INDUSTRIAL PRACTICAL TRAINING

AT
NATIONAL ROADS AUTHORITY

DURATION: FROM 3rd JULY TO 29th AUGUST 2021

BY
Twareeq Hassan

REG NO: 19321351021

BSC COMPUTER SCIENCE

DMI – ST JOHN THE BAPTIST UNIVERSITY, LILONGWE

MALAWI

ACADEMIC YEAR (2020/2021)

 DECLARATION

I TWAREEQ HASSAN Regno: 19321351021 hereby declare that this report is written in
partial fulfilment of the requirements of the award of a Bachelor of Science in Computer
Science at DMI st John the Baptist University, is my very own work experienced, learnt and
faced during my internship at NATIONAL ROADS AUTHORITY Lilongwe from
3th/July/2021 to 29th/August/2021. This content is my original work and has never been
submitted to any institution.

Signature ……………………………………. Date ………………………….

i
 APPROVAL

This is to certify that Twareeq Hassan RegNo:19321351021 successfully carried out his
internship at NATIONAL ROADS AUTHORITY, under my supervision and is now ready
for submission to the department of computer science Islamic University in Uganda.

INTERNAL SUPERVISOR

NAME.................................................

DATE: ..............................

WORK SUPERVISOR

NAME: .........................................................................................................

DATE: ..............................

ii
 DEDICATION

Efforts, dedications, and commitment were fundamental elements for the completion of my
internship, more important was the support by my family members and friends. To my
mother in particular, Mrs Getrude Jackson, My Father Mr Hassan Mia, Brothers, Sister, and
Friends, today I dedicate this very important report to them because without their presence,
support, love, and understanding I would have never have been able to achieve my goal.

Last but not the least, I would also like to also dedicate this internship report to Mr. Kings
Grayson my agency supervisor and Mr. Stephen my work place supervisor.

iii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, I humbly offer my glory and honour to the Almighty ALLAH/GOD for
the gift of life and giving me strength to perform my responsibilities as an Internee and
complete the report within the stipulated time.

I am deeply indebted to my Agency supervisor Mr. Kings Grayson, for his whole-hearted
supervision during my organisational attachment, senior lecturers of the computer science
department, and to the entire staff of DMI st John University for extending their support
towards the success of my Organisational attachment (internship). I am also grateful to Mr.
Emmanuel Matapa for giving me opportunity to carry out my internship from their company
(National Roads Authority) and also for being my work place supervisor. It would have been
very difficult to prepare this report without their guidance.

My gratitude goes also to the entire computer science department of DMI st John University
for arranging Organisational attachment (Internship-program) that facilitates integration of
theoretical knowledge with real life situation.

Last but not least of all, I owe so much to my whole family for their undying support, their
unwavering belief that I can achieve so much unfortunately, I cannot thank everyone by name
because it would take a lifetime but, I just want you all to know that you count so much, had
it not been for all your prayers, love and help, I would never have completed this report. So,
thank you all.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION........................................................................................................................i
APPROVAL..............................................................................................................................ii
DEDICATION..........................................................................................................................iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT........................................................................................................iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATION/ ACRONYMS..........................................................................viii
LIST OF FIGURES..................................................................................................................ix
ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................................x
CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Introduction........................................................................................................................11

1.2. Background of the field attachment..................................................................................11

1.2.1. Definition of Field Attachment......................................................................................11

1.2.2. Intentions / purpose of field attachment.........................................................................11

1.3 Objectives of Cyntax Computer solutions.........................................................................12

1.4 Vision, Mission, Goals and objectives...............................................................................14

1.4.1 Vision..............................................................................................................................14

1.4.2 Mission............................................................................................................................14

1.5 Size and Structure..............................................................................................................14

1.6 Geographical Location.......................................................................................................15

1.7 Core Values of the Company.............................................................................................15

1.8 Company Roles..................................................................................................................16

1.9 My position at Cyntax Computer Solutions.......................................................................16

1.10 My Basic Computing Area...............................................................................................16

1.11 Main activities of the Organization..................................................................................16

