OVERVIEW

The Compulsory Internship Programme (CIP) is a capstone of the Department of Communications and New Media. All students majoring in CNM will undertake a period of industry placement to orientate themselves to their future careers, with the support and guidance of the CNM CIP Team.

Students will enrol under NM3550C for 12 weeks*.

*If you are from the pre-CHS cohort please contact the CIP team directly for guidance as the structure will be significantly different for you. 

Internships serve to extend students' learning to provide exposure to industrial settings that will allow students to test out their interests, careers and enhance their immersive learning experience. While students are encouraged to undertake some internships on their own initiative, it is also important to consider their study/work-life balance, and maintain an optimum degree of self-care. Students who need more information about this can speak to their CFG career counsellors or the CNM CIP Team.

Upon completion, students will receive:

• 12 Units for Cohorts 2020 and before
• 8 Units for Cohorts 2021 (CHS) onwards

Since its inception, more than 500 students have completed their internships across 270 Partner Organisations (POs) with diverse internship positions in public relations, digital marketing, corporate communication, video production and UI/UX design. Key POs that students have interned at include NBC Universal, Our Grandfather Story, Henkel Singapore, Wilhelmsen Ships (S) Service, and Prime Minister's Office, Singapore Press Holdings, Health Promotion Board, Mediacorp, Defence Collective Singapore, TBWA and WE Communications, to name a few.

The programme seeks to provide students with the link between academic learning and practical applications so that students are better prepared for transitioning to the workplace upon graduation. Students are given the chance to observe industry practitioners in action, gain relevant industry knowledge, develop soft skills and plan their careers as they interact and network with colleagues in their organisation.

ELIGIBILITY

*To be eligible for CIP, students must have read and passed a minimum of 80 units, of which 24 units are NM courses.

CNM First Majors
All students reading NM as their first major will need to complete CIP. Note that CIP is in addition to the 60 Units of NM or NM-recognised courses. It will be recognised towards the CHS curriculum requirements. See here for details.

CNM Second Majors
For students reading NM as a second major, CIP is optional, counting towards their NM graduation requirements of 40 Units of NM or NM-recognised courses.

CNM Minors
Students reading NM as a minor are not eligible for CIP.

Students are encouraged to plan their journey carefully. As long as they fulfil their 24 credits they are eligible to read CIP in any year. Please seek academic counselling from CNM Undergraduate Enquiries if you require assistance with planning your journey.

DURATION

CIP runs for a minimum of 12 weeks twice yearly. The first run is in the special term (May-July) and the second run is in Semester 1 (August-October). Students will choose one run.

Please note that:

• Internships may start no later than one week from the official start date. E.g., if CIP starts on 1^st August, students should not start later than 8^th August.  
• Organisations may ask students to start earlier or later, e.g. Jul-Dec, or Jan-Jun. Anything that falls outside of the formal run period is considered a private arrangement between the student and the organisation, and does not require the CIP Team's approval.
• All CIP assessments (quiz, reports, supervisor’s evaluation) and meetups will only be handled during the official internship duration.
• Only full-time internships may be accepted for CIP.

TIMELINE

Please look out for email announcements from CNM about upcoming CIP briefings.

APPLICATION PROCESS

1. Eligible students may search under the 'FASS CNM Compulsory Internship' programme tag on NUS TalentConnect. Please refer to the 'TalentConnect' section for more information.
2. Students may also search for an internship on other job platforms, such as LinkedIn, Internsg, and other websites. These are Self-Sourced Internships. Please refer to the section below under "Self-sourced Internships" for more information.
3. Upon confirmation of placement, students must ensure that the internship offer is captured on TalentConnect, even for self-sourced internships.

ALLOWANCE

The department recommends a minimum monthly allowance of S$1000/-. No CPF contributions are required. Students are not allowed to take on unpaid internships for the programme.

LEAVE AND TIME-OFF

Interns are entitled to pro-rated leave after a period of 3 months, and this term of employment is something employers agreed to when they contracted with NUS. Students are to ensure they have these in their contracts.* 

If you don't, and your employers disagree with these conditions, please contact the CIP Team at cnminternship@nus.edu.sg.

*Note that government agencies and some companies do not honour this. 

MEDICAL LEAVE

Students should inform their workplace supervisors if they are unwell. Students should not take leave without their supervisor's consent or knowledge. Supervisors may require students to submit a Medical Certificate.

TUITION FEES

During the course of internship, regular semester fees remain applicable, as students receive course units for their participation in the internship programme. This also means that students will maintain their status as a matriculated NUS student during their internship and thus enjoy continued access to NUS medical and insurance benefits.

For more information on matriculated students' insurance coverage, please refer here.

Students are not to apply for a Leave of Absence to complete CIP.

THINGS TO NOTE

• Students should read through CFG's internship guidelines for students before signing a contract.
• It is mandatory for students preparing to embark on CIP to attend the CIP Orientation Programme and the CIP Pre-Departure Briefing so that they are updated on all components of the programme including any changes.
• Internships should run a minimum of 12 weeks, according to the stipulated CIP dates.

Self-sourced internships require the department’s approval before they are accepted. The self-sourced internship's job-scope has to be related to CNM in order to be approved.

Self-sourced internship offers must also be captured on TalentConnect - the organisation will need to create an account and posting, and make an offer to students there. Please contact the CIP Team for assistance with TalentConnect.

To have a self-sourced internship be approved, please write in to cnminternship@nus.edu.sg with the following information:

• Name of internship position​
• Organisation's Name
• Internship job description
• Start and end dates of the internship
• Stipend
• Name and email of a contact person from the organisation