Design education and internship: stakeholder perspectives on students’ employability and personal growth

Abstract

Internship learning gives students a chance to apply and practice skills they will have learned or acquired whilst gaining career and life experience. Public and private Higher Education (HE) institutions in Zimbabwe have incorporated internships as a training methodology. The purpose of this study was to establish the impact of the internship in building skills and competencies on design students from a leading design school in Zimbabwe. The survey method was used to obtain the views of industrial mentors, lecturers, and the students themselves after their return from industrial attachment. Nine industrial mentors were conveniently sampled from the database of companies that usually take these design students for internship. In-depth interviews were conducted with fifteen student participants who had returned from the internship to establish their views on the student's skills and strengths before and after the internship. Four lecturers who teach in the design faculty were also interviewed to give their input on curriculum expectations and achievements as far as internship is concerned in design education. Results of the findings revealed that confidence levels in dealing with practical industry-type tasks which were weak before the internship exercise were very high after the exercise. A marked improvement in the student's analytical skills, practical skills, working speed, accuracy, and paying attention to detail was also evident. To improve design education, the curriculum must promote design teaching and learning from the lower levels of education and support projects that encourage co-research and co-design between academia and industry through the internship programmes. The study also recommends that universities and colleges that teach design-related fields should prioritise the procurement of up-to-date training equipment. The study concludes that industry, academia, and the student can design projects that can improve societal problems in the form of collaborations and these become internship capstone design projects.