Associate Professor Dr Roger Lawrey, dean of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Policy Studies (FBEPS) at the UBD revealed this during the first Discovery Year Stakeholder Forum yesterday.

"The companies (FBEPS's partners) actually get to see the students who may be their potential future staff while having the opportunity to measure their abilities," he said.

The dean also explained that the internship programmes were different from conventional work attachment programmes and students would benefit from the programmes as these programmes would cover a longer period and they will be involved in first-hand projects and assignments.

"The internship is more in-depth and we would expect the students to actually undertake projects and to work on something with quantifiable outcomes ... whereas (with) work attachment, sometimes there is a work project but often the student only experiences the work environment," said Dr Lawrey.

An officer from the Brunei Tourism Development Department, Kartini Hj Kabri, thought that the internship programme was a good opportunity to test the abilities of the students.

"When we talk about university students, of course our expectation is high, we expect them to be mature, creative and innovative," she said.

InfoCom Federation Brunei (IFS) Secretariat, An iza Ishak, said that the internship would teach students how to master time management and communications.

The internship programme is one of the four Discovery Year programmes that are being offered to students of FBEPS during their third year, even though some faculties offer the programmes on the first or second year.

Among other programmes available under the Discovery Year at FBEPS are Community Outreach Programme, (COP), Student Enterprise Programme (StEP) and Study Abroad Programme (SAP).

The forum was held for the first time to provide stakeholders with an overview of the different programmes available under the Discovery Year at PEEPS, and how organisations could benefit as well as contribute to the respective programmes.

It offers students an opportunity to be more flexible, diverse in their knowledge and to apply the knowledge learned in classrooms in a practical setting through the programmes.

It was also hoped that through the forum, the faculty could exchange ideas on the Discovery Year as well as maintain sustainable partnerships with private companies and government organisations.

The Brunei Times

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