CHAPTER TWO

DESCRIPTION OF INTERNSHIP

2.0 Introduction......................................................................................................................18

2.1 Internship..........................................................................................................................18

2.2 Internship department.....................................................................................................18

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2.3 Size and structure of department...................................................................................18

2.4 Roles of the department in co-activities.........................................................................18

2.5 Nature of work/tasks carried..........................................................................................18

2.5.1 Week One.......................................................................................................................18

Orientation..............................................................................................................................19

Field work...............................................................................................................................19

Environment setup (software installation)...........................................................................19

System Study and setup.........................................................................................................19

2.5.2 Week Two......................................................................................................................20

Software Development...........................................................................................................20

2.5.3 Week Three....................................................................................................................20

Software Development...........................................................................................................20

Database Programming.........................................................................................................20

2.5.4 Week Four......................................................................................................................21

System Login interfaces.........................................................................................................21

Computer Graphics Designs.................................................................................................22

Report Writing and Documentation.....................................................................................22

2.5.5 Week Five.......................................................................................................................22

System report creation...........................................................................................................22

Computer Care and Maintenance........................................................................................22

Website development.............................................................................................................23

2.5.6 Week Six.........................................................................................................................23

Networking..............................................................................................................................23

Cross-Over..............................................................................................................................24

Publishing a system................................................................................................................24

System Backup.......................................................................................................................24

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 CHAPTER THREE

ANALYSIS

3.0 Introduction......................................................................................................................25

3.1 Internship Work experience............................................................................................25

3.2 Examples I did during internship...................................................................................25

3.3 Technical experience........................................................................................................25

3.4 Non-technical experience.................................................................................................27

3.5 Analysis of individual performance................................................................................27

3.5.1. Interaction with experienced people in the field.......................................................27

3.5.2. Learning IT area of interest........................................................................................28

3.3.3. Working with experienced and more skilled individuals.........................................28

3.6 Attributes acquired..........................................................................................................28

CHAPTER FOUR

CHALLENGES, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION.

4.0 Introduction......................................................................................................................29

4.1. Benefits derived from field attachment.........................................................................29

4.2 Challenges.........................................................................................................................29

4.2.1 Personal Challenges......................................................................................................29

4.2.2 Company Challenges....................................................................................................30

4.3 Conclusion.........................................................................................................................30

4.4 Recommendations............................................................................................................30

4.4.1 Recommendation for future interns............................................................................31

4.4.2 Recommendation for the company..............................................................................31

4.4.3 Recommendation for the University............................................................................31

REFERENCES.......................................................................................................................33

vii
 LIST OF ABBREVIATION/ ACRONYMS

ICT Information Communication Technology

C.E.O Chief Executive Officer

MS Microsoft

ERP Enterprise Resource Planning

RSD Requirements Specification Document

SDLC System Development Life Cycle

ERD Entity Relationship Diagram

IEEE Institute of Electrical Engineering

RAM Random Access Memory

RFA Road Fund Administration

NRA National Roads Authority

viii
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Showing the size and structure of Cyntax Computer Solutions...............................12

ix
 ABSTRACT
This report is in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of a Bachelor’s degree of
Science in computer Science at DMI st John the Baptist University.

This piece of report presents the company where I carried out my attachment training namely,
National Roads Authority. My training was carried out under ICT Department where I
exercised my roles as an intern. This report presents four chapters which have different
activities and issues discussed from the field including the following.

Chapter one contains the historical background of National Roads Authority, Location, The
key operations of the company, main areas of activities, organization role in the region,
strategy, mission, goals and objectives, size and structure of organization.

Chapter two contains the description of the internship department, department name, size and
the structure of the department, role of the department of the organization activities.

Chapter three contains the skills, attitudes and performance during the internship.

Chapter four contains conclusive remarks, Recommendation and challenges.

Appendix contains acceptance letter, evaluation documents and activity logs.

x
 CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Introduction.

This document reports about the field attachment period I probably underwent at National
Roads Authority, including the working experiences, challenges encountered during the
filed attachment period, analysis and evaluation of the field attachment program, its
benefits and relevance. In the final chapter, there is a conclusion and recommendations for
the Organisation I was working at.

