amongst University students in Zambia
FEATURED PAPER
By Jagadheeswaran Krishnan
Lusaka, Zambia
Abstract
The pace of change of technology in replacing human intervention to execute mechanical actions and actions, has in recent years been augmented to manage and manipulate even decision making and humanly difficult large data analytics through artificial intelligence and machine learning abilities. The need for human interventions for mundane activities seems to be reducing as ever. This has resulted in a gap in terms of employability at the lower hierarchies of industry and institutions. Added to these woes, there appears to be a gap in alignment between various actors including Universities, industry and government that primarily affect youth development of a developing nation. This has in turn influenced a negative influence for university graduates to seamlessly enter into jobs. To skill such youth who are in their tertiary studies, an internship program seems to be one of viable options. While an internship program is mandatory in most university curriculum for students to graduate, the purposefulness with which such programs are executed needs to be studied. The major beneficiary being the student, it is therefore critical to understand the perception of the university students who have done an internship program in an Industry or Institution. This article probes into understanding the perceptions of University students on an internship program.
Introduction
This article is part of an intended three paper research in to the opportunities for youth in Zambia for career progression. Internship in industries and institution during a tertiary education program being the first, the second involves entrepreneurship ambitions of youth and gaps involved in curriculum in University education in Zambia. The third would focus on how Industrial clusters can support work integrated learning in Zambian industry in specific sectors.
The definition of Youth in Zambia based on the constitution and adopted by the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Arts are citizens between the ages of nineteen and thirty four years (Ministry of Youth, Sports and Arts, 2024). The Youth development index comprising of several indicators like youth education, Health, employment, peace, security, equity, inclusion, civic and political participation while having improved over years, the rate of improvement has been lacklustre owing to several macro-economic challenges facing developing nations resulting in lower employment opportunities for youth. Due to varying levels of unemployment and underemployment including limited access to finance, there has been an observable increase in drug abuse, alcohol, substance abuse, perpetration of crime and social media abuse amongst youth (Ministry of Youth, Sports and Arts, 2024), and this fact has been mentioned by several, and this fact has been mentioned by several researchers through empirical research done. This resulted in an youth unemployment ratio of 18.8% (ILO, 2024). To alleviate this situation, the Government of Zambia increased the number of Public universities to seven from three between the years 2012 to 2019 while there were fifty-three private universities registered with the Higher Education Authority. This was done with an aim of enhancing the skillset and education of the labour work force in the country (Ministry of Youth, Sports and Arts, 2024).
However, a skills mismatch seems to be apparent resulting in a number of challenges faced by the youth populace. To skill such youth who are in their tertiary studies, an Internship program seems to be one of viable options. Integrating knowledge and theory, Internship is an experiential learning form that bridges the theory learnt in Universities and skills desired by Industry and Institutions in a professional setting (Ndamase & Lukman, 2024). While the definition of an internship program is anywhere between two months to two years, most times the term is confused with trainee and apprenticeship. This research article is to signify the perception of internship programs in industry by students doing their penultimate year and final year of their under graduation or post-graduation in Universities in Zambia. This aspect appears to be poorly understood by University and Industry (Hora et al., 2020). Internship can be construed as a short-term placement depending on the nature of the academic course, with or without remuneration (Narayanan et al., 2017). Internship ideas originally developed in the healthcare industry where the medical graduates were required to be trained under guidance before practice (Beane et al., 2017). These ideas later propagated into other industry verticals.
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How to cite this paper: Krishnan, J. (2025). Perception of impact of internship programs amongst University students in Zambia; PM World Journal, Vol. XIV, Issue II, February. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/pmwj149-Feb2025-Krishnan-perception-of-impact-of-internship-programs-in-zambia.pdf
About the Author
Jagadheeswaran Krishnan
Lusaka, Zambia
Jagadheeswaran Krishnan (addressed as KJ) is a PhD student with the University of Zambia and has concluded his defence in the areas of Competitive advantage of Zambia. A Mechanical engineer and an MBA (~PGDM from India), KJ is a six-sigma green belt holder and a Balanced Scorecard Professional; he is very passionate in the areas of Strategic management. KJ has more than 32 years of rich industry experience and has been in Top management positions last 24 years and is the current Chief operating officer for a leading FMCG organization in Zambia.
KJ is also passionate in Youth development and regularly gives free lectures for University students on different topics in Management focusing on bridging academics with practice, citing lots of real life examples. More details of KJ’s profile can be found at www.krishjaga.com .
Contact details of KJ are as follows: ORCID No: 0000-0001-5490-3115
Email: krishjaga@yahoo.com