Serving an internship: Experiences from Family and Consumer Sciences Department, University of Ghana, programme

 

Vandyck Efua^1*, Senayah William², Vivian Tackie-Ofosu¹ and Osei Clement Koranteng¹

 

Research Article | Published May 2016

Journal of Educational Research and Reviews, Vol. 4(2), pp. 19-26

 

 

¹Department of Family and Consumers Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon - Ghana.

²Department of Fashion, University of Education (Kumasi Campus).

 

*Corresponding author. Email: efuav@yahoo.com, vandyef@ug.edu.gh; Tel. +233-20-818-7875.   

 

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The University of Ghana’s Family and Consumer Sciences Department’s internship reports were examined using 449 intern reports and 209 reports by supervisors presented to the Department over a period of 8 years. The interns’ challenges, contributions, strength and weaknesses of the programme during their period of internship were assessed. Content analysis, a technique which allowed researchers to analyze non-statistical material in a systematic way, was used to draw out themes from the data for discussion. Inferential and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data to address the objectives of the study. The results indicated that the majority of interns worked in hospitals and hotels on assignments related to food and nutrition. They often encountered financial constraints and some had difficulty adapting or adjusting to the environment of work. Administrative duties such as report and memo writing, data collection, photocopying, making and receiving of calls, drawing up budget amongst others were the most contributions interns made. Suggestions made by supervisors and interns included extension of the internship period and the need for the department to seek placement for interns to serve. It was recommended that the monitoring scheme should include visits from lecturers of the department apart from the industry staff.