Internship Policy | Francis Xavier Engineering College, Tirunelveli

Objectives

Internships are educational and career development opportunities, providing practical experience in a field or discipline. They are structured, short term, supervised placements often focused around particular tasks or projects with defined timescales. An internship may be compensated, non-compensated or some time may be paid. The internship has to be meaningful and mutually beneficial to the intern and the organization. It is important that the objectives and the activities of the internship program are clearly defined and understood. Following are the intended objectives of internship training:

Will expose Technical students to the industrial environment, which cannot be simulated in the classroom and hence creating competent professionals for the industry.
Provide possible opportunities to learn understand and sharpen the real time technical / managerial skills required at the job.
Exposure to the current technological developments relevant to the subject area of training.
Experience gained from the ‘Industrial Internship’ in classroom will be used in classroom discussions.
Create conditions conducive to quest for knowledge and its applicability on the job.
Learn to apply the Technical knowledge in real industrial situations.
Gain experience in writing Technical reports/projects.
Expose students to the engineer’s responsibilities and ethics.
Familiarize with various materials, processes, products and their applications along with relevant aspects of quality control.
Promote academic, professional and/or personal development.
Expose the students to future employers.
Understand the social, economic and administrative considerations that influence the working environment of industrial organizations
Understand the psychology of the workers and their habits, attitudes and approach to problem solving.

Benefits of Internship

Benefits to the Industry

Availability of ready to contribute candidates for employment.
Year round source of highly motivated pre-professionals.
Students bring new perspectives to problem solving.
Visibility of the organization is increased on campus.
Quality candidate’s availability for temporary or seasonal positions and projects.
Freedom for industrial staff to pursue more creative projects.
Availability of flexible, cost-effective work force not requiring a long-term employer commitment.
Proven, cost-effective way to recruit and evaluate potential employees.
Enhancement of employer’s image in the community by contributing to the educational enterprise.

Benefits to Students

An opportunity to get hired by the Industry/ organization.
Practical experience in an organizational setting.
Excellent opportunity to see how the theoretical aspects learned in classes are integrated into the practical world. On-floor experience provides much more professional experience which is often worth more than classroom teaching.
Helps them decide if the industry and the profession is the best career option to pursue.
Opportunity to learn new skills and supplement knowledge.
Opportunity to practice communication and teamwork skills.
Opportunity to learn strategies like time management, multi-tasking etc in an industrial setup.
Opportunity to meet new people and learn networking skills.
Makes a valuable addition to their resume.
Enhances their candidacy for higher education.
Creating network and social circle and developing relationships with industry people.
Provides opportunity to evaluate the organization before committing to a full time position.

Benefits to the Institute

Build industrial relations.
Makes the placement process easier.
Improve institutional credibility & branding.
Helps in retention of the students.
Curriculum revision can be made based on feedback from Industry/ students.
Improvement in teaching learning process.

Internship Duration and Academic Credentials:

As per FXEC Regulation 2021 Division No 4.7.2, every student is expected to undergo In-plant training in any Industry/ organization during the programme of study. Every 2 weeks of Internship/Training at industry is equivalent to 1 credit. The credit will be awarded to the student after the submission of internship / training report to the Head of the Department. The report will be evaluated by a team of faculty members nominated by the Head of the Department for awarding the grade. Based on the recommendation by the team, the student will be awarded credits and the results will be sent to the Controller of Examinations after the approval by the Head of the Department. The students may undergo Industrial Training for a period as specified in the curriculum during summer / winter vacation to a maximum of 8 weeks during the entire duration of study. The final semester project period at Industry / Research organization will not be considered as industrial training / internship. The maximum number of credits that can be earned from Industrial Training / Internship is limited to 4 as per table 4.

Table 4: Duration of Industrial Training / Internship

Duration of Industrial Training / Internship	Credits
2 Weeks	1
4 Weeks	2
6 Weeks	3
8 or more Weeks	4

Internship Report

After completion of Internship, the student should prepare an Adequacy and purposeful comprehensive report to indicate what he has observed and learnt in the training period. The report should be signed by the Faculty Mentor. The report will be evaluated by a team of faculty members nominated by the Head of the Department for awarding the grade. Based on the recommendation by the team, the student will be awarded credits and the results will be sent to the Controller of Examinations after the approval by the Head of the Department.

General Guidelines

Internship is always more valuable compared to a college project as it enables the interns to understand how companies work, build new contacts, develop a network and most importantly work on real-life projects executed within the company. Institutes are advised to send students for internship at least twice during the complete program once after second year and once after third or in final year.
Many interns seem to judge the company by the number of employees in the organization. Do use more meaningful criteria to judge the company for the internship such as the time and training that they are willing to devote for you, type of products, value addition and services offered by the company in relation to what you want to learn, technologies employed by the company with respect to what you want to master etc.
An internship is a great opportunity to learn in industrial environment without being an employee of the company. Students are advised to set their goals prior to starting their internship and focus on completing them during the internship.
If a student joins a very large organization to do an internship, he must use the opportunity to learn about the activities performed in the various departments by doing short stints in each of them. This experience will help provide him the big-picture in better understanding the career prospects in relation to his ambitions.
Attitude and mindset play a great role in the learning process. Do tackle all tasks given with enthusiasm and positive attitude.
Interns must avoid negativity and never ignore a chance offered to them to learn more about a concept, technology, industry or company.
Interns must be inquisitive and try to gain maximum knowledge and exposure.
Interns shall identify a good mentor within the company and take initiative to execute new projects where one can make a difference to the company.
Interns should enjoy during the internship and leave with tangible accomplishments.
The intern will maintain a regular internship schedule determined by the Intern and his/her Project Head.
Interns shall view an internship as a bridge between college and the workplace. Do use for their full advantage while undergoing internship:
- - The intern must demonstrate honesty, punctuality and a willingness to learn during the internship program.
- - The intern will obey the policies, rules and regulations of the Company and comply with the Company’s business practices and procedures.