The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has summarized discussions at the Research and Research Collaborators' Meeting (chaired by Koichi Ogiue, former president of Tokyo Metropolitan University) regarding the internships that have been implemented at universities nationwide, and in principle, set up a training period of 5 days or more. At the same time, he showed the direction of strengthening the involvement of the university side and developing it into a formal curriculum.
According to the Ministry of Education, there were strong calls at the collaborators' meeting to involve work experience and strengthen university involvement as an internship reform direction.It requires credit recognition, pre- and post-guidance period setting, and joint implementation by universities and companies.
Short-term programs that do not involve work experience should use a different name that suits the actual situation, such as "seminar," and should be distinguished from internships. There were also voices citing the spread of internships.
As of 2014, 72.9 universities nationwide are conducting internships to accredit credits, which is 566% of the total. Compared to 1997, it has increased more than five times.As the number of universities increases, the number of participating students is increasing, but the number of participants is only 5% of all students.
Most students apply individually for internships offered by companies and employment support sites.These are less than five days long, do not involve work experience, and are effectively a place for company explanations.
In Europe and the United States, long-term internships of one month or more are the mainstream, and the number of participating students is larger than in Japan.Japan, which has an extremely low participation rate in internships that accredit credits, is said to be a unique example in the world.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has been holding a collaborators' meeting since 2016, exchanging opinions on the ideal way of internships and the direction of concrete reforms.
