Bayt.com, the Middle East’s #1 job site, is highlighting the role of internships in career development in a new survey. The ‘Internships in the MENA Survey’ reveals that employers are offering expanded opportunities for guided learning for interns to gather knowledge and gain transferrable real-world skills, with 73% of respondents revealing that internship opportunities are widely available in their country of residence.
Benefits of Internships for Companies
Internship opportunities are essential to employment with MENA organizations hiring more interns, investing in quality programmes and working harder to bring them back as employees. According to the survey, 52% of companies offer internships where 60% always offer a full-time job to the intern whilst 20% sometimes offer a position after the internship is complete.
For the organization, the key benefits of hiring interns include identifying talent for future positions (55%), having extra help for small teams or departments (3%), completing less demanding projects at low cost (2%) and quickly filling temporary and seasonal positions (2%), while 38% of respondents say that internships contribute all of the aforementioned benefits to their organizations.
Ola Haddad, Director of Human Resources at Bayt.com says: “Internships offer an intensive learning experience by connecting knowledge with practical business skills – providing an opportunity to put theory into practice, and expose students to the industry. Our Internships in the MENA Survey highlights internships as opportunities for win-win situations. Students gain new skills, new perspectives and a new context for their education and employers gain new ideas and energy into their workplace, develop talent and potentially build a pipeline for future full-time employees.”
In addition to increasing the volume of internships, employers are broadening their offering to students as 68% of respondents say that their university requires them to complete an internship or practical training. A majority of respondents (81%) expect a growth in remote internships over the next few months, whilst a whopping 91% of survey respondents agree that internships provide a viable route to a career after they graduate by increasing fresh graduates’ chances of getting a job after college.
Most Popular Tools to Find Internships
Prospective interns use multiple channels to look for opportunities including online job sites (72%), company websites (9%), social media (7%) and personal network (3%). Internship opportunities give interns a chance to develop work competencies and professional skills and gain experience that would facilitate their academic, career, and personal development.
Most Important Skills
In terms of the most important skills that interns should have, respondents mentioned communication and teamwork skills (42%), time management (4%), creativity (3%), and research and analytical skills (3%), while 47% said interns should have all of the aforementioned skills.
Benefits of Internships for Interns
The survey also reveals that relevant opportunities offer interns a variety of benefits including gaining work experience (43%), developing new skills and knowledge (5%), building a professional network (2%), exploring their field of interest and career potential (2%) and all of the aforementioned benefits (48%).
Survey respondents outlined a range of factors that make internships attractive and help them make a decision. These include type of company/field of work (72%), type of projects and job responsibilities (19%), compensation (6%) and the ability to obtain university credit (3%).
Data for the Internships in the Middle East and North Africa Survey was collected online from June 6 to August 3, 2021. Results are based on a sample of 6,092 respondents from the following countries: UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan among others.
