Perception of translation graduates on translation internships

For many years, institutions providing translation training have been offering a course which requires students to complete a translation project, normally during their final year, to serve as a link between classroom learning and real-life practice. However, an increasing number of institutions provide translation students with internships and/or placement and make it part of the curriculum. One possible reason for this phenomenon is the concern in recent years over possible cooperation between academic and non-academic institutions to create mutual benefit for both translation students and employers. Experiential education, including internships and placement, have been part of an important component in the curriculum of many academic fields such as medicine, education, engineering, journalism, and information technology. However, no prior empirical research on the topic has been systemically done in Translation Studies to examine to what extent translation students have benefited from their internship experience. The objective of this research is to study the perceptions and expectations of translation graduates on internship, both those who joined internships and those who did not. If internships are found to be beneficial, similar collaboration between academic and non-academic institutions should be enhanced, and more research should be conducted. However, if students perceive that internships are not as beneficial as expected, their opinions should be heard so that some remedies can be made in order to make the internships more valuable to both translation students and employers.