UW–Madison’s Matthew Hora, Hee Song, and Kyoungjin Jang-Tucci co-wrote an op-ed for The Conversation that was published last month. The piece, titled “How to create a college internship where students actually learn − and don’t want to quit” examines and outlines recent research from UW–Madison’s Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions (CCWT).
Hora is an associate professor of adult and higher education with the Division of Continuing Studies and with the School of Education’s Department of Educational Policy Studies. He is also the co-director at CCWT.
Both Song and Jang-Tucci are PhD candidates in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and project assistants at CCWT.
“As part of the three-year College Internship Study at the (CCWT) … we found that interns can have a tough time adapting to the culture of a new city, organization, and work environment,” the authors write.
The op-ed outlines multiple problems in today’s internship process, including supervisors using a “hands-off” strategy, interns being given mundane tasks, and a lack of structure.
“Based on our research,” they say, “we offer four strategies for designing effective and welcoming internships for college students.”
Hora, Song, and Jang-Tucci recommend that intern supervisors set clear learning goals, structure assignments from easy to hard, keep communication open, and connect interns with appropriate mentors.
“We believe internships must be seen as more than a part-time job where students simply need to be hired, onboarded, and shown a desk,” they conclude. “Internships are learning opportunities and, as such, require careful design. Done right, internships can help interns gradually get more acquainted with the culture where they work and the jobs they will be expected to do.”
The op-ed was based on a recent paper published in the Journal of Higher Education, co-written by multiple CCWT faculty, including Hora. Read more about it here.
Check out the op-ed in The Conversation.