Internship is a system of on-the-job training for white collars and professional careers. We can also say that internship is any official or formal program to provide practical experience for beginners like me in an occupation.
I am Nargis Qazi and I have done MBA in HRM from Institute of Business and Technology (BIZTEK), Karachi. As a business student it was always in my mind that one day I will go for an internship program. From the very beginning it was my aim to do internship at PIA. This time it was my last semester of MBA that’s why I decided to apply for internship at PIA. In April 2012 I got the call from my university that it’s my interview at PIA for internship. Well I must say the whole procedure of PIA was very impressive; the way they took the interview of candidates was the good exposure of job interview. Well I guess there were 550 candidates only in Karachi from whom 78 were selected, I was the lucky one from those 78 candidates who were selected.
The day of orientation came, 4th June, 2012, we were introduced to the PIA and its people. On the same day as per the rules, policies and procedures of PIA internship program the division of groups were done on random basis. We were the group of 6 students from different institutes, in which I was student of MBA and remaining five were BBA students. My group was assigned to work under Mr. Sohail Mehmood, DGM Employee Training at Pakistan International Airline Training Center (PTC) in Human Resource Department.
Before moving ahead what I did at PTC I would like to share what exactly PTC is. Well PTC is PIA training center where they give training to their employees and private candidates as well. They have engineering unit, flight services unit, flight operations unit and much more related to Aviation industry. During the duration of 6 weeks we were assigned with two different projects, which include the rationalization of human Resource budget and evaluation of instructors according to their productivity hours that is assigned by the high authority which is known as CAA, in rationalization of HRB we worked on 6 units out of which I worked on 4 units individually, they were Aerospace, Aviation, computer based training and management training units. Alongside with HRB rationalization, I did research work as well together with my group members.
In rationalization of HRB first and most important step was the calculation of the total working days and they were 192 after subtraction of all type of leaves, holidays and other off days, i.e. 365-173+192. It is standard in PTC that every instructor should utilize 6 hours per day that’s why we multiplied 192 with 6 to get 1152 working hours per year/instructor. Then we look at the schedule of PTC that in which instructor is allocated with which course and we calculated how much he/she is utilizing his/her hours. As I already mentioned that I worked on 4 units so after whole calculation and working I suggested PTC with new improved schedule in which I suggest training classes for private candidates and some important courses that should be thought at PTC for further improvement.
Thus, working on rationalization of HRB was not the simple task, it was really complicated but the way I did it was appreciated by our assigned instructor. My work was in the pattern that I make it easy for the reader that what is going on well, what needs attention and what is suggested because I selected different colors for that purpose i.e. green for going well, blue for suggestions and red for need attention. Reason of doing this changes in traditional HRB was, when PTC hand over their HRB to us so it was really difficult to understand what’s in these papers and everything was on different files but I did all the work in the same file of Excel for each unit for more clarification. Next thing missing in HRB was the succession planning, when I looked at HRB data I found out that some of instructors will retire in coming two years and still PIA don’t have any replacement for them as well as there was too much rely on guest speakers. So, I suggest replace for them according to their qualification and experience. The practical experience of doing succession planning of different instructors have given me the knowledge of when and how to develop whom in what circumstances.
Next assigned task was the research work related to training program, for that purpose we designed questionnaire from which my designed survey questionnaire was selected. With survey questionnaire our duty was to design badges for ourselves, which we wore during survey. So this task was also done by me. During survey we asked trainees about the courses they are enrolled in, how much they are satisfied with teachers, facilities, contents, implication of course in practical life. Results were really great, the satisfaction level of trainees were 90% that was really impressive.
So I can say that during my entire internship program I have learned to calculate hours of instructors, keenly observed the PTC’s environment, had feedback with trainees about their training, reviewed job descriptions and job specifications, analyzed data critically, came to know about different pay groups, performance evaluations and promotion criteria and on the basis of that I along with my group members ‘Rationalized’ the HRB, gave important suggestions and advised succession planning for retiring instructors and for courses where substitute instructors are needed to be developed for future, based on our thoughtful understanding. The importance and ways of meeting deadlines are also evident to me during this internship period.
