Internship and placement are the types of work experience designed for under graduated students. These are the most extensive and vast work experience schemes.

Internship

An internship is a program offered by the company to an employee called an intern. An intern is a person who works in an organization to get experience for one to three months. A student or undergraduate often enroll in an internship program to acquire skills through training.

Example

A student or undergraduate works as an intern in a firm or company which offers its employee to improve his skills and realize the potential he possesses. As an intern, a person gets partial experience and prepares himself to new challenges.

Placement

A placement is placing a candidate to full time; paid job in a company. It involves assigning a rank or giving responsibilities to an employee. After doing an internship, a company hires a person best suitable for the position in a company.

Example

When a person’s performance or qualification meets the criteria of the company’s hiring policy, he is assigned a specific job after signing the contract. He gets monthly based salary and other accommodations from the company in placement.

Internship Vs. Placement

Some critical differences between internship and placement are following. Are you confused between two? Are these programs seem overlapping? Here you go to solution. Let’s differentiate these by the following criteria.

Tenure

An internship is based on 2 to 3 months (fixed) training, while placement is a continuous or ongoing process.

Compensation

Compensation awarded to interns (in internship) is much less as compared to full-time employees (in placement).

Salary

Some internships are salary based, and others just provide experience letters while in placement, an employee gets a monthly salary according to his professional rank.

Scope of work

In the internship, an intern is usually assigned a specific task or project, and he is not allowed to interfere in a company’s affairs. The placement has a broader scope as compared to the internship, and the employee is involved in multiple tasks.

Boss

In the internship, a supervisor/boss plays the role of your guide and mentor while in placement, his job is of reporting manager and accountable for your work.

Companies offer

All the companies do not offer internships while placement is offered by all.

Why some companies offer an internship?

Most companies offer an internship to check the potential of an intern. It minimizes the risk of hiring a wrong employee for the company. In this way, a company gets a chance to select the best intern for a particular job.

When to apply

Internships are usually offered in summer holidays to students by the company, while placements have fixed months of hiring employees (often in April or May). Some large organizations also offer placements before the New Year.

Reward

Interns usually are rewarded an experience certificate or get a chance to become a permanent employee of the company after the fixed duration of training.

While in placement, an employee may get an increment or some other facilities like a flat, car, insurance policy, or medical facility.

Eligibility criteria

Internship demands specific qualifications about the field or some course/diploma. Placement demands specific qualifications and work experience in the field.

Intern Vs. Trainee

An intern is a student who works in the field to get experience while a trainee is an official employee hired by the company who gets training to acquire professional skills.

Advantages

Internship

  • It helps you to build your resume for working 2-3 months in a field.
  • You get the idea if this field suits you or not.
  • You can put your knowledge into practice.
  • You get less workload as there is no responsibility lies on you.
  • You may get leave early or have free time to relax.
  • You can build a relationship with employees, which will benefit you in the future.
  • A company may hire you if you have given your 100%.
  • You learn many skills and become professional.

Placement

  • It is a sustainable process.
  • It stabilizes your career in any field.
  • It helps you earning regularly.
  • If you work hard, you get a chance to get a higher rank in the company.
  • It awards you a bonus on events and accommodations.
  • It helps you earn fame and respect.
  • It helps you to be a rich person.

After working for many years being placed in a company, you can run your own company.

Types

Internship

  • Paid internship – Thecompany provides training to students as interns and also pay them.
  •  Internship for credit- interns are preferred from the relevant field.
  • Non- profit internship- interns are not getting paid for internships in non- profit organizations like hospitals, religious sectors, universities, etc.
  • Summer internship- during summer vacations, internship programs are offered.
  • Service-learning- programs that offer to learn and provide service at the same time.
  • Co-operative experience- a program that allows interns to acquire skills for a particular field.
  • Externship/ Job shadowing – the short period program gives a bird’s eye view to interns for the field.

Placement

  • On-campus placement- a university arranges the placement sessions and provides you the detail of the company.
  • Off-campus placement- candidates need to apply for the job themselves.

Is the internship necessary for placement?

The internship is not an essential element to get placement. Some private companies prefer interns to award a job due to work experience in the field and improved skills. Other companies give fresh graduates a chance to work in a field.

Final Thought

We set a clear cut distinction between internship and placement. The internship is a program that provides work experience of the field to interns while placement assigns a job to a person according to his qualification and compatibility level. The internship is a fixed-term program, while placement is an ongoing and salary based program. Do you agree?