Chasing the Pot of Gold: Internships on the Road to Employment (original) (raw)
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Teaching Journalism & Mass Communication, 2021
By conducting a survey of 112 graduating senior undergraduate journalism and public relations students in Fall 2017, Spring 2018, and Fall 2018 at an urban public university in the Southwestern region of the U.S., this study explored undergraduates' internship experiences, examined the reasons why most of them were not actively engaged in doing internships, and identified resources they used to acquire internship-related information. The findings generated practical implications for journalism educators in urban public universities that do not require an internship for degree completion, to better motivate students in applying for and conducting internships, and also for media employers to better adapt their routines and requirements to facilitate college interns.
ARE INTERNSHIPS REALLY HELPING COLLEGE GRADUATES FIND GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT
Are Internships Really Helping College Graduates Find Gainful Employment: A Qualitative Study of Internship and Employability, 2017
ABSTRACT Are Internships Really Helping College Graduates Find Gainful Employment: A Qualitative Study of Internship and Employability By Cory B. Scott, EdD Purpose: This phenomenological qualitative study explored the perceptions and lived experiences of college graduates who participated in an engineering internship program sponsored by California State University, Long Beach to determine what role, if any, the internship played in the ability of the graduates to find employment. Examining the effectiveness of internship programs using qualitative approaches can help universities to better understand how to develop programs that will truly advance and prepare students to be employable upon graduation. Methodology: This qualitative study used phenomenological inquiry through field notes and in-depth interviews to discover the essence of the lived experiences of college graduates who participated in an internship program. The researcher selected this sample population from a university ranked in the top 100 according to U.S. News and World Report (2017). Data was collected through in-person interviews and field notes. The researcher used the phenomenological explicitation process to analyze the data. Findings: The participants revealed that exposure and experience prepared them for the requirements and expectations of their employers. The participants felt their internships could have better prepared them for their current employment position by exposing them to more diverse opportunities within the companies and in the field of engineering. In addition, the participants felt that the internship could have been more focused on training and skill development. Conclusions: The results show that internships do aid in skill development and employability. However, not all internships are created equal. The internship experience varied from one participant to another, revealing a lack of consistency and focus in internship programs in general. Students were ill equipped to identify good internship opportunities that would aid them in developing critical skills and increase their likelihood of being hired. Recommendations: Universities should develop and incorporate curriculum concerning the selection of internships. In addition, internship programs should incorporate elements of skill-set development and measurable competencies within their programs.
The million-dollar question: can internships boost employment
Higher education institutions are increasingly concerned with the professional insertion of graduates in the labour market and with the design of institutional mechanisms to facilitate students' transition from higher education to work, particularly given the context of scarcity of financial resources and the rise of graduate unemployment. This issue has been addressed, inter alia, through the creation of study programmes with internships. Despite the public discourse encouraging the use of such strategies, there is a general consensus regarding the absence of empirical studies on the professional value of these strategies. This article aims to assess two interrelated questions: the extent to which measures of graduate unemployment rate tend to decrease after the introduction of internships in Portuguese study programmes; and the extent to which this effect applies to the different institutions that comprise the Portuguese tertiary education landscape. It also seeks to contribute to the debate on the relevance of the structure and nature of internships, which are factors frequently neglected in the literature.
An Examination Of Internships And Job Opportunities
Journal of Applied Business Research (JABR), 2013
This paper reports the results of anempirical study examining the relationship between participation in anaccounting internship and increased job opportunities. Most prior studies haveexamined the benefits of internship programs while in school or the benefits ofinternships on professional learning, socialization, and personalcharacteristics in preparing students for entry into the profession. There hasbeen a paucity of empirical studies examining the relationship betweeninternships and job opportunities, which is a primary reason why students enterinternship programs, schools establish them, and employers hire interns. We surveyedprofessional employees below the manager level among three Big 4 firms and a largeregional CPA firm, and found that the effect of internship experience on jobopportunities depends upon the circumstances. The results indicate thatemploying firms highly value internship experience and that internshipexperience is useful for students in getting job opportunit...
