Work-based internship training has become an important educational component in many IT programmes at vocational institutions. Internship is beneficial for both, the students and host organisations. For students, the main benefits of an internship include gaining real-world experiences, staying up to date with latest technologies and preparing for their future career by building the right connections with industry professionals. Organisations hosting interns benefit by gaining access to fresh talents, training them in high demand areas to address the market shortages, and having the opportunity to contribute to the curriculum design that addresses industry skill shortages.

The demand for IT programmes with internship component is increasing. However, due the economic constraints and strict industry compliance, securing internships is becoming a challenging task. Industries have limited resources for training and education, as well as limited space to accommodate students on their premises. In addition, industries have strict rules regarding privacy and security, as they deal with real clients and sensitive data. Allowing students with limited or no training poses a significant risk. A strong collaboration between academia and industry is required to ease these constraints, increase internship opportunities and address market skill shortages.

This work provides a detailed analysis of the challenges in offering work-based internships and ways to address them with sustainable and scalable solutions. It examines the common internship model and its limitations, where industry offers a limited number of internships to students based on selection criteria they set. The study then proposes enhanced models to address these limitations, aiming to improve internship opportunities in a way that benefits both students and hosts organisations. The proposed models are categorised into two main categories: project-based and training-based models. In the project-based model, students work on projects designed to meet requirements set by industry. The projects will be conducted under the supervision of the academic staff, with the industry acting as a key stakeholder, serving as clients and accepting the project outcomes towards the end. In the training-based model, students will get trained on topics that serve the industry needs and the continuity of their business. Due to greater involvement of the academic institutions, these models address the scalability and the sustainability of the internship. Regardless of the number of students, the internship opportunities will increase with minimum impact on the industry.

The paper will also discuss the experience of delivering internship in the cybersecurity diploma at Unitec, New Zealand, and the opportunities and challenges it faces. Finally, it discusses ways to increase the motivation and commitment of students toward their internship.

Keywords: Work-based learning, internship models, academy-industry collaboration.