SSPS’s internship programme: an initiative that shapes students’ career development

The Department of Social Sciences and Policy Studies (SSPS)* has been managing the internship programme for its students since 2012. As a course requirement, students need to work as an intern for at least 200 hours either during the last summer semester (90% of all internships) or term-time where they study and work concurrently. Every year, the programme sends out around 90 students from different programmes offered by the department to take up internship at workplace. Over the years, SSPS has arranged internship placements for nearly 1,500 undergraduate students from more than 10 programmes, ranging from sociology, geography, environmental studies, business, policy and public administration, and area studies. The programme includes students from Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan, Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and more.

When the internship programme was launched, it received support from various Government departments, environmental organisations, social services NGOs, and social enterprises. Now, around 50 partner organisations provide internship for our students. These include environmental consultancies, construction companies, theme parks, hotels, social enterprises, government departments, social services NGOs, environmental NGOs, educational NGOs, cultural NGOs, and so on. Among many others, partner organisations include Cathay Pacific Catering Services, Business Environment Council, Hong Kong Red Cross, Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, Ocean Park Hong Kong, Senior Citizen Home Safety Association, St. James’ Settlement, The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, The Harbourview, and Yan Oi Tong.

FLASS FORWARD talks to the programme’s management team consisting of Ms Wallis Kwok Wai-ling, Dr Gordon Chan Yiu-ming, and Dr Lawrence Ho Ka-ki from SSPS to understand about the history, objectives, and success stories of the internship programme. They also share with us lessons learnt from running the programme for over a decade.

Click here for a video on the internship programme

You may also be interested in reading related stories about two of our distinguished alumni: Mr Desmond Chan and Ms Olivia To.

Ms Kwok: The Department of Social Sciences (SSC), which was merged with the Department of Asian and Policy Studies in July 2023 to form the present Department of Social Sciences and Policy Studies, introduced the Internship Programme in 2012. Back then the University was still named Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd). In the course of changing its title from an institute to a university, HKIEd at that time was actively promoting non-education programmes. Among them were the Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in Global and Environmental Studies (BSocSc(GES)) and the Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in Global and Hong Kong Studies (BSocSc(GHKS)) programmes.

These programmes are designed to teach students about society. We thought that providing these students with an opportunity to observe first-hand how society is run and how the knowledge they learnt from classrooms could be applied in real-world situations could make their learning experiences more complete. It was against such background that we introduced the internship programme at SSC.

Ms Kwok: Students need to take up internship during the summer after completing their third-year study. In January and February of the year, we brief the students about the entire internship arrangement and help them prepare their résumés. Upon initial understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, we organise brush-up classes for students whose performances are less than satisfactory. Students then indicate their favourite internship organisations so we can send their résumés to match their preferences. Around April and May, partner organisations will ask our students to attend interviews and sign necessary documents if hiring is confirmed.

Before internship begins, we will organise another briefing session for all students to remind them the things they need to take note of in the workplace. Once the internship starts, we receive onsite assessments of our students by their workplace supervisors. During the internship, SSPS will keep communication open with our students to understand their work, and closely monitor their performance.

Ms Kwok: Today’s employers want their staff members to be able to communicate well with others, flexible to new circumstances, trustworthy and pleasant to work as a team member, creative and proactive in solving problems, and observant and sensitive about the needs of others. Organisations cherish these soft skills for they believe people equipped with these qualities can collaborate effectively, think creatively, solve problems independently, and work responsibly. These qualities together provide a solid base that leads to organisational success.

In a workplace, interns get the chance to learn how to write email courteously, how to communicate with people politely, how to present their ideas clearly, or simply how to dress and behave in manner that match the expectations of the company. They are placed on a steep learning curve of all these skills.

Dr Ho: Apart from polishing their soft skills, internship also provides an opportunity for students to understand themselves. In the workplace, there are students from different programmes, education or non-education, from EdUHK, and even from other higher institutions. While they need to learn how to work collaboratively, they will also inevitably compare among themselves on their relative strengths and weaknesses. Desirable or not, these comparisons will help them understand more about themselves and such understanding helps them form a more realistic view for their career plan. They can choose a career path that matches their strengths, hence having a higher chance of success.