This introductory chapter starts by giving a background of Field Attachment in the

perspective of DMI st John the Baptist University, followed by the objectives of the
company, mission, vision and goals of National Roads Authority. It also presents the
organizational and activities carried out by the organization.

1.2. Background of the field attachment

• The Malawi Roads Authority (RA) is a quasi-government body which was established
by an Act of Parliament in year 2006 with a mandate to ensure that public roads are
constructed, maintained and rehabilitated at all times.
• All Public roads, which form the national road network are under the Ministry of
Works and Public Infrastructure. The Minister has however delegated the duty of
looking after the various classes of roads to various Road Agencies like the RA, District
and Local Councils and others.  RA looks after the Main, Secondary and Tertiary roads
throughout the country.
• To better manage the road network, and respond to emergencies in good time, RA
has demarcated the network along the Administrative Regions of the country and
established an office to manage the network for the Region. RA has three regional
offices – in the North, South and Centre. Regional office North looks after all the
network in the North of Malawi. Similarly, the Central and Southern Regional offices
look after the network in their respective Regions while the Head office which is
located centrally in Lilongwe deals with policy and strategy.
• There website is a medium through which the general public, stakeholders,
development partners, government etc. are informed and updated on what is happening
on the Malawi Road Network.
• It is hoped that the information found there is useful and informative. They have
however, within the website, provided for a feedback mechanism from community, the
visitors where they may suggest any improvements in terms of content and quality of
information posted. One may also alert or suggest to RA ideas that may help to improve
the network and make Malawi roads beautiful, reliable and safe.

11
1.3 Objectives of National Roads Authority.

The main objectives of the RA are to:

1. a) Ensure that public roads are constructed, maintained or rehabilitated at all times;
and
2. b) Advise the Minister and, where appropriate, the Minister responsible for Local
Government on the preparation and the efficient and effective implementation of
annual national roads programmes referred to in Section 22 of the Roads Authority
Act.
3. To undertake research and development in the field of Civil Engineers, information
technology and to establish, provide, maintain and operate research laboratories,
workshops, projects and programmes.

4. To carry on all or any of the businesses of general engineers, designers,

manufacturers, assemblers, maintainers, importers, exporters, repairers, installers, and
dealers in engineering equipment, plant, machinery, appliances, components,
accessories, tools, jigs, dies and fixtures of all kinds, electrical, electronics, motor,
hydraulic, and civil engineers, engineering consultants, production planners,
prototype designers, draughtsman, and technicians, designers, distributors, factors,
manufacturers and merchants of, and dealers in moldings, shaping, wildings,
pressings, assemblies, repetition work and machined castings, metal founders,
converters and molders, millwrights, metallurgists, boilermakers, smiths and fitters,
wiredrawers, tube makers, tin. Plate workers, sheet metal manufacturers, workers and
dealers, thinners, galvanizers, platters, painters, sprayers and molders.

5. To undertake and execute contracts for works involving the supply of use of any
computer hardware and to carry out any auxiliary or other works comprised in such
contracts.

6. To provide internship programs for IT and computer science students to do internship

as part of field work and to practically put class knowledge into use.

7. To undertake and execute contracts for works involving the supply of use of any
computer hard ware, and to carry out any auxiliary or other works comprised in such
contracts

12
1.4 Vision, Mission and Core values

The Roads Authority (RA) is one of the two organizations (the other one is the Road Fund
Administration (RFA) which was born out of the separation of functions of the then National
Roads Authority (NRA). RA was established by an Act of Parliament No. 3 of 2006. Under
this setup, the Minister of Transport and Public Works represents Government as the ultimate
owner of the national road network. The RA falls under the Minister, and comprises a Board
with a Secretariat.

VISION
To be the best Agency and Authority in the management of public road network.

MISSION
To develop and maintain the public road network infrastructure in a cost-effective manner
with a view to providing an accessible, reliable, efficient, safe, sustainable, economic and
environmentally friendly transport system in Malawi through a highly motivated and
professional team.