Overall after completing this internship it made me capable to apply my theoretical concepts practically, moreover it enabled me to have a good know how about an international airline’s environment, working practices, corporate ethics , values, punctuality and more importantly how to communicate and work effectively with different personalities officially.
During internship we also attend two days workshop on fire fighting safety at PIA ERP center.
But wait every coin has two faces same here along with bright side of my internship dark side also exists. I was like a group leader because rest of group members were too young as they were BBA students so their mind set, thinking level and maturity level was not that much good. The major challenge for me was the handling of group members, resolving conflicts arising between them every day and guiding them how to do their assigned tasks because some of members found it difficult how to do work in negative environment. In that negative environment I was also not save from my two group members criticism and the reason for the criticism was appreciation of my work and good remarks for me from management and other group members but I took that negativity in positive way because now I am able to face these type of situations in my provisional life easily. That experience was good for me because this thing happens in real professional life.
It is the policy of PIA that in the end of internship all internees need to give presentation of their work in front of PIA officials. We did the same. I made the presentation for my group, we also present a video clip on PIA, that was made by Mr. Areeb Ali (Iqra University). Intro of presentation was given by Ms. Ayesha (Bharia University), then I cover whole HRB and Survey work and in the end Mr. Tahir (Isra University, Hyderabad) came with SKYPE suggestion (online training program). PIA officials were there to ask questions about what ever groups were presenting, I can say proudly that my group was the only one from whom only one question was asked (that was answered well) and each and every individual appreciated us for best presentation. In the end of the day best presentations were awarded with certificates. Luckily my group was awarded with the “Best Departmental Presentation” .
Doing internship at PIA was an immense learning experience and I must say if anyone wants to learn something in real then PIA internship program is the best choice, where you are listened and appreciated in a positive manner. They teach you, train you honestly how to do work.
I am Nargis Qazi and I have done MBA in HRM from Institute of Business and Technology (BIZTEK), Karachi. As a business student it was always in my mind that one day I will go for an internship program. From the very beginning it was my aim to do internship at PIA. This time it was my last semester of MBA that’s why I decided to apply for internship at PIA. In April 2012 I got the call from my university that it’s my interview at PIA for internship. Well I must say the whole procedure of PIA was very impressive; the way they took the interview of candidates was the good exposure of job interview. Well I guess there were 550 candidates only in Karachi from whom 78 were selected, I was the lucky one from those 78 candidates who were selected.
The day of orientation came, 4th June, 2012, we were introduced to the PIA and its people. On the same day as per the rules, policies and procedures of PIA internship program the division of groups were done on random basis. We were the group of 6 students from different institutes, in which I was student of MBA and remaining five were BBA students. My group was assigned to work under Mr. Sohail Mehmood, DGM Employee Training at Pakistan International Airline Training Center (PTC) in Human Resource Department.
Before moving ahead what I did at PTC I would like to share what exactly PTC is. Well PTC is PIA training center where they give training to their employees and private candidates as well. They have engineering unit, flight services unit, flight operations unit and much more related to Aviation industry. During the duration of 6 weeks we were assigned with two different projects, which include the rationalization of human Resource budget and evaluation of instructors according to their productivity hours that is assigned by the high authority which is known as CAA, in rationalization of HRB we worked on 6 units out of which I worked on 4 units individually, they were Aerospace, Aviation, computer based training and management training units. Alongside with HRB rationalization, I did research work as well together with my group members.
