Synthesis Paper on Virtual Internships (Research Paper Sample)

Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course
Date
Synthesis Paper on Virtual Internships
A published article by Shanique Wright reveals how undertaking internships is a raw form of challenge with everything being virtual. The article discusses how college students presently perceive the placement to be more of a way to gain a competitive advantage while searching for new jobs. They tackle internships open-mindedly to create relations and form networks with future prospective employers. Currently, many companies opt for employees that work virtually to have enhanced productivity. According to Wright, most students fail to comprehend the significant role of effective communication in guaranteeing an effortless internship. This paper will discuss on the virtual experiences and reactions to internships in this virtual era.
A rise in virtual internships helps boost students' confidence, form networks, and echo their actual work experience. Even though the virtual era has resulted in remarkable modifications to the nature of internships, the partaking in these internships are still faced with a lot of criticism based on employers who prefer face to face monitoring and evaluating their interns. Virtual internships have become common during the coronavirus pandemic, forcing most students to dump their conventional in-person internship programs, ever since the commencement of lockdown. Throughout the placement, communication with the employer was via several resources such as Slack, webinars, Skype, emails, and Microsoft Teams. Most traditional sectors have had to adapt their interns to participate in their virtual programs.
There are several advantages linked to virtual internships. Herzberg Bruce stated one benefit to being "critical consciousness." This means the extent to which students must come to comprehend the social nature of issues they undergo and to what end and how they should deliberate about them (McEachern 220). This is to what degree students should come to understand the social nature of problems they encounter, and how and to what end they should reflect on those problems. When I was met with difficulties during my internship, I needed to differentiate the next paramount phase in resolving every issue, generating a complete learning procedure cycle. Virtual internships permit students to incorporate short-term placements into the typical school year. Even though this seems stressful, it is of great benefit to the intern because they will gain lesser competition and more extensive opportunity ranges.
Flexibility is another benefit of virtual internships, and it can either be how individuals associate, their work hours, or timelines of projects. Virtual internships allow busy students to work with employers from other cities or states and permit them to manage their school schedule despite their location (Pearce 4). Colleges have started to recognize the worth of virtual internships as capable, practical learning prospects to attain proficient competencies and skills. Virtual placements do not need students to travel to work daily or relocate from college or home to score a desirable company position. This saves both money and time as well as making it simpler to incorporate additional responsibilities while interning. Like any other conventional in-person internships, the virtual intern can still benefit through earning a recommendation, incentives, stipend, reimbursements, and certificate. Even though virtual internship does not entail physical presence in the office, the interns still learn valued knowledge and skills that could be transformed into prospective job experience. Therefore, students can try out diverse internship forms to define their strengths and interests in beginning their specialization or career path.
Critics term virtual internships as inappropriate and unconventional for course credits in colleges. Despite these internships being common among specific majors, they still undergo lots of critical examination. A study disputed that programs whereby monitoring and assessing are not essential, never disclose inconsistencies in internships. With no regular pattern recorded for supervisors to maintain contact with or visit the intern during the placement, the significant discrepancies in the interns' performance and its significance cannot be recognized (Little 435). Not partaking a final assessment stresses the deficiency in consensus in valuing virtual internship experiences and creates many issues within it.
In her article, the author, Sherry Little, discusses the drawbacks of non-conventional internships and, in what manner, the evident absence of monitoring creates a foundation for inconsistency. The arguments in her article refute the present-day notion of virtual internships and additionally assert that they only result in delays and lack of concern founded on the disengagement which they provide. She argues that these internships are not adequately monitored and controlled, and the evaluation of students is not in the manner which can be valued in a conventional academic means. The program should be termed as vocational training. Thus the academic credits received for the units students undertake virtual internships should be revoked (Little 434). Experiences from conventional in-person placements are advantageous to students because it strengthens their academic knowledge (Franks and Gillian 280), increases their confidence, and offers a chance to form professional networks (Franks and Gillian 275).
Shortcomings of virtual internships are dependent on various factors. If either the employer does not establish clear goals, the intern lacks access to consistent feedback or cannot answer a question based on their tasks; then, the virtual internship will not impact the student. Thus, it is essential that during the interview, the intern must ask how monitoring and assessing their progress throughout the internship and what the outcome is. Students with difficulty in remaining motivated on their own, often struggle while participating in a virtual internship because they need to have self-motivation and self-discipline (Pearce 5). It was necessary that as a virtual intern, I should stick to the personally set working hours just as it would have been the case if I was attending the traditional in-person internship. In-person internships have always benefitted students working in an office environment and in a team that they miss out on when they undertake the virtual placement.
Virtual internships provide similar advantages to that of the in-person placements and enhance specific value to distance and conventional education (Franks and Gillian 282). Students partaking in virtual internships learn to use communication technology and present-day information to perform their tasks and work together with their colleagues and site supervisor. Virtual interns must display extraordinary critical thinking and independency level since they receive lesser to zero directions.
In a virtual internship, it is significant that communication exists to make sure that both the student and company benefit. A paper written by Deborah Bosley stresses the significance of writing internships and its use in serving as a link between virtual and traditional academic workforce. When applied to the health sector, these internships are essential in bridging the gap between the world of work and education. Various criticisms surround the absence of a bureaucratic and definitive system. The author summarizes the use of knowledge and skills acquired during virtual internships that attained in other onsite conventional ones. She give