Appendix E: What are Internships?
Internships usually offer one discipline-specific, supervised, structured, paid or unpaid, and for-academic credit work experience or practice placement. Internships may occur in the middle of an academic program or after all academic coursework has been completed and prior to graduation. Internships can be of any length but are typically 12 to 16 months long (CEWIL Canada, 2020).
The MCU does not have an internship category in its reporting procedures. However, experiential learning activities recognized by the MCU can be alternatives/equivalents to internships:
| Internship Type | MCU EL Type |
|---|---|
| Paid (usually after all academic coursework has been completed) | Co-op internship |
| Unpaid (usually in the middle of an academic program) | Field placement/Work placement |
Why do Some Centennial Programs Promote Having an Internship?
In some cases, the terms internship, field placement, and co-op have simply been used interchangeably. In some fields, an internship is the typical form of introduction to the workforce and this term is used because it is more recognizable to students and employers in those fields.
From a reporting perspective, however, “internships” take the form of and are reported to the MCU as either field placement, co-op, or in some cases fieldwork.
