An internship is a work experience that is directly related to the student’s major or career interest. This experience should provide practical, hands-on responsibilities that are actively supported by a supervisor or mentor.
Typically, the best internship opportunities will outline specific guidelines that highlight the quality and level of work in the description. Internships may or may not be paid opportunities.
Co-ops tend to be paid, supervised, meaningful work assignments whereby students regularly combine classroom study with work experience as they pursue their education.
Today these differences are becoming transparent as campuses and employers across the country are developing and refining their own unique brands of experiential education/internship programs. Now the terms "internship" and “co-op” are used almost interchangeably to refer to a real-world work or service experience where students gain practical and/or professional work experience.
At SJSU, both internships and co-ops may be part-time or full-time, with or without the choice for academic credit, and either a mandatory or optional part of the academic plan depending on individual department guidelines.
Internship experiences differ from jobs primarily in the emphasis on learning and professional development.
A job is a paid work experience that may be unrelated to your major and may lack specific learning goals.
All work experiences can have their share of routine tasks (data entry, clerical work, telephone calling). However, internships should be offered with the intent to foster experiential learning and professional training at least 80% of the time.
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