Internship: Definition and Purpose

An internship is a form of experiential learning that integrates knowledge and theory learned in the classroom with practical application and skills development in a professional setting. It serves as an important bridge from college to career, offering routes to jobs for job seekers and access to talent for employers.

What is an Internship?

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, an internship is a form of experiential learning that integrates knowledge and theory learned in the classroom with practical application and skills development in a professional setting. The experience must be an extension of the classroom: a learning experience that provides for applying the knowledge gained in the classroom. Internships provide students the opportunity to gain valuable applied experience, develop social capital, explore career fields, and make connections in professional fields.

An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used to practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations, government agencies and political parties. They are typically undertaken by students and graduates looking to gain relevant skills and experience in a particular field.

The Purpose of Internships

The primary purpose of an internship is to provide a structured learning experience in a professional setting, allowing students to gain valuable work experience in their chosen field of study. An internship gives a student the opportunity for career exploration and development, and to learn new skills. It offers the employer the opportunity to bring new ideas and energy into the workplace, develop talent and potentially build a pipeline for future full-time employees.

Internships are used to determine whether the intern still has an interest in that field after the real-life experience. In addition, an internship can be used to build a professional network that can assist with letters of recommendation or lead to future employment opportunities. The benefit of bringing an intern into full-time employment is that they are already familiar with the company, therefore needing little to no training.

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Benefits for Students

Applied Experience: Internships provide students with the opportunity to gain valuable applied experience.
Skill Development: Interns develop practical skills and enhance their resumes.
Career Exploration: Internships allow students to explore different career paths and industries.
Networking: Interns make connections in professional fields.
Increased Job Offers: NACE research demonstrates that work-based experiences can be avenues to increased skills, expanded networks, and enhanced social capital.
Higher Starting Salaries: NACE research found that students who take part in paid internships receive more job offers and ultimately garner higher starting salaries than those who participate in unpaid internships (NACE 2022 Student Survey, 2022).
Real-world application: A learning experience with a real-world opportunity to apply the knowledge gained in the classroom.
Professional learning experience: An internship is a professional learning experience that offers meaningful, practical work related to a student’s field of study or career interest.

Benefits for Employers

Access to Talent: Internships are one of the main recruiting tools employers use to recruit entry-level college graduates.
Pipeline for Future Employees: Employers often recruit employees from their best interns, who have known capabilities, thus saving time and money in the long run.
New Ideas and Energy: Internships offer the employer the opportunity to bring new ideas and energy into the workplace, develop talent and potentially build a pipeline for future full-time employees.
Recruiting tools: Internships serve as an important bridge from college to career and jobs.

Types of Internships

Internships exist in a wide variety of industries and settings. Interns may be high school students, college and university students, or post-graduate adults. These positions may be paid or unpaid and are temporary.

Work Experience Internships: Work experience internships usually occur during the second or third year of schooling. This type of internship is to expand an intern's knowledge both in their school studies and also at the company.
Work Research, Virtual Research (graduation) or Dissertation: This is mostly done by students who are in their final year of school. With this kind of internship, a student does research for a particular company. The company can have something that they feel they need to improve, or the student can choose a topic in the company themselves.
International Internships: International Internships are internships done in a country other than the one that the country of residence. These internships can either be in person or done remotely.

Paid vs. Unpaid Internships

An internship can be paid, unpaid, or partially paid (in the form of a stipend). Internships may be part-time or full-time and are usually flexible with students' schedules.

Paid internships are common in professional fields including medicine, architecture, science, engineering, law, business (especially accounting and finance), technology, and advertising.

Unpaid internships are typically through non-profit charities and think tanks which often have unpaid or volunteer positions.

Partially-paid internships is when students are paid in the form of a stipend. Stipends are typically a fixed amount of money that is paid out on a regular basis. This offers flexibility as physical presence isn't required. It still provides the capacity to gain job experience without the conventional requirement of being physically present in an office.

The Legality of Unpaid Internships

The FLSA requires “for-profit” employers to pay employees for their work. Courts have used the “primary beneficiary test” to determine whether an intern or student is, in fact, an employee under the FLSA. In short, this test allows courts to examine the “economic reality” of the intern-employer relationship to determine which party is the “primary beneficiary” of the relationship. The extent to which the intern and the employer clearly understand that there is no expectation of compensation. Courts have described the “primary beneficiary test” as a flexible test, and no single factor is determinative.

If analysis of these circumstances reveals that an intern or student is actually an employee, then he or she is entitled to both minimum wage and overtime pay under the FLSA.

The FLSA exempts certain people who volunteer to perform services for a state or local government agency or who volunteer for humanitarian purposes for non-profit food banks. WHD also recognizes an exception for individuals who volunteer their time, freely and without anticipation of compensation, for religious, charitable, civic, or humanitarian purposes to non-profit organizations.

