We have an unusual number of students applying to do practical training this year, so the boss generously volunteered me to be the department's practical training coordinator. Unlike in accounting and business, there is no practical training requirement in the economics program. In other words, practical training for economics undergraduates is totally voluntary and earns the students no credit. Should we introduce it as a requirement? I never even thought of doing practical training as an undergraduate. Students are nevertheless encouraged to undertake practical training, and we are working to have it mentioned in their transcript.
It all seemed really encouraging at first; the students may have decided to undertake practical training to give them a bit of an extra edge when hunting for jobs later. Seeing the surge in interest, we wrote to a number of government and research agencies we thought might be interested in hosting them. But then, one by one the students began to withdraw their application.
They gave various excuses from family and financial problems, having to take classes instead, and transport difficulties to reach places like Putrajaya. But one glaring observation is that the withdrawals mostly came after they found out that they would not receive any allowances from the host agencies.
Apparently many of them wanted to do practical training for the wrong reason – money. As soon as they realize that there is no money waiting for them they lost all interest. Perhaps our students aren’t that pragmatic after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment