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This paper analyses three key components of a career development curriculum for business majors that has generated superior results, supporting undergraduates’ transition from higher education to professional employment while teaching students career advancement skills that will be used throughout their lives. Students have expressed strong satisfaction with opportunities for coaching and mentoring, coursework facilitating experiential learning, and mandatory internships in their major. Analyses of qualitative data drawn from student assignments and course evaluations suggest these three elements of the program have positively impacted students’ career-readiness, career aspirations and career achievements. Quantitative data shows increased student success in achieving their career goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Firstly, this study diagnosed professional competence amongst Chinese vocational students within a broad range of the manufacturing sectors; then, the authors examined how different types of P-E fit (job, organisation and vocation) and internship quality jointly shape the newly acquired professional competences of interns. Design/methodology/approach: This study utilised the COMET methodology to conduct a large-scale assessment of professional competence amongst 961 graduates from vocational colleges who had successfully completed internships. Participants actively engaged in the data collection process by responding to questionnaires that sought contextual information concurrently. Findings: The majority of students have attained fundamental functional competencies, indicating their fulfillment of basic requirements. However, there is a tendency to overlook the cultivation of shaping competence. Three types of P-E fit and task characteristics are positively correlated with professional competence. The indirect relationship between P-E fit and professional competence mediated by task characteristics was verified through P-V fit and P-J fit except for P-O fit. Overall, the model explains 39.2% of the variance in professional competence. Originality/value: "How to promote professional competence" has been highlighted as an important topic in vocational education. This paper contributes to identify the characteristics of a quality internship program for vocational colleges and firms. These insights are important in considering a student-centred approach, design internships programmes that better fit their own abilities, needs and vocations, avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach to implement internships and thus, enhance students' professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of Clinical Research, like many other scientific disciplines, has struggled to recruit and retain talented researchers from diverse communities. While there is a strong history of documenting the problem, having a diverse and inclusive workforce is hindered by the lack of data-driven approaches, cross-institutional partnerships, access to mentors, and positive immersive experiences for people from underrepresented groups. Here, we describe a novel initiative for North Carolina Central University Clinical Research Sciences Program (NCCU-CRSP) student interns to partner with Duke University to have immersive clinical and preclinical research training in a 15-week internship as the culminating experience towards their degree for a Bachelor of Science in Clinical Research. The goals of the internship are: 1) to give hands-on training to enhance the impact of classroom-based learning, 2) broaden their understanding of the wide swath of positions available to them, 3) promote their sense of self-efficacy, confidence, science identity, research identity, and connections to the pre-clinical and clinical community, and 4) prepare them to be workforce ready upon graduating. The students dedicate 75% of their time to clinical research with Duke University at Pickett Road and 25% to pre-clinical research in the Collective for Psychiatric Neuroengineering in the Duke Psychiatry Department of the School of Medicine. They will also receive eight 1-h professional development training sessions from the Duke-NCCU Clinical and Translational Science Initiative’s Workforce Development Team and five 1-h sessions based on the Entering Research Curriculum developed by the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER). Finally, they will be brought in as a cohort and coached on peer mentoring and mutual support frameworks to enhance their sense of community. These student-interns will perform pre- and post-internship self-assessment surveys to quantify their self-efficacy, feelings of belonging, access to research opportunities and mentors, and to give details of their future education and career goals. We will evaluate the impact of the internship using validated tools and apply these findings for future optimization of program design and tactical advice for other programs with shared missions. Furthermore, we will email them on an annual basis with follow-up surveys to assess the longitudinal impact of this internship program, their educational experiences at NCCU, what job titles they hold, how prepared they feel for their roles, and what they hope their future career trajectory will be. Collectively, these approaches will apply theoretical frameworks developed by social and cognitive psychology, vocational theory, and educational research to clinical research training with the goals of recruiting and training talented and diverse leaders within clinical research. We hope that by evaluating our successes, failures, strengths, and liabilities through empirically derived evidence we will also inspire future studies that use data-driven approaches to elevate our approaches as we work together to train and recruit talented researchers from diverse communities into our scientific enterprise and to launch them with more in-depth experiential learning that will empower them to succeed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Many health sciences librarians enter the profession without specific health sciences training. Some LIS programs have health sciences courses or tracks, but health sciences training within an LIS program is only one path to entering health sciences librarianship. To develop a map of pathways into health sciences librarianship, an immersion session at the Medical Library Association conference in 2022 asked health sciences librarians to share how they entered the profession. Methods: The immersion session was structured in three parts: facilitator introductions, small group discussions, and a whole group summary discussion. Guided by questions from the facilitators, small groups discussed what pathways currently exist, how to promote existing pathways, what new pathways should be created, and how to develop and promote pathways that make the profession more equitable, diverse, and inclusive. Results: Through in-the-moment thematic analysis of the small group discussions, the following emerged as key pathways: library school education; internships and practica; the Library and Information Science (LIS) pipeline; on-thejob training; mentoring; self-teaching/hands-on learning; and continuing education. Themes of equity, diversity, and inclusion arose throughout the session, especially in the concluding whole group discussion. Conclusion: Small group discussions in a conference immersion session showed the value of community building