The internship offers an opportunity for our students to demonstrate their ability to apply their knowledge and skills in real-world situations. There is no lack of cases that our partner organisations have hired our students as part-time workers or even offered them full-time job when they graduated. Some of our students even found a job at their favourite companies because of their internship performance.

Dr Chan: We don’t want the university campus to shield them from reality. Through the internship, our students know how the real-world works. There are cases where our students received negative comments and experienced setbacks during their internship. But even this is good for them. For those who are willing to learn, even mistakes are opportunities to improve, and to understand what the world expects from them. When needed, teachers at SSPS will counsel students on how to face tough situations they encounter during work.

The internship also takes on an academic dimension. It is an opportunity for our students to put theoretical knowledge to test in the real world. After the internship, students need to submit a comprehensive report about their internship experience as the final assignment. The report is more than a self-reflexive examination of their strengths and weaknesses. Students need to show in the reports how well they could apply knowledge they learnt from classrooms in the workplace. It helps them understand the connection between the academic world and the working world.

Ms Kwok: I always tell students that at the workplace, you are the spokesperson for your own brand, and the internship is a vehicle for advertising yourself. I remind students that they should take ownership of their internship. We are blessed that some of our students, because of their awareness of the importance, they worked to their full capacity in the job and earned very good reputation from their internship organisations.

Dr Ho: For those students who have a clear idea about their career plan, they know that an internship can be a vital part of their career development. I observed that some students who are less serious about the internship in the beginning will take it more seriously when they see their classmates being offered good internship opportunities.

Dr Chan: We highlight to our students that the internship is part of the programme requirements. We make sure that our students understand that an internship is a formal work arrangement between them and their employers. Like a formal employment, students need to send in résumés, attend interviews, and sign contracts.

 

Ms Kwok: We organise pre-internship briefing sessions where we bring up advice, warnings and tips that students need to heed during their internship. In a workplace, soft skills are just as important as knowledge, if not more. But soft skills are people skills, and learning from interactions with people is the best way to acquire such skills. By making mistakes in the workplace and being corrected by their supervisors, students can learn by heart the expectations and rules of the workplace.

Dr Chan: I also want to stress that learning from mistakes is an important part of growth. Today’s students belong to the Gen Z, who grew up with an addicted use of digital technologies. They are also the generation of low birth rate with many of them growing up in a single-child family. Gen Z also experienced social isolations during COVID-19 which has inevitably taken a toll on their social skills. Because of these backgrounds, these students have fewer opportunities to work closely with other people. It does not surprise us that many of them have different degrees of interpersonal problems when compared with the older generations.

When they reflect on their experience at the workplace, they might realise they need to change. This is the essence of experiential learning. While students find it difficult to memorise those workplace rules in classrooms, they realise the importance of such rules and practices once they join the workforce as an intern. It is often said that in the real game of work, one learns the ways of the world on the job.

 

Dr Ho: While it is unavoidable for interns to make minor mistakes, our pre-internship briefing aims to minimise their risks of making detrimental mistakes. Such include mistakes that have legal implications such as infringing property rights and leakage of personal information.

Apart from pre-internship briefing, we also provide ongoing monitoring. When our students finish around 100 hours of internship, their academic tutors from SSPS will meet them at their workplace or through Zoom to evaluate their job-performance jointly with their supervisors. To gauge their progress, we request students to submit a mid-term evaluation report with the help from their supervisors. Throughout the internship, their academic tutors will offer them advice in response to their situations.

Ms Kwok: At University, teachers give students different kinds of learning materials, like course outlines, lecture notes, worksheets, assignment guidance, and so forth. But there is no such thing in the workplace. In the workplace, interns will be assigned various tasks according to the needs of the organisation. Oftentimes, supervisors will only give them tasks verbally, expecting the interns to find out more about how to complete the tasks in their own ways. They need to think of the work process and identify a solution creatively. This poses a challenge to some of our students.

On the other extreme, some students finished their tasks without consulting their supervisors at all at any point of their works. Either way is inappropriate.

Dr Chan: Generally speaking, today’s students lack a strong motivation to find solutions on their own. They are passive and shy to ask questions. If students are serious about achieving their tasks, they should listen carefully to the task description from their supervisors, find related information and suggest a solution by themselves, and then seek advice from supervisors before execution.

