Key criticisms of engineering internship duration: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Work-Ready-Engineer or Industrial-Ready-Engineer is the common term discussed among employers in the industrial environment. Whereby, employers seek graduate engineers equipped with both technical and non-technical skills. Therefore, institutions of higher learning around the world are very much concerned about the employer's requirement and graduate employment. This is because of their noteworthy part in establishing and improving the employability abilities of their students through the provision of certain programs, courses, workshops, industrial and practical training. In this context, industrial training duration is really important to ensure that engineering students have sufficient time to understand, absorb and learn the industrial knowledge to meet the vision of employers. According to the Engineering Accreditation Council Board of Engineers Malaysia (EAC, 2017), a minimum of 8 weeks is required to complete the internship program. The objective of the study is to analyze the effectiveness of recent internship duration and to recommend suitable internship duration that can support to meet work-ready-engineer and increase the employability rate.