Student internship experiences: learning about the workplace

Zehr, Sarah M.; Korte, Russell

doi:10.1108/et-11-2018-0236

Cited by 61 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…During their internships, graduates will get feedback on their skills and competencies, either formally or on a day-to-day basis. Also, they will learn about adequate qualifications and necessary skills in a desired field of work (Zehr and Korte, 2020). Finally, their perspective of being able to address challenges at work in the future due to personal attributes and abilities, will change by successfully accomplishing work assignments during their internship, which are all supposed to foster graduates' perception of the social and human capital they possess, their confidence in their skills and, hence, their belief in being employable (Bandura, 1977; Rothwell et al , 2008).…”

Section: Graduates' Career-entry Worries: the Contribution Of High-quality Internshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived quality of internships and employability perceptions: the mediating role of career-entry worries

Ebner¹,

Soucek²,

Selenko³

2021

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PurposeThis study illuminates the assumption that internships facilitate labor market entry and answers the question of why internships have a positive effect on students' self-perceived employability. It is assumed that internships enable more positive employability perceptions by reducing career-entry worries – the worries of not finding a suitable job or not being able to obtain a satisfactory career.Design/methodology/approachA two-wave study among graduate students currently in an internship investigated these relationships. Data on career-entry worries, perceived employability and an evaluation of the internship were collected from 80 students (mean age: 24.6 years, 68% female) from various fields of study aiming at both bachelor's and master's degrees.FindingsThe results showed that positively evaluated internships contributed to graduates' self-perceived employability by means of reduced career-entry worries over an eight-week period.Originality/valueBy considering graduates' career-entry worries – the perceived uncertainty about finding an “appropriate” career in the future – the authors introduce a new concept to the career literature and show that these worries are significant in terms of self-assessed employability.

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Section: Graduates' Career-entry Worries: the Contribution Of High-quality Internshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived quality of internships and employability perceptions: the mediating role of career-entry worries

Ebner¹,

Soucek²,

Selenko³

2021

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“…Additionally, company supervisors receive small preparation prior to supervising interns. So they do not know how much work students can handle during an internship (Zehr and Korte, 2020). Moreover, internship goals for companies and educational institutions usually do not align.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging the gaps between higher education and the business world: internships in a faculty of economics and business

Grande

Estébanez

2020

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PurposeThe purpose of this research paper is to analyse the internship expectations gap amongst the three main internship stakeholders: employers (company supervisors), academic supervisors and students, in an effort to detect the variables which could assist closing the gap between students' perceptions and the labour market employers and then, between the academic supervisors in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the students. This paper analyses firstly, the variables that determine students' perceptions and overall satisfaction with the internships. After, it examines the differences with the employers' expectations of the interns' performance. Finally, this paper analyses the variables that determine the academic supervisors in HEIs grading of the interns with the overall satisfaction about the students' internship performance. This research serves as a guide for the improvement, refinement and expansion of university internship programme design together with internship best practices definition to close the expectation gaps between the HEIs and the Business World.Design/methodology/approachTwo quantitative surveys were designed to measure students' and employers' perceptions of the internships. Additionally, one semi-structured qualitative interview is performed to deepen understanding of each student's perception of the internship. The authors perform a triangular analysis of students' perceptions and employers' (company supervisors) and academic supervisors' expectations. A T-test analyses the differences between cognitive, transversal and social skills developed in an internship as perceived by students and employers (company supervisors). Finally, linear regressions are run both to identify the variables that determine the students' internship overall satisfaction and also detect the variables that determine the final internship grade assigned by the academic supervisor from the university.FindingsThe authors highlight the following interesting findings. While the students feel that the internships are highly useful and perceive that they were fully integrated into the company's culture, they also state that they learn how to develop their transversal skills much more than the cognitive skills learnt in the whole study programme in their degrees. In parallel, employers (company supervisors), for their part, perceive that students have strong social skills and adjust perfectly to the company's culture, but expected the students to have more creativity and cognitive skills. Finally, the academic supervisor's value the students' written skills together with the company's supervisor valuation more than the students' transversal skills. These main expectation gaps detected must be solved to improve internship outcomes and closing the gaps between the Higher Education and Business World. These findings consolidate existing research and add more quantitative results contextualised to Spanish Higher Education Institutions.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of this research are that it only embeds a HEIs in Spain and the sample should be enlarged with more universities not only from Spain but also from around the world. Thus, the findings in this research can be used to improve the internship programme in this HEIs and its best practices, however they cannot be extrapolated to other HEIs still. Nevertheless, other HEIs can learn from this experience. Regarding the surveys these can be reviewed and homogenised for the student's perception items to be more aligned with the company supervisor's expectations and the academic supervisor's requirements of an internship. As implications, the authors have divided them into theoretical and practical. From the theoretical point of view, there needs to be more research about internships done in Economics, Law and Business Degrees field. From the practical point of view, the authors highlight several implications. First, HEIs must develop internship programmes further and promote the three stakeholders, employer–academic supervisor–student communication more fluid. This communication flow will maximize and align both employer and academic supervisor expectations about the students' performance in their internships. This way, student perceptions of their internship experience will improve and align further. Second, internships must be promoted in the Economics and Business Degrees as they are a unique opportunity for students to apply cognitive, transversal and social skills acquired in their study programmes, developing themselves as future professionals. Third, there is a growing need for HEIs to strengthen links with different companies, not only to teach students the skills employers' value but also to ensure that graduates are aware of what is happening in the labour market. Finally, through the internships developing further, academic supervisors must open their assessment to the students' professional skills (critical thinking, creativity, capacity to solve short term problems efficiently,) aligning with labour market needs.Originality/valueThis paper is significant because it shows the growing need for universities to strengthen links with a variety of companies (Business World). Internships are becoming compulsory, having assigned a high percentage of European Credits Transfer System (ECTS) credits to students' Grade Point Average (GPA) in Economics, Law and Business. This research work shows HEIs should improve internship design to close the gap between Higher Education's supply of graduates and the business world's demand for adequately prepared professionals. The results in this paper can help the academic actors start improving the internship design and best practices definition.

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“…Zehr found that students did not look for connections between the classroom and the workplace, making it difficult to apply skills from one setting to the other. Therefore, it can be concluded that the success of the internship program is influenced by supervisors at work, work environment, job descriptions, and supervisors on campus [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internship Experiences

Maulana¹,

Ramadhan²,

Mahaliandini³

2021

Proceedings of the 6th UPI International Conference on TVET 2020 (TVET 2020)

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This study aims to determine the effect of internship program on the ability to read shop drawing. This research is a quantitative study with a correlational research design. The study population were 78 students of the Bachelor Program of Vocational Education in Building Construction, Universitas Negeri Jakarta which carried out the Professional Placement course in 2019-2020. Meanwhile, the sample in this study were 61 students taken from the population using a purposive sampling technique. Data were collected from tests using question instruments and documentation of student learning outcomes. The results show that professional placement had a positive and significant effect on the ability to read shop drawing as indicated by the correlation coefficient value = 0.293, the significance coefficient value = 0.022, and the coefficient of determination = 0.086 which means that 8.6% of internship program affected the shop drawing reading skills.

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Student internship experiences: learning about the workplace

Cited by 61 publications

References 36 publications

Perceived quality of internships and employability perceptions: the mediating role of career-entry worries

Perceived quality of internships and employability perceptions: the mediating role of career-entry worries

Bridging the gaps between higher education and the business world: internships in a faculty of economics and business

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