CORE VALUES
In conducting its business the RA shall:

 Be driven by the need to perform effectively, efficiently and economically in the

construction and maintenance of roads in Malawi;
 Ensure that all work is carried out according to acceptable design standards and
specifications;
 Conduct its business in an open, transparent, accountable and competitive manner;
 Ensure optimum utilization of local resources;
 Ensure compliance with environmental and road safety regulations; and
 Assure its managers are given mandate to manage as partners to achieve its goals and
hold them totally accountable for their actions.

1.5 Size and Structure.

National Roads Authority is now three years old from the time of its formulation. The
company is headed by the C.E.O Mr. Emanuel Matapa and assisted by the general manager
Mr. Elijah. It is mainly administered in four units; The Internship and Project management
department, the Research and documentation department, the Graphics and designs
department and the Secretarial Unit.

13
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Membership of the Board of Directors comprises ten members representing the private and
public sectors who govern the Roads Authority. The Board defines the overall policy of the
Authority and sets the general conditions for its operations. The members are from the Road
Transport Operators Association, the Bus and Taxi Operators Association, the National Road
Safety Council, a representative of the Local Government Association, two representatives
from the National Construction Industry Council and two members of the public,
representing the general interests of the public.

The Secretary for Transport and Public Works and the Secretary for Local Government and
Rural Development are ex-officio members. Each board member, other than the ex-officio
members, has a three-year term. The Board of Directors elect a Chairman and Vice Chairman
from amongst their number

14
 GRAPHICS
REPAIR
RESEARCH
GENERAL C.E.O
SECRETARY
&ICT
&&&MANAGER

PHOTOGRAPHY
MAINTENANCE
PUBLICATIONS
INTERNSHIP

Figure 1: Showing size and Structure of RA

1.6 Geographical Location.

Road Traffic of Malawi also Known as National Roads Authority is located in three districts
of Malawi such as Mzuzu, Blantyre and Lilongwe. The organization is found in Lilongwe
area 3 near Paul Kagame Road. Tell: +265 1 750 307 Email: www.ra.org.mw

1.7 Core Values of the Company.

 Basic and professional Road Building services.

 Systems administrators and other practicing IT professionals.
 Research and Consultative Services
 Civil Engineering and Auto-Mobile Engineering

1.8 Company Roles.

 The organization provides a lot of services to the public including Certificate of

Origin, Driving License as well as working towards training for civil engineering
students, graphics design, project documentation and software and video coverage.

15
  The excellence of the company is increasing day by day as its growing in terms of
structures and numbers of clients.

1.9 My position at National Roads Authority.

For the period of field attachment, I was well placed in the company activities and indeed
priority was given to my regular training and practical understanding of issues. The company
sets up all the infrastructure needed for each one to have a work station and individualised
attention.

1.10 My Basic Computing Area.

 Website development.
 Computer graphics and design.
 System Software installation.
 Hardware maintenance.

1.11 Main activities of the Organization.

National Roads Authority carries out a number of activities, with great focus on areas of
civil engineering, Graphics design, Consultancy and Computer Hardware maintenance.
They also offer a number of Career Development opportunities such as Internship. The
sections below, provide brief descriptions of some of the services offered by National
Roads Authority.

1. Database: The Company provides database management so as to keep tracks and

information about the road projects and every employee name for easy discoverage in
the whole Organization.
2. Website development: National Roads Authority as a Engineering Oriented
company develops various software’s such as Websites, Management Information
Systems, banking systems and others.
3. Internship programs: The Company provides internship programs for IT/computer
science, civil engineering, computer engineering students as part of the field work and
to practically put class knowledge into use.
4. Research consultation: The Company also offers research consultation services in a
commendable number of fields. These include academic research, policy-oriented
research and other investigative publications.

