The internship programmes of between 3 and 4 months, called ‘Business Semester’, is optional for students at the Da Nang Junior College of Technology.  After completing the semester, participants have to make an oral defence presentation in front of the examination board, which includes representatives from the businesses where the students were interns.

Some college students at the Shinko Technos company

After that, the students are given certificates with the signatures of their college’s heads and the leaders of their internship businesses.  After graduation, they can hopefully have better employment opportunities than others.

Dr Nguyen Thanh Hoi, Manager of the college’s Training Office, said “Unlike the traditional 2 to 3-week internship programmes, a business semester can last for 4 months.  Students, therefore, are allowed to early access the practical production and business environment by either taking part-time jobs at businesses or joining efforts with their lecturers to find effective ways to solve problems arising in the production lines there.”

However, most of students face many difficulties during the business semester because they not only have to finish their lessons at the college, but they must also fulfil tasks assigned by their internship businesses.  After 1 year of implementation, the business semester, therefore, has attracted only 60 participants. 

Amongst them are Hoang Van Loi and Tran Thi Thu from the Faculty of Chemical Technology.  They took part-time jobs at the Da Nang Environmental Engineering Centre for 3 months in order to conduct scientific research entitled ‘Manufacturing Carbon Nanotube-based Supercapacitors’.

The 2 students have been allowed to use the centre’s laboratory, devices and equipment to complete their study under the guidance of their lecturers and the centre’s engineers.

Another group comprises Pham Le Thanh Tuan, Ha Quy An and Ngo Le Anh Khoa who have taken part-time jobs at the Shinko Technos Research and Development company.  In addition to practising their knowledge gained through college, they have had the opportunity to conduct more studies about basic functions of temperature and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers and performed experiments on vibration and electrical discharge.

Thanh Tuan, interestingly, said “Apart from having access to the practical working processes at the company, I and my classmates have gained experience in working styles and how to use some of the advanced technical equipment.”

In addition to connecting with local production enterprises, the college has been organising business semesters in foreign countries.  In March, 10 students from the college’s faculties of Food Technologies, Electrical Engineering, and Thermal Engineering went to the Thai KTIS Group for their business semester programmes.  This was the 3^rd time that businesses semesters had been organised in foreign partner schools.

Next year, the number of internship students going to the Thai Group is expected to increase to 20 per semester.