Yes-legally, not-for-profit organizations and government agencies can offer unpaid internships, according to the FLSA.

Concerns Regarding Unpaid Internships

While many internships are paid, unpaid internships are problematic for many reasons. NACE research found that students who take part in paid internships receive more job offers and ultimately garner higher starting salaries than those who participate in unpaid internships (NACE 2022 Student Survey, 2022).

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Unpaid internships deny basic labor rights provided to paid interns.

NACE's Stance on Unpaid Internships

NACE encourages career centers to help organize various funding streams that can be used to help support low- and unpaid internships. Although institutions administer these programs variably, they are generally a quick and efficient way of getting money into interns’ hands.

NACE encourages Congress to pass the Federal Intern Protection Act to extend legal protections to unpaid interns in the federal government. Further, NACE encourages federal legislation to prohibit discrimination against unpaid interns in the private sector as well.

The Structure of an Internship

A typical internship lasts between one and four months, but can be shorter or longer, depending on the organization involved.

Key components of a successful internship program include:

Clearly defined learning objectives/goals: Supportive of the student’s academic program goals and institutional requirements.
Supervised experience: Providing regular feedback and evaluation of the student.
Assigned Academic Coursework: The specific nature of the coursework will depend on the internship and major of the student.

Roles and Responsibilities

Student: Consider the internship and student - Review with the student to discuss how the internship fits into his or her academic plan. Discuss the student’s academic course-load and other time commitments that might interfere with an internship.
Employer: Supervised experience, providing regular feedback and evaluation of the student - Meet with the student again at the conclusion of the internship. In addition to any completed coursework related to the internship, consider requesting a completed Employer Evaluation and Student Evaluation. The Employer Evaluation will help you better assess the student’s performance, and the Student Evaluation will provide you with helpful information on the quality of the learning experience provided by the organization.

Finding Internships

Students find internships in a variety of ways.

Look up companies they are interested in and ask them about internship possibilities.

Alternatives to Internships: Experiential Learning

Experiential learning is an umbrella term for various types of work-based experiences that usually take place outside the classroom, but which build on, complement, and/or supplement the academic learning that takes place inside the classroom.

Cooperative Education (Co-op)

Cooperative education programs, or co-ops, provide students with multiple periods of work in which the work is related to the student’s major or career goal. with terms of full-time, discipline-related employment. graduation. Co-ops are paid positions that require students to alternate semesters between full-time work during the academic term and full-time academic study for at least two semesters.

Apprenticeships

Department of Labor, apprenticeships combine paid on-the-job training with classroom instruction to prepare workers for highly skilled careers. them for good-paying jobs. alike. For more information about the RAP, see www.apprenticeship.gov/employers/registered-apprenticeship-program. Similar to internships, apprenticeships transition students from vocational school into the workforce.

Research Opportunities

Research opportunities are available both on- and off-campus. These experiences offer a unique way to better understand a student’s academic interests and consider how graduate school may play a role in future paths.

Work Experience in the United Kingdom

Work experience in England was established in the 1970s by Jack Pidcock, Principal Careers Officer of Manchester Careers Service. Ironically, it was initially resisted by trade unions, and at first he had a job convincing schools, until eventually he persuaded the L.E.A. and councilors to go ahead. It became highly valued by pupils, teachers, inspectors, employers and politicians.

Work experience provided a taste of the requirements and disciplines of work and an insight into possible vocational choices.

Recently a number of non-governmental and employer led bodies have become critical of pupils and students not understanding the ‘world of work’.

Work experience is no longer offered on the national curriculum for students in years 10 and 11 in the United Kingdom. but is available for (3rd and 4th year in Scotland), Australia, New Zealand and the Republic of Ireland; every student who wishes to do so has a statutory right to take work experience.

In 2011, however, the Wolf Review of Vocational Education proposed a significant policy change that-to reflect the fact that almost all students now stay past the age of 16-the requirement for pre-16 work experience in the UK should be removed.

Work experience in this context is when students in an adult working environment more or less act as an employee, but with the emphasis on learning about the world of work. Most students do not get paid for work experience. However, some employers pay students, as this is considered part of their education. The duration varies according to the student's course, and other personal circumstances.

At university level, work experience is often offered between the second and final years of an undergraduate degree course, especially in the science, engineering and computing fields. Courses of this nature are often called sandwich courses, with the work experience year itself known as the sandwich year. During this time, the students on work placement have the opportunity to use the skills and knowledge gained in their first two years, and see how they are applied to real world problems. This offers them useful insights for their final year and prepares them for the job market once their course has finished. Some companies sponsor students in their final year at university with the promise of a job at the end of the course.

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