Internship Course Credit: Challenges and Opportunities

• In Event: 35.041 - What Do We Know About College Internships? Insights From Researchers and Practitioners on Challenges, Opportunities, and Implications for Equity

Abstract

Objectives
An increasing number of colleges offer academic course credit for student internship experience, yet the objectives of these courses vary widely: In some contexts, educators and employers follow best practices of coordination, supervision, task clarity, and evaluation (Hora, Wolfgram, and Thompson 2018). In others, credit is earned after minimal supervision and without clear identification of learning goals. This paper leverages multiple data sources to evaluate how students, employers, and college career center personnel relate internship experiences to academic coursework (and vice versa). I also suggest how these stakeholders might align often divergent expectations for internship “success”.

Perspectives
Analyses are informed by sociological research on school-to-work transitions and work organizations (Kalleberg 2013, Rivera 2016) as well as perspectives on higher education policy and learning sciences (Hora, Benbow, and Oleson 2016; Stokes 2015).

Data/Method
In-depth interviews with 70 employers and career center personnel from the New York City metropolitan area are used to evaluate internship-coursework linkages. Results are supplemented with survey data and open-ended responses about internship experiences from 2,700 undergraduate students across three geographically diverse college campuses.

Results
Employer interviews reveal challenges to the development, implementation, and maintenance of educational components of internship programs. Career center interviews point to the difficulty of linking classroom and worksite learning without adequate administrative support, trained instructional staff, and clear learning objectives. Student data indicates that many students find coursework and internship experience to be mutually beneficial, but others report limited academic gain.

Significance
Well-designed college internship courses have the potential to promote school-work linkages yet require meaningful work-based learning opportunities and clear coordination between educators and employers. The availability of these inputs should be considered in tandem with workforce development and employment policy.

Author

• Carrie Shandra, Stony Brook University - SUNY