Reinforcing the Importance of Maintaining Internship Support for College Student Engagement and Anticipated Employment

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has created many challenges for universities around the world, including how to keep students engaged in their professional development, despite the challenges of remote learning and virtual student services. The goal of this study was to demonstrate the continued importance of Career Professional Development Center (CPDC) support (pre-pandemic to early stages of the pandemic) for business-related internships influencing student professional development engagement (PDE) and anticipated employment upon graduation. PDE encompasses typical CPDC resources (e.g., internship search support; involvement in student professional organizations (SPOs); professional development coaching; and job search assistance). A survey, the Senior Student Satisfaction Survey (SSSS) was deployed prior to graduation to business students. Using the SSSS, two separate samples of graduating business undergraduates at a Mid-Atlantic University in the United States were surveyed, in late Spring 2019 (pre-pandemic) and late Spring 2020 (early pandemic). Pre-pandemic survey results showed that students having at least one internship experience (versus none) were more likely to: join an SPO sooner; attend more SPO meetings/semester; complete their professional development sooner; and anticipate “by graduation” full-time employment. Despite the drop in survey participation due to the pandemic onset, results consistent with this were found with the early pandemic survey. Like other academic-related and campus services in the face of the pandemic, the business school CPDC is adapting to the new remote ways of operating and successfully transitioned their delivery mode to a 100% virtual model to meet the resource challenge of supporting student PDE. It is hoped that the ideas discussed will be useful to a wider audience.

An American Business School’s Academic Advising and Professional Development Centers’ Early Pandemic Response

“…Although acknowledged to be important to maintain as a college student resource during the COVID-19 pandemic (Russell et al, 2021), no prior empirical work has been done testing Academic Advising. In addition, this study expands the scope of prior empirical work of Blau et al (2021), who demonstrated the importance of internship support to business students during the early pandemic period. There was weak support for the first research question, only Attendance Motivation changed significantly from 2019 to 2020 and it understandably decreased as students were suddenly forced to leave the main campus and all face-to-face classes were cancelled on March 13, 2020, approximately half-way through the Spring, 2020 semester.…”

“…Such resources are important for college student retention and graduation (Swecker, Fifolt & Searby, 2013). With the exception of Blau, Snell and Goldberg (2021) the authors found an absence of specific empirical research and only general recommendations on the need to consider these two non-teaching student resources as a University responded to COVID-19 challenges (Russell et al, 2021). Using two independent graduating business undergraduate samples, across pre and early pandemic periods, Blau et al (2021) empirically demonstrated the importance of students having at least one internship experience (versus none) for a higher anticipation level by graduation to have subsequent full-time employment.…”

“…With the exception of Blau, Snell and Goldberg (2021) the authors found an absence of specific empirical research and only general recommendations on the need to consider these two non-teaching student resources as a University responded to COVID-19 challenges (Russell et al, 2021). Using two independent graduating business undergraduate samples, across pre and early pandemic periods, Blau et al (2021) empirically demonstrated the importance of students having at least one internship experience (versus none) for a higher anticipation level by graduation to have subsequent full-time employment. The purpose of this study is to extend Blau et al (2021) by examining graduating student perceptions to the early pandemic response of academic advising and student professional development at a Business School in the United States.…”

“…Using two independent graduating business undergraduate samples, across pre and early pandemic periods, Blau et al (2021) empirically demonstrated the importance of students having at least one internship experience (versus none) for a higher anticipation level by graduation to have subsequent full-time employment. The purpose of this study is to extend Blau et al (2021) by examining graduating student perceptions to the early pandemic response of academic advising and student professional development at a Business School in the United States. This study incorporates previously untested variables in a general model of student professional engagement developed by Blau and Snell (2013), including student perceptions of: attendance motivation, coursework challenge, academic advising center ease/quality, professional development center ease/quality, business degree satisfaction, and perceived market value to potential employers.…”

Relationships of Paid and Unpaid Internships, and Source for Obtaining, to Early COVID-19 Stage Anticipated Employment Outcomes

“…Internships have long been noted to be an important gateway to full-time job employment for college students (Knouse & Fontenot, 2008;Sagen, Dallam & Laverty, 2000). Blau, Snell and Goldberg (2021) found that college business students with at least one internship, versus those with no internships, were more likely to anticipate both outcomes of full-time employment by graduation and full-time employment within their major by graduation. Prior research has shown a distinction between these two outcomes, i.e., that a higher percentage of graduating business students anticipate full-time employment versus full-time employment in their major (Blau, Gaffney, Kim & Jarrell, 2017).…”