Research At A Glance

Executive Summary

• Corporate internships have become a core recruitment tool for organisations and a key steppingstone for students in developing their professional careers. The COVID-19 pandemic meant that these programmes were thrown into doubt and many programmes postponed or cancelled. Estimates at the time suggested that between and third and half of all internship programmes were cancelled. This left many students without placements in 2020 which a key motivation for our research.
   
• We were interested in the lessons learned by those organisations who pivoted their programmes to virtual formats. What were the pressure points for them? What worked well? What elements of the virtual programmes would they retain if they were to have the option to return to the workplace and move towards hybrid programmes?
   
• Our research began with a desk-based review of research evidence on virtual internships and virtual working more broadly. We then completed 37 semi structured interviews across 22 organisations. Intern programmes covered a range of sectors and industries and ranged in size from single participants to thousands as part of global programmes in larger multinationals.
   
• We found a number of benefits of virtual programmes which we expect to be maintained when organisations return to traditional formats or pivot to hybrid deliveries. These included
  • increased access to programmes from diverse cohorts
  • increased opportunity for collaboration across sites or countries
  • increased access to senior leaders for participants
  • development of skills which are in greater demand in virtual workplace.
     
• We also identified a number of overarching challenges which were pervasive across organisations. We provide some insights in terms of how organisations can mitigate these challenges. The challenges were:
  • enabling relationships and building networks
  • informal learning and sharing tacit knowledge
  • sharing business etiquettes and organisational culture
     
• We identify seven key stages of internship programmes and identify key practices that can support the organisation in designing and delivering them virtually. The stages were:
  • defining the purpose and objectives of the programme
  • recruitment and selection
  • onboarding
  • the role of managers and mentors
  • designing the placement
  • formal learning and development
  • programme evaluation and intern appraisal.
     
• We provide actionable insights for organisations through three key features in the report
  • ideas in practices showcasing initiatives in organisations
  • An action checklist summarising the key actions which should be considered in addressing challenges and during the key steps in the process
  • Sample checklists for managers, mentors, and students, to assist them in navigating their roles in internship programmes. 

Download Lessons from Virtual Internships Summary Document

Internships

Corporate internships have become a core recruitment tool for organisations and a key steppingstone for students in developing their professional careers. For the sake of clarity, we define internships as “structured and career related work-experiences obtained by students prior to graduation from an academic program”.[1] The typical internship programme encompasses the following key features:

• A position with an organisation for a fixed period with a focus on professional exposure and development.
• Project-based learning experiences that are aligned with clear goals.
• Direct supervisor engagement and interaction complemented by regular opportunities for feedback and reflection.

Internships are widely recognised as beneficial for organisations and students alike. For organisations they represent an efficient means of developing an early career talent pipeline through screening candidates as part of a work placement. They also help build and reinforce the employer brand and contribute to corporate social responsibility initiatives. They can also bring new thinking and skills into organisations reflecting the latest knowledge from educational programmes.[2]

For students, they can be a key steppingstone from studying to employment. The work experience gained can be transformational in making graduates work ready. The networking and career development can translate into higher levels of employment on graduation and higher levels of job satisfaction in initial job placements.[3] Research points to the greater benefits for interns on paid internships over unpaid internships. Worryingly, research points to a gender gap in relation to paid versus unpaid internships with one study suggesting that only 73% of women are paid for their internship, compared with 86% of men.[4]

Many organisations have invested significantly in their internship programmes over extended periods and had developed mature and highly regarded programmes. However, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the early months of 2020 meant that these programmes were thrown into doubt and many programmes postponed or cancelled. Estimates at the time suggested that between and third and half of all internship programmes were cancelled.[4] For some organisations this was prompted by trading or financial conditions but for many more it came down to a lack of confidence in their ability to deliver a programme which matched the ambition of their existing programmes in a virtual format.   It was this question which prompted the research underpinning this report and tool kit. We were interested in the lessons learned by those organisations who pivoted their programmes to virtual formats. What were the pressure points for them? What worked well? What elements of the virtual programmes would they retain if they were to have the option to return to the workplace and move towards hybrid programmes?

