Expanding Internships to Enhance Academic-Industry Relations: A Perspective in Stakeholder Education

Abstract

To improve technical communication education, educators and internship providers need to find ways to revise internship experiences so that educators, internship providers, and students/interns can use internship experiences in a way that benefits all three parties. This article uses a stakeholder education approach to propose two new kinds of internship processes to benefit all three groups. The first approach—colloquia—allows all three parties to interact via the same scheduled event. The second approach—student publications groups—shifts internship from a workplace to a school activity. By including such approaches into their curricula, technical communication programs can both improve their relationships with local internship providers and improve the training received by their students.