Exact Answer: 12-15 weeks
An internship is defined as a period of hands-on work experience to obtain certain skills related to the profession, undertaken by the learners and offered by various organizations for a limited span. For example, graduates seeking their career in content creation trace out various opportunities and apply to them to see how perfectly they could fit in what domain of this profession.
It is not a permanent position in the organization but a temporary placement for a short duration to provide the intern an experience at entry-level. However, sometimes internship could lead to a pre-placement offer to the candidate in the same organization that hired him as an intern.
How Long Do Internships Last?
Before moving on to the question of how long do internships last, we need to look at what are the various kinds of internships present for the workforce.
| Type of Internship | Expected Duration |
| Professional, ie, required for any academic program, known as Co-operative Education | 3 months or 100 days |
| Internships At Will | depends on the intern and organization |
| Internships with specific key requirements, which leads to Pre-placement offers on the basis of skills | 6 months or longer |
Internships come with one condition regarding time- they cannot be everlasting and permanent. Internships are required to terminate as per the decided terms of both, intern and organization. Sometimes, the interns are hired for the purpose of training them according to the company and then provide them with a pre-placement offer so that the organization is not needed to find more resources for the workforce.
Sometimes, the internship could be at the will of the intern and organization. It starts with 4 weeks but the agreement keeps on recurring and the internship continues.
While internship as an academic requirement observes a period of three months or in some cases like medical practice and nursing, teaching, etc, it could even extend to the duration of an entire college semester.
Since interns are graduates or undergraduates, the work hours are also flexible. It is not to accommodate the work burden on the interns but to inculcate work ethics in them so that they can be skilled as per the industry requirements in their educational tenure.
Why Does It Last That Long?
The main reason for such duration is that the internship season blooms during summer and winter breaks in colleges and universities. Ideally, the vacation is the only period when students are relieved from the college routines and thus, they can focus on possessing the skills and experience related to their educational domain.
Some professional courses have made it mandatory for the students to complete a 2 or 3 months internship and project work so that they can provide the graduates to the industry as per its standards and expectations. These internships count as a subject and add to the final calculation of the score. Therefore, when we look at a broader view, a lot of organizations offer internship opportunities for 12-15 weeks.
Another reason for such duration is that the internship period to get the experience of various domains so that the student can explore his possibilities. Therefore, they prefer to intern with more than one organization throughout their academic program. Having long months of internship periods would not let them do so easily.
Also, the organizations look up to give internship opportunities to a lot of candidates matching their demands, so that in the future, they also have an option available in need of more workforce. Therefore, a standard duration can be observed as 12 weeks which gives both the intern and the organization flexibility. The former can explore more than one internship easily and the latter is exposed to a good number of skilled workmen.
Conclusion
Internships are a great opportunity for students with a tenure of 3 months generally. But these three months could be great for students as they not only help them to understand the work environment but also build their CV. It also incubates in them the abilities like problem-solving and decision making, which they can always take advantage of in their future roles as an employee.
It let them know the structure of an organization even when the opportunity offered is of a junior level. It doesn’t matter how much the internship is paying you, because ethically you have dedicated your three months to gain exposure and experience in your desired domain.
References
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