Search

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

The authors surveyed student teachers in a yearlong internship and their peers in a traditional semester-long internship to compare perceptions across different practice teaching experiences. All participants were enrolled in the same university and were similar across gender, age, ethnicity, and undergraduate educational experiences. The students in the yearlong internship reported a better relationship with their supervising teacher, greater knowledge of school policies and procedures, and higher scores for the perceived adequacy of time spent in school than did the students in the semester internship. The two groups did not differ in perceptions of their teaching ability, which were generally favorable. The authors discuss the outcomes regarding continuing challenges professional development programs face when building and sustaining effective clinical experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]