16
5. Project documentation: Besides equipping their clients with technical knowledge,
the company goes an extra mile to introduce them to project documentation practices.
Feasibility studies, concept paper writing, memorandums of understandings are
drafted and developed.
6. Graphics design: National Roads Authority as a company also offers graphics
designing like banners designing, report cards, stickers, flyers, Identity cards and bill
boards.
7. Road’s care and maintenance: The Company extends Road’s servicing services.
That means they perform cleaning, blowing, rebuilding roads, and fixing potholes etc
for better expectations to their customers.
8. Civil engineering training: The Company provides civil engineering training in
performing some the breaking of big mountain stones into small ones. Not only
computer science students are offered the internship.
9. Presentation making: People from different organizations and companies are helped
to make presentations for meetings and workshops.

17
 CHAPTER TWO
DESCRIPTION OF INTERNSHIP
2.0 Introduction.
This contains the description of the Department for my internship and covers the Department
name, size and structure of the department, role of the Department in the organisational
activities and nature, method, accomplishments and goals of activity.

2.1 Internship.
2.2 Internship department.
The department I worked in during my internship training was the IT department of National
Roads Authority.

2.3 Size and structure of department.

My training was conducted by the engineering company under IT department which is by far
the most crucial and big department given their inclination to crafting and implementation of
the Company’s functional road building services and some kind of IT services. The
department is managed by Mr. Emmanuel Matapa.

2.4 Roles of the department in co-activities.

The ICT department is responsible for Configurations, Daily backup that is to say backing up
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and for other systems as well as to keep information
about the company up to date so that people should understand the projects and constructions
being taken place at the moment.

The department also carries out on updating their website as well as graphics for billboards.

2.5 Nature of work/tasks carried.

This describes all my work that was done by the intern during the industrial training period
and the methods used by me for the activities.

2.5.1 Week One.

During the first week of my internship at National Roads Authority, a number of activities
transpired. The following activities took place during my first week;

18
Orientation

By definition, Orientation refers to the planned introduction of new people to their jobs, their
peers and to the company. The Orientation and briefing Exercise was conducted by the work
place supervisor who welcomed the interns to the company and briefed the interns about the
goals, aims, Mission of his organisation, guidelines through the internship and Areas of
coverage during the period.

Field work

Field work by definition is the process of observing and collecting data about people,
cultures, and natural environments. Field work is conducted in the world of our everyday
surroundings rather than in the semi-controlled environments of a lab or classroom.
Therefore, I visited Haven modern academy, from where I interacted with the school Director
on how they run their school activities. This was basically done in preparation for the
development of school management system under my extension program.

Environment setup (software installation)

The work place supervisor Mr Kings Grayson gave me a disk image of windows as to install
the system software in preparation to start the development. After installation of windows,
some other software’s were advised to be installed as well. The software’s installed were the
following:

 MySQL for the database.

 Visual studio 2012 for designing the system.
 Adobe photoshop DC for designing purpose.
 Crystal Report for generating report and others.
 Adobe Packages (Adobe Fireworks, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe illustrator)

19
2.5.2 Week Two.
Hardware Identification

Basically, the second week of my internship was characterised by hardware checking. This
was a continuation of work done in the first week. I was being asked to identify some of the
physical parts of the computer so as to easily undergo my intern progress. The following are
the system hardware identification activities I did in the second week;

 Motherboard
 RAM
 Power supply
 Data bus
 Processor fun
 Case fun
 CMOS battery and other components.

2.5.3 Week Three.

On the third week of my internship, the following activities took place;

Theory on how to keep computers clean

The information was provided under how to keep computers clean and on how to protect the
loss of data and information. The first and important detailed information was to avoid the
dropping of water onto the computer, this can be prevented by keeping away food and drinks
from those particular computers. Under controlling the loss of data, since the company has to
keep allot of sensitive information in computer, the data is supposed to be kept safe and clean
so as to avoid losing them. The first thing to avoid losing data advised was to avoid taking
external flash to be plugged into the company’s computers.

Database Programming

Since the intern had developed the system pages of the road projects management system in
visual studio and employed some of the connection tools, the intern had to develop and
design the database for the system. The intern used MySQL software to design the database.

20
The database had the table fields to help the system user store data and retrieve data. The
intern created some system functions and procedures into the database.

The intern was able to write a procedure that calculates the total amount to be paid to the
people under the road construction project per week and also a procedure data enables staff to
view salary details based on requested month and year.