The Academic Value of Internships: Benefits Across Disciplines and Student Backgrounds
Contemporary Educational Psychology, 2015
While student benefits from internship experience have been frequently documented in research, the emphasis has been on internship effects on employment and career indicators. This work is concerned with effects on academic outcomes and focuses on the robustness of such effects across academic disciplines as well as for different achievement levels of students, student gender, and ethnicity. We present findings from a longitudinal sample (n > 15,000) that covers an extensive range of subjects and disciplines for large Undergraduate cohorts. Main effects and interactions for student background characteristics were investigated showing stable academic benefits for advantaged and disadvantaged students. Further, using ordinal logistic multi-level modelling, we explored the impact on the probability of attaining a higher degree classification for different student scenarios, thus illustrating the practical significance of these internship effects. Effects are less likely to stem from maturation or self-selection. Findings are therefore discussed against a background of motivational approaches suitable to integrate both direct and indirect paths from internship experience to academic outcomes to career indicators.
Stairway to employment? Internships in higher education
Higher Education, 2015
This article aims to shed light on the current debate regarding the role of internships in higher education in graduates' employability. In specific, it analyses empirical data on a large-scale study of Portuguese first-cycle study programmes, in order to explore indicators of the professional value of internships in the employability of higher education graduates. Results demonstrate that study programmes that include internships tend to significantly enhance graduates' employability, particularly within the universe of polytechnic and public higher education institutions. Besides the instrumental value of internships, the impact of the nature and structure of the internship on the percentage of unemployed graduates are also discussed. Mandatory internships and the inclusion of multiple, shorter internships throughout the degree are negatively associated with unemployment levels. Results indicate work-based learning can be used as a successful strategy to bridge theoretical knowledge and practice and enhance graduate employability. These findings provide important insights for the evaluation and/or the design of internship programmes in higher education.
Knocking on employment’s door: internships and job attainment
Higher Education, 2021
Undergraduate internships have gained popularity among students, universities, government and firms since the creation of the European Higher Education Area. However, empirical research on the relationship between internships and labour market performance of graduates is still scarce, particularly in Spain. This paper examines whether internships improve the job attainment in the short run (first employment after graduation) and in the medium /long term (employment four years later). We use the first Spanish University Graduate Job Placement Survey (2014) to estimate linear probability models and probit models. A novel econometric technique is also implemented to evaluate the sensitivity of our findings to omitted variable bias. We disentangle the internship effect on: (i) the speed to find the first job; (ii) the vertical, horizontal and skill/competence matching with the first job; (iii) being employed in the medium/ long term; (iv) the vertical and horizontal matching with the current employment; and (v) wage quintiles of the current job. Our results show that the internship experience smooths the university-to-work transition for Spanish graduates. Although internships effects on employment do not vanish in the medium/long term, there is weak evidence of positive effects on matching or wages four years after graduation.
2020
We describe the demand for interns in the U.S. using ads from an internship-specific website. We find that internships are more likely to be paid when more closely associated with a specific occupation, when the local labor market has lower unemployment, and when the local and federal minimum wage are the same. A résumé audit study with more than 11,500 applications reveals that employers are more likely to respond positively when internship applicants have previous internship experience. Employers are also less likely to respond to applicants with black-sounding names and when the applicant is more distant from the firm.
Graduate Internship lead to Graduate Jobs: a comparison of case evidence in 2010 & 2012
2012
A graduate level job is the driving force behind the majority of students. In tough economic times, this is increasingly difficult to achieve. This study highlights two distinct graduate internship programmes at two different London Universities to assist graduates secure graduate level employment. Comparative results are discussed with 405 interns, which created initially 60 jobs with anecdotal evidence of many more. Although the final argument is inconclusive, the positive affects, which internships have on graduate employability is discussed together with the benefits internships provide to business. A template for improving graduate employability is suggested.