In rationalization of HRB first and most important step was the calculation of the total working days and they were 192 after subtraction of all type of leaves, holidays and other off days, i.e. 365-173+192. It is standard in PTC that every instructor should utilize 6 hours per day that’s why we multiplied 192 with 6 to get 1152 working hours per year/instructor. Then we look at the schedule of PTC that in which instructor is allocated with which course and we calculated how much he/she is utilizing his/her hours. As I already mentioned that I worked on 4 units so after whole calculation and working I suggested PTC with new improved schedule in which I suggest training classes for private candidates and some important courses that should be thought at PTC for further improvement.
Thus, working on rationalization of HRB was not the simple task, it was really complicated but the way I did it was appreciated by our assigned instructor. My work was in the pattern that I make it easy for the reader that what is going on well, what needs attention and what is suggested because I selected different colors for that purpose i.e. green for going well, blue for suggestions and red for need attention. Reason of doing this changes in traditional HRB was, when PTC hand over their HRB to us so it was really difficult to understand what’s in these papers and everything was on different files but I did all the work in the same file of Excel for each unit for more clarification. Next thing missing in HRB was the succession planning, when I looked at HRB data I found out that some of instructors will retire in coming two years and still PIA don’t have any replacement for them as well as there was too much rely on guest speakers. So, I suggest replace for them according to their qualification and experience. The practical experience of doing succession planning of different instructors have given me the knowledge of when and how to develop whom in what circumstances.
Next assigned task was the research work related to training program, for that purpose we designed questionnaire from which my designed survey questionnaire was selected. With survey questionnaire our duty was to design badges for ourselves, which we wore during survey. So this task was also done by me. During survey we asked trainees about the courses they are enrolled in, how much they are satisfied with teachers, facilities, contents, implication of course in practical life. Results were really great, the satisfaction level of trainees were 90% that was really impressive.
So I can say that during my entire internship program I have learned to calculate hours of instructors, keenly observed the PTC’s environment, had feedback with trainees about their training, reviewed job descriptions and job specifications, analyzed data critically, came to know about different pay groups, performance evaluations and promotion criteria and on the basis of that I along with my group members ‘Rationalized’ the HRB, gave important suggestions and advised succession planning for retiring instructors and for courses where substitute instructors are needed to be developed for future, based on our thoughtful understanding. The importance and ways of meeting deadlines are also evident to me during this internship period.
Overall after completing this internship it made me capable to apply my theoretical concepts practically, moreover it enabled me to have a good know how about an international airline’s environment, working practices, corporate ethics , values, punctuality and more importantly how to communicate and work effectively with different personalities officially.
During internship we also attend two days workshop on fire fighting safety at PIA ERP center.
But wait every coin has two faces same here along with bright side of my internship dark side also exists. I was like a group leader because rest of group members were too young as they were BBA students so their mind set, thinking level and maturity level was not that much good. The major challenge for me was the handling of group members, resolving conflicts arising between them every day and guiding them how to do their assigned tasks because some of members found it difficult how to do work in negative environment. In that negative environment I was also not save from my two group members criticism and the reason for the criticism was appreciation of my work and good remarks for me from management and other group members but I took that negativity in positive way because now I am able to face these type of situations in my provisional life easily. That experience was good for me because this thing happens in real professional life.
It is the policy of PIA that in the end of internship all internees need to give presentation of their work in front of PIA officials. We did the same. I made the presentation for my group, we also present a video clip on PIA, that was made by Mr. Areeb Ali (Iqra University). Intro of presentation was given by Ms. Ayesha (Bharia University), then I cover whole HRB and Survey work and in the end Mr. Tahir (Isra University, Hyderabad) came with SKYPE suggestion (online training program). PIA officials were there to ask questions about what ever groups were presenting, I can say proudly that my group was the only one from whom only one question was asked (that was answered well) and each and every individual appreciated us for best presentation. In the end of the day best presentations were awarded with certificates. Luckily my group was awarded with the “Best Departmental Presentation” .
Doing internship at PIA was an immense learning experience and I must say if anyone wants to learn something in real then PIA internship program is the best choice, where you are listened and appreciated in a positive manner. They teach you, train you honestly how to do work.