The workplace supervisor explained and demonstrated with an example on how to write a
stored procedure that can enable the users of the system to insert the data into specific fields
of the system leaving out others that are auto-generated.

The intern was also able to configure a system to display current date, username who login
into the system. He explained by picking a label and login name from the toolbox.

The intern was able to successfully connect the system to the designed database for testing.

2.5.4 Week Four.

The nature of the work I did during week four of my internship was as follows;

Computer Graphics Designs

The intern was able to be taught some basic graphic designing using different graphics
software’s e.g., Adobe fireworks, adobe Photoshop CS5 and adobe illustrator. I was able to
learn how to design Certificates, Invitation cards, Birthday cards, banners and business card
using adobe illustrator CS5, Photoshop CS5 and fireworks. The intern learned how to apply
and use different effects on the document designed.

Report Writing and Documentation

The work place supervisor demonstrated on how to write project proposal; the intern captured
the emphasis in writing this document being the language used in the proposal that the tense
used must be future tenses. I also highlighted things that should be included and what should
not be included in the proposal.

2.5.5 Week Five.

System report creation
A day of week five was dedicated to report creation using crystal reports.

21
  I learnt on how to configure the system to print reports using crystal report. This was
achieved by creating a folder and renamed it Report. I right clicked on the folder and
added crystal report, after that I choose crystal report wizard and follow the
command.
A button is then created which is coded such that when clicked on it allows generation
of a report in a PDF format.

I also had to design a customised report for the system. This was achieved using Crystal
Report. The process involved include the following;

 I started by right clicking on the folder named reports.

 Then added crystal report.
 I then choose the data that I wanted to appear on the report, this was done by clicking
on the table name.
 Then click next until I finished.

Computer Care and Maintenance

The intern was able to understand some computer care and maintenance basics. In computer
care the supervisor had two laptop computers which required different attention. On the first
computer, I learned how to gather and document specifications of a computer to be
maintained. I did a clean installation of windows operating system on a laptop which was
brought and had some issues.

On the second computer, the supervisor dis-assembled and re-assembled the laptop computer.
The process started by ensuring that there was no power supply to the system in order to
avoid electric shocks. I was asked to identify the following internal components;

 Motherboard
 RAM
 Power supply
 Data bus
 Processor fun
 Case fun
 CMOS battery and other components.

22
The intern had the chance to blow off the dust from laptop computer using a blower and after
had the chance to reseat back the components (re-assemble). It was later tested and then the
computer was later working normally.

Website development
The supervisor introduced a new software application which he used to create and designed
an interactive website for a hotel. He worked on hotel website using HTML, CSS,
JAVASCRIPT and BOOTSTRAP to come up with a responsive website.

2.5.6 Week Eight.

This was the last week of my internship according the university internship guidelines and a
number of activities took place during that week. The following are the activities that took
place during the eighth week;

Networking
This refers to inter-connection of computers to share information and resources like files,
internet, and printers among others. The supervisor introduced me in identifying the
networking devices such as;

 Laptop Computers.
 Switch.
 Networking cables and.
 Crimping tool.

After the identification process, I went ahead to terminate the cables following a specific
order of colours, for example cross-over cable, the following order of colours was followed

Cross-Over
 White orange
 Orange
 White green
 Blue
 White Blue
 Green
 White brown
 Brown

23
After getting some knowledge about networking cables etc, I was then asked by the work
supervisor to guide me to the team of other interns in the organization. The supervisor also
went ahead to show on how to configure and assign IP address to the computers on the
network. This was sampled in two laptop Computers for the internship.

I finalised the networking activity by setting up a peer-to-peer connection between

computers. And managed to share some resources among the computers through the network.

System Backup
On my last day of the industrial period, I learned how to make backups for the system.
Backups are crucial that in case of theft or hardware failure, there cannot be any suffering
that may result to lose.

24
 CHAPTER THREE
ANALYSIS
3.0 Introduction.
This chapter describes the usefulness of internship work, Technical and Non-Technical skills
acquired, performance and attributes acquired at National Roads Authority.

3.1 Internship Work experience.

To a greater extent I successfully accomplished the duties and responsibilities assigned.

