Talk:Internships at Wikimedia Belgium

Concerns

Hi all,

I have some concerns about this project.

The first thing I have to say is: what project, what question/issue/problematic could we propose to a student? I was a student at college a short time ago, and I know when you're a student you need a real issue to work on. Your internship needs a real project that must give you a real gain for your experience, curriculum... and teachers. One of the problem that many students had was about management during their internship. Their staff was not enough trained and experienced to manage people and the students was not prepared enough to respond to the specific requirements that their teachers had. They failed their internship exam and had to start their year over. For now, we do not have any idea what are teacher's requirements in this internship field. An internship is not improvisation, and must be prepared a long time before it begins.

Another problem is being there. For an internship, you also need a permanent presence by your side. It is very difficult teleworking for an internship. You constantly need somebody to ask something, you need that is very interactive and only mailing/skyping your supervisor(s) is not enough. I experienced this way to work at a time of my last internship and everything took sooo much time. It's easier to knock at the door and ask, and then going back to your desk with the answer (and I say that while I am not very social at all...). But none of us will be able to be there to quickly help an intern.

And what about supervisors? Who would be the supervisor? Do we have somebody

1. with a similar experience in communication studies;
2. aware of teacher's requirements in this field?

I am also scared that we think here mostly about what we need and not what we have to bring to the student/intern - while that is really the main issue. We have different tasks, but no thematic issue, challenge or something like that for th student. And that is not the aim of an internship.
And also : when you need to make specific tasks done, you need an employee, not an intern. An internship is not a work, and an intern does not have to do an employee's work.

I would strongly prefer to make our volunteer basis stronger than having an intern. I think that is something very easy to screw up, specially in an association where only a few members are really active, and I do not want that a student pays for that. .Anja. (talk) 07:53, 11 September 2018 (UTC)