RDB helps graduates gain experience through internship
Editor’s note: We would like to point out that this is a news article concerning RDB’s internship program. Therefore, anybody interested in an internship should not address themselves to The Rwanda Focus (as several people have already done through the comments section), but send a proper application to the Rwanda Development Board. We will not publish such “comment applications,” nor will we pass them on to RDB. p.s: Due to continued abuse of the comments, we have disabled comments for this article.
Through internship programs, RDB is giving graduates valuable experience. Some institutions, however, complain they would like to retain the interns directly, but can’t do so.
Some 200 graduates completed their internship recently. (photo Abraham Rumanzi)
The first and the second phase of the internship program set up by the ministry of public service and Rwanda Development Board (RDB) has recently seen the passing out of 201 interns who have acquired a six-month working experience. In the third and the fourth phase, 309 others will do the same.
For the people involved, internship gives them valuable experience and a chance to put in practice the theoretical knowledge they acquired in school. Alex Gasiraba, for instance, noted that during his working experience as an environmentalist he was able apply various water purification methods as well as see how laws relating to forestry are enforced.
Yet the organizations that employ them, too, benefit from the scheme. Polycarp Nyetera, the research program director at the Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (IRST), noted that the interns play a big role in handling tasks that busy employees fail to deliver. His complaint, however, is that if they are satisfied with the performance of an intern, public institutions cannot directly employ them but instead have to go through the lengthy, open government recruitment procedure. “This sets us back, since a gap is left once the interns are gone,” Nyatera remarked.
The RDB head of human capital and institutional development division Apollo Munanura for his part pointed out that internships do not just give people practical experience in their field, it can also show them the workings of a company, which might help them set up their own enterprise. For those who prefer to be employees, he noted, RDB tries to get them involved in an employment network which will help them tap resources in the regional job market.
Another advantage of internship, Munanura said, is that it teaches soft skills such as proper professional behavior. “If you start reporting late at work, you will give a bad impression and you will have a hard time to finish your work,” Munanura cautioned.
And, if you try to pull it of in a real job, you will be fired. Valuable experience for interns indeed.
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Internship program to give graduates working skills
Posted by Abraham Rumanzi
on Jan 31 2011. Filed under Business, National.
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