Being in the Information Technology department responsibilities included: day to day work
and basic configuration; document procedures; application installations’ e.g., windows
installation, adobe Photoshop CS5, Microsoft word, working environment configurations
e.g., Checking for computer status, installing antiviruses, writing business requirements
documents for new projects;

3.2 Examples I did during internship.

 I Installed Operating system.

 Blew computers very well.

 I also tried to develop the company’s website but I didn’t polish it well due to some
challenges I faced.

 I also interacted with fellow trainees, clients and administrators in the company very
well.

3.3 Technical experience.

System Analysis and Design. At the beginning of the industrial training, I had theoretical
knowledge about the system analysis and design process.

• I learnt how to generate requirements of a system and how to write a requirements

specification document (RSD) for a system to be developed.
• I also got practical skills on the SDLC, how to design ERDs and how to map the
ERDs to actual Database tables with attributes, primary keys and foreign keys.
This was mainly during the design of company’s management system for National
Roads Authority.
Software installations and configurations. I had some software installation skills in a
GUI-based windows environment at the beginning of the industrial training. I learnt how

25
to install visual studio and Dev Express, crystal reports, Windows server for example
XAMPP and other software’s like Adobe package which I used during the system
development.
Setting up a network.

I acquired a skill of setting up a peer-to-peer network whereby the supervisor gave us a task
to network over four computers so as to share data and files. There was free interaction and
co-operation between the internees and the technical team of the organisation and this
enabled us learn more.

Termination of network cables:

I terminated cables practically while explaining as the other interns looked on. Equipment’s
such as RJ-45, clipping tools and others were provided to us in order to terminate cables very
well.

A figure showing the different colours for terminating a network cable

White Orange (OG)

Orange (G)

White Green (WG)

Blue (B)

White Blue (WB)

Green (G)

White Brown (WB)

Brown (B)

26
Preventive maintenance of a computer.

This consist of cleaning of a computer and replacement of faulty parts. It also includes
installation of operating system and other necessities of a computer system. I was able to do
all the above activities at the company during the field attachment.

Website development.

At the beginning of the internship, I knew some basic HTML, CSS. In the process of the
industrial training, I was able to learn how to develop a complete website and I choose to
design a hotel website using bootstrap studio (website designing application) which included
creating web pages and creating a responsive navigation bar and other skills related to
designing a website.

Report writing.

I was introduced to different types of reports that are written i.e., policy-oriented reports,
academic reports, project reports, appraisal reports among other reports. However, the main
focus was put on Academic Reports especially internship Report whereby I was able to write
my own report.

3.4 non-technical experience.

3.5 Analysis of individual performance.
During this Field Attachment period, the intern really enjoyed the experience of working at
National Roads Authority including the comfortable working atmosphere, the technical
guidance on the latest web technologies and the friendly relationship among the staff
exhibited. Out of all these interesting moments, most interesting experiences can be seen
listed below;

3.5.1. Interaction with experienced people in the field

I also had the opportunity to network with potential future employers and gain insight into
the types of employees they look for. This made me realize the greatest value of Internship
which is providing a unique and exciting experience that is unparalleled in the classroom and
to coordinate job experience with academic.

3.5.2. Learning Computer Science area of interest

Internship offered me the opportunity to essentially customize my placement in order to gain
valuable work experience in my areas of interest.

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3.3.3. Working with experienced and more skilled individuals
Working with some of the best developers, designers and managers in information
technology department, solving problems that you can never face in a school environment
that can give the confidence to become a job creator than a job seeker, bonding with other
interns that make up a very diverse demographic.

3.6 Attributes acquired.

 Time management.
 Patience with supervisors.
 Interaction and co-operation with supervisors and fellow trainees as well as Clients
for the company.

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 CHAPTER FOUR
CHALLENGES, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION.
4.0 Introduction.
The chapter presents the benefits of internship, challenges, recommendations and the
conclusions of activities noted during the industrial training at National Roads Authority.

4.1. Benefits derived from field attachment

The field attachment was of great importance, some of the benefits include;

• Internship helped me understand work ethics, employment demands, responsibilities

and opportunities.

