To produce qualified prospective teachers, real experience is needed through teaching in schools through an apprenticeship program. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the internship program for the English Education Program of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (PBI UMY), which is usually held offline, was held online this semester. This online internship program was launched on Friday (25/08) morning at UMY.

In her opening remarks, the Head of the UMY PBI Study Program, Sri Rejeki Murtiningsih, PhD, said that the implementation of this online internship program is expected to be carried out optimally and can help students improve their pedagogical competence even in the midst of a pandemic.

410 students of semester 3 and 5 were deployed to take part in apprenticeship programs in 30 schools consisting of 13 junior high schools and 17 high school high schools spread across various cities and districts in the Special Region of Yogyakarta. This online dispatch marks the start of an internship program that will be held until the end of December 2020. In this online-based internship, students are divided into 30 groups, each consisting of 13 to 18 students. In this semester, the apprenticeship program will be held online with guidance from civil service teachers for the development of lesson plans, teaching materials, teaching media, and student assessment tools.

Coordinator of the PBI UMY Internship Program, Ika Wahyuni Lestari, M.Hum. said that these online internships are hoped that PBI UMY students would still get the opportunity to learn directly from teachers in partner schools. “Even though it is done online, through this program, we hope that PBI students will still have the opportunity to learn directly from partner teachers so that their competence as future educators can be built by prioritizing the safety and health of all parties,” she concluded.