I always remind students that they will never encounter two completely identical experiences. They should treasure every internship placement offered to them as they give them unique opportunities to explore the world of work and themselves. It helps them understand their weaknesses. 

Dr Ho: I find that some of today’s students are imprudent or absent-minded, or lack in common sense. For instance, even though they are informed that the internship organisation will contact them soon, they still fail to check their emails. Some students neglect the possibility that email messages from the organisations might fall into their SPAM box. Some of them expect the organisations to call them personally. Some do not check the travel time the moment they send in their applications. When they are given an offer, they complain that the location of the intern organisation is far from their home.

Ms Kwok: I am glad that many students treat the internship seriously, seeing it as a pre-graduation training ground. When they come across things in the workplace that they don’t know, they proactively seek advice from their supervisors and teammates. They are eager to learn how to work them out. They take every real-life task as a learning opportunity to enhance their ability to face pressure and to solve problems. There are notable changes in this type of students.

But there are also students who are less prepared to take up work challenges. Some of them are simply overconfident in themselves. They tend to display their confidence in an inappropriate manner, and unable to listen to people’s advice.

Luckily, most of our students treasure the opportunity to learn and they show notable changes after the internship. In most cases, students become more mature afterwards. The internships serve as a reminder that their remaining time at University is limited, prompting them to actively pursue opportunities and ready themselves for entering the workplace.

 

Dr Chan: Many students have become more mature to different degrees after the internship. In the workplace, some students got an opportunity to explore their untapped potential which even we as teachers were not aware of. One of my students helped organise a big event during their internship. His effort was appreciated by his supervisor and his confidence was greatly boosted consequently. Indeed, many students value a lot the appreciation from their supervisors. It is a big confirmation to their ability.

Dr Ho: In one example, an intern helped organise a publicity event for a welfare organisation at a shopping mall. He was asked on the spot, out of his expectation, to be the event MC. Without any related experiences, he was extremely nervous when taking up the MC task. Luckily, he performed satisfactorily. It has become a significant milestone in his life.

In another example, three students taking non-education programmes from SSC were asked to teach students from a whole level at a secondary school. They didn’t expect to take up a responsibility that substantial. Nevertheless, they managed to finish the task and the teaching experience has left lasting, positive impacts on them.

Ms Kwok: SSPS, and previously SSC, is cooperating with a wide range of organisations to arrange internships for our students. These include NGO, large-scale, medium, and small-size companies. I always remind them that different institutions have different strengths and remind them to do their best no matter they are sent to a small or big organisation. Just do the best you can in all the tasks you are assigned during your internship.

The internship is an opportunity not only for our students to grow, but also for EdUHK to build up its reputation. I am overjoyed when partner organisations told me that they found our students helpful and appreciated the contributions made by EdUHK interns. Because of their satisfactory performance, there are companies who ask us to send our students to work for them as interns. Experience tells me that word-of-mouth is crucial for the success of SSPS internship programme.

Dr Chan: Some students like the learning by doing approach of the internship programme so much that they suggest that all courses should incorporate a learning-through-experiencing element. I am glad to know that many understand that if they can leave a good impression at the internship organisation, the organisation might hire them back.

Dr Ho: Quite a number of EdUHK students see themselves as underachievers. Some of them compare themselves unfavourably with their peers from other higher institutions. In some cases, the comparisons create feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem.

The low evaluation of themselves is rectified when they receive appreciation from their internship supervisors. These supervisors understand that they possess strengths even they themselves do not realise. I feel encouraged when their confidence is boosted through the internship.

On a practical level, good evaluation from the internship organisations will help them to enter the fields or even join the company they prefer.

Note*: The Department of Social Sciences and Policy Studies (SSPS) was formed in July 2023 by merging the former Department of Social Sciences (SSC) and Department of Asian and Policy Studies (APS). Both the SSC and APS were pioneers at EdUHK in running internship programmes for students studying for non-education degrees. The internship programmes were integrated into one and expanded after the establishment of SSPS in July 2023. This article focuses largely on the internship programmes managed by SSC and its successor SSPS.