspectives.
It’s no longer enough to attend classes and get good grades, instead higher education should consider what kinds of extracurricular, interactive, and live experiences their universities offer.
