Internship in Human Relations
Experience scope
Categories
Leadership Change management Internal communications Training & development Workplace cultureSkills
facilitation training and development community development organizational development program designAre you looking to provide additional or expanded services to your clients, or work on special projects but don't have adequate resources or time to do so?
Our students have successfully completed a comprehensive range of courses, cultivating skills around understanding organizations and communities and facilitating interventions in small group settings. As facilitators, they will be able to assess the situation, identify needs and develop new programs or initiatives, and help your organization build effective teams.
Their well developed interpersonal and communication skills will most likely be assets to your business or community environment.
Learners
The deliverables will be agreed upon with the organization, as part of a contract with the students.
Internship Requirements
- Students will devote a minimum of 200 hours over the fall/winter term to their placements site
- Students will engage in work that relates to their human relations training and expertise. Ex: interpersonal communication, group process, small group leadership, program design, facilitation, organizational and/or community development, and research methods
1. Group experience
a) Design, implement and evaluation a 6-8 session program with a specific training or psycho-educative focus.
OR
- b) Provide process facilitation to a group over a period of at least 8 sessions in order to improve its functioning and productivity.
2. Organizational Project
Previous organizational projects have included: conducting research, reviewing and revamping existing procedures and/or developing new ones, conducting a needs assessment, and working with management on organizational change projects.
Project Examples
Requirements
In their internship projects, students are expected to devote 200 hours to a client organization, in work that relates to their human relations training and expertise. They are asked to design, facilitate and evaluate an intervention or program with a group of participants or stakeholders.
The possible fields of intervention can be (non-exhaustive list):
- Workshops (possible themes: conflict, interpersonal communications, collaboration, etc.);
- Programs (possible themes: trust building, team development, skill sharing, community development, intergenerational relationships, cultural diversity, youth work);
- An organization development intervention (ex: strategy session, strategic planning, team development, onboarding plan, employee retention strategy, etc.);
- A series of community conversations to explore a topic or a question of interest (ex: inclusion, community, resilience, sustainability, etc.)
Internship Purpose and Goals
- To enable students to gain professional experience as well as an appreciation and understanding of the roles, duties, and responsibilities of the practice of human relations in a real world context.
- To provide students with opportunities to integrate theory and practice.
- To encourage the exchange of contemporary views on current issues and practices between the intern, professionals in the field, and the academic cohort and supervisor.
- To enable students to increase their knowledge in order to make informed choices concerning future jobs, learning experiences, and/or further areas of study
- To enable students to recognize personal strengths and challenges in the field of human relations.
Additional company criteria
Companies must answer the following questions to submit a match request to this experience:
Provide feedback to the student in order to assess their professionalism and the completion of objectives.
Be available for a phone call with the instructor to initiate your relationship and confirm your scope is an appropriate fit for the course, as well as regular check-in on progress.
Provide a dedicated contact who is available over the duration of the project to address students' questions and provide feedback (ideally once a week).