Over View of the Internship in the Geography Program

Geography Program, College of Humanities and Social Sciences

United Arab Emirates University

February, 2004

Introduction

The objective of this document is to provide an overview about Field Practicum or Internship at the Geography Program in the old and the new curriculum. In the old curriculum there are two courses (6 credit hours) related to the Internship (Field Practicum 1 and Field Practicum 2). The new curriculum includes one course (3 credit hours) related to Internship (Practicum or Research Seminar/Experience).

In the old curriculum Field Practicum 1 is done inside the University at the GIS lab with some visits and exposure to governmental and private departments. While Field Practicum 2 is done by allocating students at some governmental department. The Internship in the new curriculum is similar to Field Practicum 2, therefore, issues and problems related to Field Practicum 2 can be addressed in order to minimize their impact on the new Internship course.

Field Practicum 1:

Field Practicum 1 course is intended to mimic the early experience a new GIS graduate might meet in the workplace. A project that emphasizes problem solving in GIS is the key component of the course. It includes data acquisition and management, project implementation, data analysis, and presentation. For example, during the second semester of the academic year 2002/2003, 27 GIS students were enrolled in the course. Students were subdivided into groups and each group selected a specific GIS project. Examples of these projects include GIS for schools, GIS for telecommunication, and GIS for tourism.

In addition to the projects a series of visits had been arranged with departments that implemented GIS. Examples of these department include Abu Dhabi Municipality, Al Ain Town Planning Department, Etisalat, and Dubai GIS Center. The objective of these visits is to know why and how GIS is used in a variety of government and businesses agencies (out reach). GIS employers delivered talks on their experiences with GIS implementation followed by live demonstration on GIS systems and discussion with students. Speakers from Abu Dhabi Municipality have come to the University (end-reach) and delivered talk about their GIS experience.

Problems associated with Field Practicum 1 course:

- Teaching load: Faculty members have to be around in the GIS lab for 8 hours per week delivering some spatial analysis lectures and hands on GIS software. However, the load is calculated by the University as half the time i.e. 4 hours only.

- Team working: The objective of dividing students into groups is to encourage team working. However, some students are not fully cooperated with the team.

- Language: The GIS software is in English and majority of students have a little experience in getting use of the online help available in the program. The University can run during winter vacation short technical training and English courses.

- Visits: It was noted that the number of students joined the field visits was low. This may be due to the timing of the visits (many students have quizzes) or most probably the reluctant of students to visit the departments due to other reasons (e.g. some families have reservations about the visits).

Field Practicum 2:

The current program requires students to work at a government agency or a company for three months at a rate of eight hours a week. The students visit the place of training twice a week. Students always face transportation problem because the bus will spend at least one and a half hour for transportation.

The purpose of the training is to give students an idea about the reality of the job market and make them ready to join the working force in the country.

Centered on Al-Ain city and forced to get the training during school time where students has to attend school in the same time, limit students to opportunities available only in Al-Ain.

The reality is:

During the last year, only one student got a real training in ERWDA Abu-Dhabi because she spent full five days-week training. During that time, ERWDA considered her a full time employee and her training was full success. The rest of students, who trained in Al-Ain and had a less than part time job, had little to show for their training. It is important to note that the treatment of students were very good at the place of work. Still the managers of training sights viewed the students as loads rather than help. In other words, the students are not viewed as productive members of the organizations they joined.

Recommendations:

1- Training I and II should be both administrated at the working environment giving student more time to do a real productive job.

2- Training should be given a full semester so that students can have an opportunity to work in other geographical locations such as in Abu Dhabi or Dubai.