Online Internships - Benefits and Challenges

If you came across this article, you are probably looking for new ways to improve your skills. Well, you are not alone!

Many students want to try to gain experience through internships. However, it is not always possible for several reasons. Availability, finances and other challenges can all be complicating factors. In contrast, online apprenticeships are terrific thanks to bridging this gap. Among others, those digital experiences allow to save money on travelling and housing costs. But that is not all! Actually, the pandemic has demonstrated that doing different jobs from home is possible. As a result, current training opportunities are even more numerous and varied than before. It also generates possibilities for more profiles, such as students, graduates, married women, and mothers who are in towns or villages and can't come to the office.

First of all, online internships allow to work from home of course. Thanks to online communication platforms, such as Moodle, Skype, Zoom or other Microsoft tools, interns can interact with their mentors remotely.

Secondly, by working on site people are often confronted with terrible traffic and have to wake up early, to finish all tasks in a hurry and to be on time at the office. But now, you can overcome those issues with remote internships. No worries if you have a daily busy schedule. You can work easily with flexible timing. In fact, mentors assign tasks and guide you online, while respecting your organisation.

Then, you don’t have to worry about being late for work or to take pressure from people working around you. Thanks to its varied options and resources, the web learning system can be personalised in many ways.  For instance, it’s the best solution to create a perfect learning environment suited to the needs of each student. Actually, some trainees are visual learners, some appreciate learning through audio and others are individual profiles who get distracted by the large group. As a consequence, the proposed teaching methods can strongly impact their evolution and results. The independence in remote training is also related to working when and where you want.

The next advantage of online training is, of course, building skills. Indeed, internships are based on practical and real-life tasks. Naturally, it allows you to apply your knowledge and to discover the required skills in the working world. While combining it with previously mentioned benefits, you can follow the learning process in an even more effective and pleasant way. Furthermore, learning and improving practical skills is a relevant point, which will help you to boost your professional future. For instance, you will have work experience that could be presented during interviews and later in job opportunities.

Finally, the last benefit of online training is reduced costs. In truth, on site internships are reachable mainly in big cities. And moving there can bring on high or even unaffordable living expenses for some trainees. On the other side, online experiences let mentees to work from anywhere, while keeping their financial standards.  Furthermore, those remote activities are also attractive for city inhabitants. Transport, eating out and other points are removed from the payment list.

For several students, online learning may be a struggle with focusing on the screen for a long period of time. For instance, this learning style can easily distract participants through social media or other sites. As a consequence, they can have some difficulties taking the course seriously. However, despite this challenge, people should use this chance very well and try their best to build their careers.  To beat this, we recommend you to get involved in your work and to set time for your projects.

Another tricky point is the scarcity of face-to-face communication with the trainer. Thus, teaching ways can have some limits, such as missing feedback. From the students' view, the shared problematics are isolation, lack of motivation and then low concentration. Naturally, the mentioned challenges can impact participants’ effectiveness and build hesitation in group projects. On the other side, those issues are, again, not without solutions. Students overcome it by participating actively, and then while discussing and learning from peers. To cover this gap, we also recommend you to approach the trainer openly. Be proactive, ask questions and share your ideas to clear all doubts.

 Health is wealth. But because of sitting for hours and continuously seeing laptops, remote trainees have the effect of eye pain, back pain or headache. Further, nowadays people may be already confronted with those issues without taking part in online internships. In fact, social media addiction is a common challenge that keeps users stuck in front of screens. Take this opportunity  positively and replace empty scrolling by educating yourself. Gain knowledge, learn new things and have experience in hands.