in a profession that has multiple pathways for entrance, highlighting the importance of unearthing hidden knowledge about avenues for exploring and enhancing career pathways. The article seeks to address barriers to entry into the profession and adds to the literature on strengthening the field of health sciences librarianship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between psychological contracts and subsequent internship outcomes, with a specific focus on employer obligations with regard to career development. The study also examines the potential moderating role of person–organization (P–O) fit. Design/methodology/approach: Online surveys were administered to 196 college students both prior to and upon completing their summer internships. Moderated mediation analyses were performed following Hayes (2018). Findings: The results show that employer fulfillment of career development is positively associated with organizational attractiveness, as mediated by intern skill acquisition. In addition, high levels of P-O fit ameliorated low developmental situations, with high P-O fit resulting in stronger attraction to the organization than low P-O fit. Practical implications: The study underlines the importance of career development and the associated attainment of instrumental resources in the psychological contract process between organizations and interns. For the former, the provision of career development may increase interns' attraction to the organization. For interns, such opportunities can enhance skill acquisition, with differential effects for those with high and low P-O fit. Originality/value: This study is the first to provide an empirical assessment of the instrumental outcomes of psychological contract fulfillment with regard to career development prior to formal organizational entry. It further sheds light on the interactive effect of skill acquisition and P-O fit in predicting individual perceptions of the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship on the role of professional development opportunities for undergraduate students has highlighted the growing importance of internship programs. Different designs of internship programs have emerged as their numbers proliferate. Internship programs vary on key dimensions including integration of academic content, development of internship offerings (publicly available vs. specially designed internships), and placement (self-select vs. guided). This paper compares three models of internship programs in a research university: a "traditional" model involving an array of political science–related internships; a research-focused internship program in political science; and an environmental internship program focused on environmental science, policy, and education internships. The paper evaluates and compares these programs by examining organizational and process variables, the impact of internships on participants, and participant satisfaction. We use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, including a specially designed opinion survey of participants in the three programs. The results demonstrate that different models of internship programs with varying resources can all provide high impact and high satisfaction levels when certain elements are integrated into the programs. Students who were given more challenging tasks and opportunities to take initiatives were especially likely to gain a variety of personal, professional, and civic benefits. Overall, the highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by participants who felt their internship gave them new knowledge and skills, improved their employment prospects, enriched the college experience, and contributed to an important cause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An internship program has been established between Bethune-Cookman University, a primarily undergraduate HBCU, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to enhance HBCU student success through four support areas: (1) application of Kolb's Model of Experiential learning. (2) development of transferable competencies and skills, (3) professional development, and (4) modifying internship experiences based on student constraints. The program was designed to enhance research collaborations between B-CU and USFWS to analyze at-risk species data, provide guidance and information, and contribute to the development of tools that inform decision-making for regional and national conservation priorities. This project will be an important opportunity for student engagement and a recruitment tool to attract and retain underrepresented students into USFWS-related careers. The internship framework, logistics and materials constructed between the two organizations, and data on student success will be presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Internships play an important role in the choices engineering students make about future career pathways though there is little research about the messaging students receive regarding internships from academics. This messaging is important because it can contribute to the expectations students set for internships which in turn influences the interpretation of the experience and sense of appropriateness of that particular career pathway. Situated in Expectancy X Value theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the beliefs and behaviors of the academics with whom engineering students interact as related to internship experiences. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted and analyzed interviews with 13 career center employees and 14 academic advisers/faculty members across six demographically and geographically diverse schools. Interviews were coded, and within and across case patterns developed. Findings: Across all six schools, interview participants believe internships are important for students with regard to three areas: enabling career discovery, providing opportunities for development of career skills and helping students with full-time job acquisition. However, participants describe few direct actions associated with these beliefs. The lack of recommended actions for making the most of the internship experience, despite a strong belief in their importance, is a major finding of this paper. Originality/value: This study is original in that it examines an important perspective that is not often a focus of research related to internships: academic advisors, faculty or career center personnel. The multi-institution sample enhances the value of the study as commonalities were seen despite variation in schools, enabling recommendations useful to a variety of contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the advisers for the Model United Nations and Judicial Internship programs at our university, we have witnessed first-hand the benefits of simulations and experiential learning. Specifically, students are able to apply knowledge from other classes to real-world situations, all while honing their writing skills and communication skills, as well as their ability to analyze and synthesize information—skills that are critical to success in a wide variety of careers. This practical experience also gives students confidence as they prepare for and make decisions about their future career paths. While we have anecdotal evidence suggesting that these programs contribute to student success, we use survey data from former students to assess formally the longer-term impact of participating in these programs. We find that experiential