Executive Summary

Internship is an opportunity to integrate career related experience into undergraduate education by participating in a planned and supervised work. It helps students to acquire professional experience in what they learned in school. It helps in improving the skill of students that will qualify them for the job market. Internship is also a partial requirement from the University of Buea to be awarded B.Sc. in Economics. Due to this fact, I was privilege to do my internship in the Presbyterian Printing Press (PPP) for a period of one month.

The Presbyterian Printing Press is an institution of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon situated at Down Beach Limbe. Following a favorable market demand, the printing press was re-established in 1991 and inaugurated by the Prime Minister H.E. Simon Achidi Achu in 1992. The objective of Press Print is to produce printed products of top quality inn order customer’s satisfaction. The organization aims at diversifying their production system. This is seen by its plans in opening new departments in the company (fabric printing).

During my internship program, I was given the opportunity to work. I had some experience in the different departments which are; marketing department, Production Department, Setting Department.

The Organization have some strengths like; having strong BOD, having quarterly meetings to educate workers, good reception services, as well as they possess some weaknesses which includes; lack of internet connection, so many competitors, lack of customer service. I can genuinely say that the internship training program was the best experience as far as education is concern at Presprint Limbe.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The Faculty of Social and Management Sciences of the University of Buea has made Internship and Industrial Training a compulsory requirement to be awarded the B.Sc. in Bachelor Degree.

1.1 Background of Study

Internship is a period of work experience offered by an employer to interns, usually undergraduates, student. Internship is a learning opportunity that expose students to the working environment. Internship allows students to use their theoretical knowledge in practice.

Internship expose student to better understand the cooperate world. Internship helps to professionally learn experience that offers meaningful practical work related to student’s field of study or career interest. Internship is an opportunity to integrate career related experience into an undergraduate education by participating in a planned and supervised work.

Internship can be as short as one month and as long as 12months. In some organizations, interns are being paid while in others they are not paid. So payments of interns depend on the organization.

Interns are normally headed by a supervisor who helps them or assigns them to do specific tasks and evaluate their performance at the end of the internship.

Unlike other traditional vocational training programs, internship is not designed to train students for specific jobs upon graduation. It is rather done so students can be exposed to career fields, practical skills, experience and greater knowledge of an industry. Internship also helps students to know if the career they are pursing or experiencing is right for them or not.

It also helps students to make valuable contacts that is, creating of connections with people or experts in the field. It also helps as a first stage in securing a job and being a start of the career journey. Internship helps to contributes to students personal and professional development through challenging work assignments.

The University of Buea also took over this practice of internship in the various department in the year 1974. The Department of Economics is one of the departments that carries out internship.

The author carried out her internship in the prestigious Presbyterian Printing Press (PPP) Limbe for a period of one month. During this period, the author was rotated to all the offices that concerned her field of study in the organization.

The offices are; Department and office orientation, Setting Department, Screen Printing Department. Due to the rotation to all the offices, the author gets to learn many things. She gets to learn real life situations, and was to apply theories which was studied in school. The author learned time management, importance of team responsibility and the aspect of leading.

1.2 Characteristics of Internship

• Internship must be done before a student graduates from the university
• It helps in contributing to the students personal and professional development through challenging work assignments.
• Internship involves a supervision component that is mentoring and educational.
• Internship is most successful when the student, university and employer all work in hand to make it a valuable experience.
• Internship is made up of career related experience that complement what is done in the classroom (theory).

1.3 Objective of Internship

• Internship allow students to have knowledge on business practices and procedures used in various organization.
• To improve the skill of students, that will qualify them for the job market in future (for example; passing the employer interview and resume writing).
• To allow students to practically apply their theoretical knowledge, studied in school.
• To help students in understanding work ethics, employment demands, responsibilities and opportunities.
• Internship provides students with preliminary work experience that can prepare them for their future careers.
• Internship is also meant for creating a professional network for future purpose.

1.4 Importance of Internship

Internship has become very important because, employers feel that some students lack skills and practical experience to use in the job market. Employers want graduates with qualities like; leadership, motivation, oral communication skills, interpersonal skills and experience.

As a result of that, many companies have now offer internship trainings to students, in order for them to be prepared for the job market, and also to portray the traits the employers desire. This brings to the fact that internship is beneficial to the student, the employer and the university.

1.4.1 Importance to the student

• Internship help students to have the knowledge of the career path they have chosen and what It is like in the field.
• Students can get the chance to get connected and increase their professional network.
• Internship help students to explore skills, knowledge and theories which they had learned in school.
• Students can become more encouraged and confident; develop personal skills by gaining professional skills.
• It helps the interns to learn more about themselves that is setting your goals and how to achieve them.
• Internship allow students to view the workplace and compare it to their expectations.
• Students are being exposed to real life situation/experience with the help of internship.
• It helps interns to know the importance (and to practice) communication and teamwork skills.

Overview Of The Corporation

Presentation of Presbyterian Press Print Corporation

Around the late 1430s, a German man named Johann Gutenberg was quite desperate to find a way to make money. At the time, there was a trend in attaching small mirrors to one’s hat or clothes in order to soak up healing powers when visiting holy places or icons. The mirrors themselves were not significant, but Gutenberg quietly noted how lucrative it was to create mass amounts of a cheap product.

During the 1300s to 1400s, people had developed a very basic form of printing. It involved letters or images cut on blocks of wood. The block would be dipped in ink and then stamped onto paper. Gutenberg already had previous experience working at a mint, and he realized that if he could use cut blocks within a machine, he could make the printing process a lot faster.

Even better, he would be able to reproduce texts in great numbers. Instead of using wood blocks, Gutenberg used metal instead. This became known as a “movable type machine,” since the metal block letters could be moved around to create new words and sentences.

With this machine, Gutenberg made the very first printed book, which was naturally a reproduction of the Bible. Today the Gutenberg Bible is an incredibly valuable, treasured item for its historical legacy. Presprint Plc is a diverse company with many services/Products to offer to you all. All these are outline below;

Presbyterian Printing Press (Presprint PLC) was founded in 1991 and inaugurated in 1992 by former prime minister of the republic of Cameroon Mr. Simon Achidi Achu. At its creation it was operating as a presbook printing press under Presbook Plc.  and gained its status as a private limited company (Presprint Ltd) in 1999 separate from Presbook. In 2002 it became a public Limited Company (Presprint Plc.) with its registered head office at Down beach limbe, Fako Division, southwest region of Cameroon.

So far it has 11 offices in Cameroon, 2 in the center region and 1 each in the other regions. The company is dully registered under the ministry of transport. Members of the company at a General Assembly, elect Board of Directors who is entrusted with the responsibilities to manage the affairs of the organization.

Presprint was created with the aim to offer FIRST CLASS SERVICES combined WITH VALUE FOR MONEY. The vision is to continue crafting in faith the evangelistic mission of our forerunners.

It is also to promote development in the Cameroon through its services of printing. Again, to improve the standard of living of Cameroonians through it employment opportunities. To promote education in the country through it’s typing and printing services. It is meant to enhance communication that is visual communication, through the things they print for example the postal.

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