One-Year Internship Program on Software Engineering: Students' Perceptions and Educators' Lessons Learned

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Abaei, Golnoush, Shahin, Mojtaba, Spichkova, Maria
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Abaei, Golnoush
Shahin, Mojtaba
Spichkova, Maria
author_facet Abaei, Golnoush
Shahin, Mojtaba
Spichkova, Maria
contents The inclusion of internship courses in Software Engineering (SE) programs is essential for closing knowledge gaps and improving graduates' readiness for the software industry. Our study focuses on year-long internships at RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia), which offers in-depth industry engagement. We analysed how the course evolved over the last 10 years to incorporate students' needs and summarised the lessons learned that can be helpful for other educators supporting internship courses. Our qualitative analysis of internship data based on 91 reports during 2023-2024 identified three challenge themes the students faced, and which courses were found by students to be particularly beneficial during their internships. On this basis, we proposed recommendations for educators and companies to help interns overcome challenges and maximise their learning experience.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_21548
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle One-Year Internship Program on Software Engineering: Students' Perceptions and Educators' Lessons Learned
Abaei, Golnoush
Shahin, Mojtaba
Spichkova, Maria
Software Engineering
The inclusion of internship courses in Software Engineering (SE) programs is essential for closing knowledge gaps and improving graduates' readiness for the software industry. Our study focuses on year-long internships at RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia), which offers in-depth industry engagement. We analysed how the course evolved over the last 10 years to incorporate students' needs and summarised the lessons learned that can be helpful for other educators supporting internship courses. Our qualitative analysis of internship data based on 91 reports during 2023-2024 identified three challenge themes the students faced, and which courses were found by students to be particularly beneficial during their internships. On this basis, we proposed recommendations for educators and companies to help interns overcome challenges and maximise their learning experience.
title One-Year Internship Program on Software Engineering: Students' Perceptions and Educators' Lessons Learned
topic Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.21548