IPB Facilitates Students to Intern in Companies
To ensure that Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) graduates have an adequate means to pursue their careers, IPB through the Directorate of Student Affairs and Career Development held Internship and Scholarship Fair on Monday (26/11) in IPB Dramaga Campus, Bogor. This event was the first event that facilitated the meeting between a company with internship opportunities and the students. Usually, IPB held a Job Fair twice a year. This time, IPB tried to bring different nuance, which was accommodating companies to promote their internship program to the students.
Even though this event was relatively new, many students enthusiastically participated in the event. The enthusiasm was shown by students’ response and involvement in asking questions to the companies. At least there were 20 companies in this Internship and Scholarship Fair. Not only offering an internship for students, but the companies also offered vacancies for IPB graduates that were searching for a job.
The Director of Student Affairs and Career Development IPB, Dr. Alim Setiawan Slamet, S.TP, M.Si, said that the students participating in these programs by the companies could add more experience and soft skills, so when they graduated, they would not be surprised by the working conditions that were different from the campus.
“Through the internship, students can gain knowledge about the work, so they would be readier to directly involved in the working world,” added Dr. Alim.
IPB Rector, Dr. Arif Satria also affirmed the benefit of an internship program. He stated that there were 3 benefits; experience, knowledge, and networking.
“The experience in the working and campus field is totally different. Campus field’s experience can be an asset to soon enter the working field,” said IPB Rector, Dr. Arif Satria.
Dr. Arif Satria also emphasized that through the internship program, students could test their knowledge and skill according to the competencies they had. If the knowledge gotten from the campus was still lacking, there would be feedback from the students to be evaluation material for campus’ teachings.
Considering the dynamic characteristic of the working field, it is possible that only a few students’ knowledge could be applicable.
“At least only ten percent of the knowledge will be used by students in the workforce that are in accordance with their competencies. For this reason, students need to take part in an internship, so they can keep up with the development of knowledge in the field, "he said.
The other benefit of the internship was to expand networking. One of the keys to facing the future was extensive networking. With so many networks, students could adapt easily to the world of work later.
“In addition, the internship program can also be used to find inspiration and ideas. So that later it can be used as a provision to become an entrepreneur. For that, take advantage of internship opportunities and a lot of learning during the internship, "concluded Dr. Arif Satria (CN)