learning programs contribute to student success by improving time to graduation and increasing the likelihood of attending graduate school or law school and/or finding employment after graduation. In addition, the students' own assessments indicate that these programs instill numerous practical skills and provide insights that help prepare students for success in their future careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This quantitative study investigated the research question, what factors lead to satisfaction in arts management internships? Based on the results of the study, job characteristics such as skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback, and work environment characteristics such as learning opportunities, supervisory support, career development opportunities, co-worker support, and organization satisfaction are the greatest factors of satisfaction in arts management internships. These results challenge previous studies (Cuyler & Hodges, 2016; Cuyler & Hodges, 2015; and Cuyler, Hodges, & Hauptman, 2013) that suggested that compensating interns will increase their satisfaction with arts management internships. The results of this study indicate that cultural organizations can significantly increase their interns' satisfaction with their internships by assigning them meaningful tasks and cultivating a collegial work environment. This study has implications for the conceptualization, design, and management of internships in cultural organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the value of internships for professional careers in the built environment (BE) sector from the perspective of industry practitioners. It examines the perceptions of practitioners about internship and explores the relevance of internships for professional careers in the sector.Design/methodology/approach The research methods used were questionnaire survey, in-depth interviews and focus group discussion. The study focussed on careers such as architects, civil engineers, facility managers, project managers and quantity surveyors.Findings It was found that quantity surveyors and civil engineers value internship the most and are more likely to hire those who interned with them. Project managers also value internships but to a lesser extent. Facility managers and architects value internship the least and are also least likely to offer positions to their ex-interns. It is not conclusive whether internships are absolutely necessary to increase undergraduates’ employability upon their graduation.Research limitations/implications The study is limited to only five professions and focused on the perceptions of professionals and not the interns or academic supervisors.Practical implications Recommendations are made to improve internship programmes in the BE sector. These include making internships compulsory for students who intend to pursue civil engineering and quantity surveying careers and extending the duration of internships to six months.Originality/value The views of professionals in the BE sector are uncovered. Tertiary institutions can use the findings to improve their internship programmes and their students’ employability upon graduation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internships are a growing, yet controversial, labour market phenomenon. In particular, the issue of unpaid internships has been the source of legislative, judicial and ethical debate. Some have criticised colleges and universities for promoting an expansion of internships for undergraduate students – with little regard for internship characteristics such as compensation, quality of supervision and work activities. Meanwhile, there is a paucity of research examining the role internship characteristics, such as compensation, supervisor behaviours and work design have on internship efficacy. Based on a survey of undergraduate students in the US, the results showed that supervisor mentoring, the developmental value of the internship and the job pursuit intentions of the intern with the host employer were lower for those reporting on their unpaid internship vs. paid internship. Meanwhile, supervisor support and supervisor mentoring are significant predictors of internship efficacy regardless of internship compensation, while work design has much less of an impact on internship efficacy. The implications of the findings for educators, employers and prospective interns are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Employing Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this essay analyzes the discourses surrounding college internships. As universities continue to promote internships as an educational experience and pathway to career success, this study highlights the way that such practices contribute to the rising problem of income inequality by inculcating in some of our youngest workers the expectation that free labor is necessary for employment success. Specifically, the discourses of unpaid internships construct a laboring subject that willingly accedes to the demand to remain "employable" through a strategy of career management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study's results, with 664 surveyed graduating business students, demonstrated that creating four groups, using gender and quantitative or nonquantitative major, was useful for testing their relationships to professional development behaviors and expected employment. Results showed that male–nonquantitative majors (n= 144) reported the lowest number of internships, student professional meetings attended, and expected full-time job consistent with major, and the highest expected self-employment. Nonquantitative business majors may need additional outreach efforts to increase their professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article considers how professional writing courses can prepare students in various disciplines for the workforce. Specifically, I argue for Writing in the Disciplines (WID) internships where students learn to write documents relevant for their careers while participating in practical work experiences. In the WID internships I describe, instructors collaborate with coordinators across campus to establish writing-intensive internships that focus on the needs of students and the community partner. This article illustrates the collaborative endeavors of three internships, highlighting the challenges and lessons learned from WID internships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects ongoing research-led teaching in the area of creative industries in higher education. Specifically it reports on key work-integrated learning strategies designed to better prepare graduates for the employment sector. The creative industries sector is complex and competitive, characterized by non-linear career paths driven by the individual. Following contextualization of the key issues, a core creative industries subject and curriculum is described, which requires students to engage directly with industry practitioners via internships or case studies. In order to interrogate the impact of these activities, a sample of final reflections as well as formal student feedback on the subject were analyzed in order to draw out key themes in relation to student learning and understanding. Analysis of these data propose that direct engagement with practitioners assists students in developing new knowledge of the capacities they will require for a sustainable career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]