Nation Building Task: Internship Program for Students of University of Computer Studies, Yangon

Abstract

In the 21st Century, the demand of experienced and educated workers has increasingly become in working environment and higher institutions like universities play a central role in nurturing the qualified students. In this context, the students from University of Computer Studies, Yangon, need training to apply efficiently their soft skills as well as hard skills. They are expected to construct the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) if they realise the contrast of theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience before they hunt job in the real world. It means that before completing their Bachelor Degree, the university makes the internship program for them. Students are sent to the industries or companies and they are really engaged to the business fields or workplace. On this occasion, the engaged learning programme, as a theoretical background, is required not only for the students but for the faculty members of the university who involves teaching-learning situation. For language teachers especially those who are teaching English need to change their curriculum in order to meet the current situation. In previous semesters, the IELTS was prescribed starting from the first year level to the final year level, but since 2016- 17 academic year, the 21st century communication skills have been conducted in the final year. It can be found that students become interested in communication skills and they also motivate in their English language learning. Communicative Language Teaching method has been used to teach authentic texts and to converse about learners' personal experiences. Students are grouped in discussion and debates, which promotes their four skills. The students can also utilize the communication skills in their report writing and project after they complete intern programme. The aim of this paper is to enhance the students’ performance by developing curriculum that can support in their learning and provide real needs. In other words, by means of engaged learning and intern programme, the capacity of human resources can be effectively built and it can be said that curriculum development is associated with the development of a society, a community, or a country.