COMM 4995/IN1 - Internship

Information for Employers/Administrators

Information regarding the Internship is available for your employer/administrator to review. Please click on this link to access the Adobe Acrobat file "Internship Information for Employers/Administrators". This document includes information of interest to employers such as the Internship process, employer benefits and responsibilities.

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What is an Internship?

The internship course involves supervised practical experience and study in a business or organization in a field related to the general management of the business or organization. The main objective of an internship is to give students the opportunity to put in practice the management concepts and theories they are learning in the H.B.Com program. An internship is beneficial to both interns and the organizations employing them: Bringing studies and practical experience together helps students anchor what they learn and facilitate learning for the remaining courses, especially the strategy course. Employers benefit by having interns use their skills and competencies to tackle a problem or project of interest at minimal cost.

The Internship is a course worth 6 credits. Students must successfully complete COMM 2035/MM1 and COMM 2045/OR1 before registering for the Internship.

Student Objectives

• To gain experience in areas other than your current area of management;

• To understand and experience the relationship between what they learn in their courses and everyday applications;

• To apply the concepts they learn to a specific problem or project of value to an organization;

• To learn how to define a problem or project, plan and carry out a study in a field different from their own

• To continue the development of important skills such as problem-solving, written and oral communication, analysis, evaluation, time management and independent work;

• To develop confidence in their ability to contribute to the over-all functioning of a business or organization;

• To appreciate the breadth of complexities that an organization encounters;

• To advance the interests of the participating organization.

Where Can I Complete the Internship?

The Internship may be done at your current place of work, a volunteer association, a not-for-profit organization or any other organization that you are familiar with.

Who Needs to Be Involved?

As the internship requires some level of supervision, the employer or the manager/administrator of the organization where the internship will take place must be willing to cooperate with the Laurentian University Internship Coordinator.

The employer/administrator will have to sign the contract, provide some level of support to the intern throughout the internship and if needed provide access to internal resources. At the end of the internship, the employer/administrator has to provide an evaluation of the work completed during the internship.

The Laurentian University Internship Coordinator approves the proposal and signs the contract. The Coordinator also maintains contact with the employer or organization, provides some supervision during the internship, evaluates the final report, and assigns a grade.

What Does the Internship Require?

There are several steps to the successful completion of an internship.

Pre-Approval Process:

Step 1:

Decide on the internship location. Will it be with your current employer or another organization?

Step 2:

Meet with your employer, department supervisor or administrator of the organization that you want to complete the internship with. You should consider bringing a copy of the "Internship Information for Employers/Administrators" document with you for your employer/administrator to review.

This meeting will provide you with an opportunity to find out if your employer/administrator has specific projects that need to be completed. This meeting might also provide you with additional ideas that you might want to pursue. If you work for a large company, you may also want to meet with other department supervisors to find out if they require the completion of projects that would meet the internship requirement.

A good internship project should be of significant value to the business or organization; it should allow you to integrate the knowledge, skills and abilities developed during your CGA and H.B.Com studies, and it should help you gain a broader perspective of the management of the business/organization and of the business environment. The project should take a minimum of 130 hours to complete.

If your employer/administrator does not provide you with a project idea suitable for your internship, then you should propose a project yourself. From your experience in the work place and from the knowledge and skills attained through your courses, you should be able to generate a project idea that would be beneficial to your employer and that would provide you with additional skills in your area of interest.

This step should also include the identification of the internship supervisor for the duration of the project.

Step 3:

Once a project is agreed to, the Internship Proposal Form should be completed together with your internship supervisor and forwarded to the Internship Coordinator at Laurentian University.

The Internship Coordinator will inform you of your application status within four weeks of your application being received at Laurentian. If your application is not approved, you may re-submit your proposal with appropriate changes or request to take an alternative course instead of the Internship.

Post-Approval Process:

Step 4:

Once a project is approved by the Internship Coordinator, you will be required to sign a contract with your supervisor and the Internship Coordinator. The contract will include the role and responsibilities of each individual and the start and completion date of the project.

Note: The internship does not need to be completed within a regular 13-week session. You have the option of submitting a completion date of up to a maximum of 26 weeks from the internship start date.

Step 5:

Once your proposal is accepted and the contract is signed, you can begin your internship. You will be required to enroll for the internship (COMM 4995/IN1) course with your CGA affiliate office in order to receive your final grade. It is recommended that you enroll for the session that you plan to complete your project in.

Step 6:

Complete the project, present your findings to your employer in a formal presentation and forward a second copy of the report to the Internship Coordinator at Laurentian University after it has been approved by the internship supervisor.

Notes:

1.  You must successfully complete COMM 2035 and COMM 2045 before you can begin the internship.

2. You should not enroll in the COMM 4995/IN1 course until you have received confirmation from the Internship Coordinator that your Internship Proposal has been approved. Enrolment will be required in order to receive a final mark.

3. Your main contact at Laurentian is the Internship Coordinator, Michelle Munro. Her coordinates are provided at the end of this document.

4. If you cannot complete the Internship, please inform the Internship Coordinator in writing. An alternate Laurentian University course will be required.

Examples of Potential Project Assignments

• Develop a marketing plan for the launch of a new product or service.

• Develop an advertising plan and promotional campaign for new or existing products or services.

• Analysis of the organizational culture and the effect on employee performance.

• Analysis of current employee motivation and developing a framework on improving motivation through job design, self-leadership, rewards, etc…

• The impact of conflict within the organization and the development of a framework for managing conflict.

• Development of a market study regarding customer perceptions and attitudes towards your company or a specific product.

• Development of measures to evaluate performance in a specific area of the organization.

• Prepare and conduct a survey to measure market potential for a new product.

• Evaluate the current distribution method of a specific product and identify additional means to bring the product to the customer.

• Evaluate the current status of management information systems at the workplace and identify potential changes that would benefit the organization.

• Research, prepare and present a workshop series for employees on topics such as stress, employee motivation, ideas on improving teamwork, ethics, etc…

Internship Proposal Form

Click here to download the form in Microsoft Word.

Internship Report Guidelines

Click here to download the PDF form.

Internship Evaluation Information

Click here to download the PDF form.

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Internship Coordinator

Michelle Munro

lu_michelle@unitz.ca

Toll free: 1-888-675-4873

Please note that Michelle has a home office.  If you cannot reach her, please leave a message.

Updated February 15, 2012