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Session 2606

Summer Internships in the Construction Industry; NJIT and NJBCA, Partners in Education

John A. Wiggins, J.D., P.E. Assistant Professor Department of Engineering Technology New Jersey Institute of Technology

Abstract

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.

Introduction

The link between the classroom and the real world is an essential one for any student. This is particularly true for those students studying construction engineering technology where the focus of the curriculum as well as the interest of the student is on the application rather than theory.

For the past 15 years, the New Jersey Building Contractors Association (NJBCA) and the New Jersey Institute of technology (NJIT) have acted as partners in an endeavor to address the needs of the students as well as the needs of the local construction industry. This has been accomplished through the implementation of a summer intern program, enabling students in the construction Engineering Technology (CET) program the opportunity to serve a 12-week internship with building contractors on projects the contractors are currently constructing. The intent of the program is to provide students with a “real life” work experience by interfacing with members of the construction industry to supplement the academic experience received at NJIT. The students are paid for the work they perform but receive no academic credit for participation in this

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Wiggins, J. (1999, June), Summer Internships In The Construction Industry, Njit And Njbca: Partners In Education Paper presented at 1999 Annual Conference, Charlotte, North Carolina. 10.18260/1-2--7958