Summer internships in the construction industry; NJIT and NJBCA, partners in education

The focus of an undergraduate engineering technology education should be geared to meet the requirements of industry and impart real-life skills. In an effort to expose students to real-life work experience, the Department of Engineering Technology of the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the New Jersey Building Contractors Association have developed a partnership over the past fifteen years to offer summer internships in the construction industry. The scope of the program is a twelve-week placement of the student in a construction firm. During this period, the students are mentored by the contractor, a representative from the New Jersey Building Contractor's Association and a department representative from the New Jersey Institute of Technology to assure that the student is exposed to the full range of activities of a construction firm, both in the office as well as in the field. As the program has reached its fifteenth year of participation, the results of past and present participants have been reviewed to offer and insight to the positive and negative aspects and impacts of running an internship program.