• Field attachment provided career direction and confidence in my abilities by

narrowing down the list of potential careers.

• My internship gave me the opportunity to try out computer related activities i.e.,
dismantling a computer which I had not previously considered and broadened my
horizons through converting my academic knowledge into industry skills.

• It prepared me for the working environment.

• It enhanced my CV needed to negotiate future jobs.

4.2 Challenges.
4.2.1 Personal Challenges.
The field attachment period was too short. I could at times work overtime extensions in
order to accomplish particular tasks, but still time was not enough to accomplish the
Company’s project development as earlier planned.

Technically, during the process of software development my computer was over freezing
due to the small processing speed and the RAM as well.

Apart from the above and other minor challenges such as limited finances to cater for
lunch, travels, the field attachment went on smoothly.

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4.2.2 Company Challenges.
The company lacks computers to cater for the internees who do not have their personal
computers.

Inadequate data in the company to facilitate the internees in the research for some vital
information on internet which is necessary in the accomplishment of tasks given by the
instructors.

Some networking tools like testing tool were missing at the company. This slowed down
the termination process as we were unable to identify some wrongly terminated cables during
the exercise.

Lack of enough facilitators especially in the software development yet it is the most
important part that the internee needs to be guided in.

Small working environment which leads to congestion during the process of the training.

4.3 Conclusion.
DMI st John the Baptist University sends out students for field attachment with the main
objective of enabling the students to get hands-on real-life experiences in environments they
are expected to work in when they graduate. National Roads Authority, Kings Grayson was
well prepared to take internees for field attachment in the position of a web systems
developer and design.

I was exposed to new technologies in web development, using different software’s like
Visual Studio, MySQL, Crystal Reports, Dev Express, adobe Photoshop and illustrator,
Macromedia fireworks especially for improving on the system graphics and others. I used
these technologies to work on projects such as hotel website. Other activities I engaged in
included hardware and software configurations and deployment of the system, Computer
graphics designs especially in learning the different tools like pen, rectangle, paint bucket and
others in coming up with designs such as certificates, wedding cards and business cards.

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4.4 Recommendations.
The following are the recommendation for improvement of field attachment, Company,
and the University.

4.4.1 Recommendation for future interns.

 Student should always ensure good supervisory relationship as this is very important
to the successful completion of your degree, diploma or any other academic award.
 They get into the habit of documenting whatever task you do on daily basis. This is
because records made are not only important and useful when writing your report, but
also very important as a reference in future when faced with similar tasks.

4.4.2 Recommendation for the company.

 I recommend that the company should improve on the infrastructure because its
current office is too small which leads to congestion during working hours.
 The company should also buy enough computers so that it can cater for future
internee’s who do not have their computers.
 The company should also buy other networking equipment’s especially a tester,
Rooters, and more switches so that the future internees can gain much in the
networking field.
 The company should employ more instructors who are good at programming to avoid
over relying on one instructor in that field.
 The most recommendation for NRA is that in future, the organization should not
dwell a lot on the basic technologies like software development in most weeks of the
internship period, since the interns are expected to have knowledge about these basics.
Instead, a simple review of those technologies is enough and then deadline-based
tasks focusing more on delivering outputs showcasing competences in advanced
technologies, would be a better time saving strategy.

4.4.3 Recommendation for the University

 This Field Attachment exercise, should be shifted to third year of study, such that it is
given more time, at least 3 months. Many studies have concluded that two months
internships are too small. Shifting the field attachment to the final year will further

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 increase the chances for interns to be retained by the employers, and just continue
with their jobs officially upon graduation.
 The university should carefully evaluate each proposed internship centres prior to
approving it as an internship station for its students. This because the workplace
supervisors obviously play a major role in the internship course and experience to
students.
 The University should be holding pre-internship sessions with students at which the
course is discussed and packets containing the various internship documents are
distributed in order for the students to understand what internship is, before them
going for internship.
 The University should keep good records of its graduates for feedback purposes;
while academic departments should liaise with employers for information on their
employed ex- students.

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