RE: Question 2: Integrating Career Preparation

In the last few weeks, those of us in the Computer Information Systems department at San Jose City College have been working on revising our curriculum to meet the current workforce requirements. At one of our recent Industry Advisory Board (IAB) meetings, several Industry representatives stated the need for "soft skills" such as project management, leadership, team building, written and oral communications, initiative and risk-taking. I wonder if Internships provide these skills as well as the "hard skills," such as keyboarding, Internet, presentations, and MS Office products skills required, for example, for an Administration Assistant. (However, several of our IAB members said that Internships were expensive for companies to support.) 
On the other hand, at a recent Digital Bridges Symposium in Berkeley, CA, Harris Miller, President of the Information Technology Association of America, reported that employers looked most favorably upon prospective employees who had both technical ability and practical training, such as that provided by Internships.
In an attempt to respond to both of those trends, those of us at the Community College level seek to combine on-the-job-training with academic skills. Therefore, it often seems as if we're caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place,i.e., trying to provide an academic education for those interested in jumping into the workforce as soon as possible.