What is an Internship?
The Internship component is about 40% of the course. This component of the Diploma in Ministry or Diploma in Christian Leadership requires the student to be engaged in practical ministry experience in a church or Christian ministry organisation for at least 15 hrs per week. A contract between the student and church/ministry organisation needs to be completed and returned to the Course Co-ordinator. All organisations need the approval of Vision College.
The intern’s practical ministry experience is monitored by a Supervisor, in the place where the student is working. The Supervisor will meet initially with the intern to develop agreed outcomes for the period of the internship. Regular meetings continue on an ongoing basis for the purpose of enabling the intern to reflect on their ministry experience and the Supervisor to guide them as they learn.
Vision College is fully involved in this process, both to ensure a satisfactory programme of internship and that the academic outcomes are met.
The Apprenticeship Model
A good way to think of an internship is like an apprenticeship.
If Philip started as an electrical apprentice he may run wires all day helping the qualified electrician out with the more mundane parts of the job. And that’s fine. But in a year’s time if as an apprentice he is still only running wires, something went wrong. He should be developing skills as he goes along to the point where (after a couple of years) he can do everything an electrician needs to do.
That’s what we like to see happen in an internship – the roles of interns can be widely varied, and are built around the needs of the church and the skills and passion of the intern. But in all internships we like to see the intern being apprenticed - developing in skills and competency, in ministry.
