INTERNSHIP AS PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EDUCATIONAL BRIDGES BETWEEN UNIVERSITY AND WORKPLACE

Internships serve as an important transitional stage connecting academic education and professional activity. From a psychological perspective, internships help students test and integrate their role identity in real organisational settings; from an educational perspective, they facilitate the application of classroom learning through the completion of real-world tasks [5; 8,p.78] Key elements such as mentoring, support from colleagues and the organisation, communication, and feedback reinforce these effects. Empirical research shows that internship satisfaction and support from supervisors lead to greater engagement and stronger career commitment [1p.337; 6]. This article reviews theoretical frameworks (e.g., social learning, social identity, organisational socialisation) and recent empirical evidence to show how internships function as psychological and pedagogical bridges.