Our Research

Our research began with a desk-based review of research evidence on virtual internships and virtual working more broadly. We then completed 37 semi structured interviews across 22 organisations. Our initial request was for a minimum of two interviewees in each organisation, one with an intern programme manager and one with a line manager or mentor. In organisations with fewer participants on programmes one person often filled all roles hence the differences in numbers. Intern programmes ranged from single participants to thousands as part of global programmes in larger multinationals. The organisations covered a broad range of sectors from professional services to technology, to pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food, engineering, and construction.

 Notwithstanding the challenges faced in reimagining internship programmes as fully virtual, the vast majority of organisations in our research recognised the value of running programmes virtually and reported positive outcomes. There was a degree to which the pragmatism of early redesign efforts focused on minimum viable products and recognising where good enough was good enough in terms of 2020 programmes. Iterations during the programmes and in preparing for the 2021 programmes refined and developed these initial models.

At the time of writing COVID-19 restrictions remain high so our ability to comment on the post-COVID environment is somewhat limited. However, there is little doubt that the restrictions experienced globally over the course of the pandemic have reshaped the debate around the future of the workplace. In this regard, over half of UK employees view the hybrid model as the new way model for businesses and it is highlight likely for work that is not tied to location, some sort of hybrid arrangement is likely to become the norm.[5]We also heard of many benefits of virtual delivery and some of the initiatives that organisations would retain as they considered hybrid programmes in the future. We highlight a number of these for consideration as organisations consider the longer-term design and delivery of their intern programmes.

Our report is structured in three key sections. We begin with a short overview of the benefits reported of virtual delivery. We then present the three key challenges which the organisations in our research reported in transitioning to virtual delivery of their programmes. In section two, we summarise lessons from the organisations in our research through seven steps that capture the key stages of intern programme design and delivery. We provide actionable insights for organisations through three key features in the report:

• Ideas in practices showcasing initiatives in organisations
• An action checklist summarising the key actions which should be considered in addressing challenges and during the key steps in the process
• Sample checklists for managers, mentors, and students, to assist them in navigating their roles in internship programmes. 

Conclusions

Corporate internships have become a core recruitment tool for organisations and a key steppingstone for students in developing their professional careers.

COVID-19 significantly disrupted internship programmes in 2020 with between a third and half of all programmes cancelled. While much of this disruption was caused by poor trading or financial conditions, many were shelved owing to concerns around the ability to deliver a programme which matched the ambition of existing programmes in a virtual context. We set out to understand the lessons learned by those organisations who pivoted their programmes to virtual and to identify they key challenges which they faced in that transition. We also identified the key lessons learned along the way and showcased many examples  of innovations which proved particularly effective in the virtual context. By supplementing these insights with evidence from academic research, we provide a road map for organisations in developing virtual programmes and identify some practices that are likely to prove valuable in a hybrid setting.

We provide actionable insights for organisations through three key features in the report:

• Ideas in practices showcasing initiatives in organisations
   
• An action checklist summarising the key actions which should be considered in addressing challenges and during the key steps in the process
   
• Sample checklists for managers, mentors, and students, to assist them in navigating their roles in internship programmes.

Notwithstanding the challenges of translating programmes to virtual, on balance the vast majority of respondents reported a positive experience. We believe there was many innovations that will stand the test of time and are likely to endure regardless of delivery method.  We hope the evidence in our report provides some direction to organisations developing or refining their virtual programmes or transitioning to hybrid programmes.

Methodology

Our research began with a desk-based review of research evidence on virtual internships and virtual working more broadly.

We then collected data across a range of organisations based on their experience of virtual internship programmes. Organisations was identified through participation in the DCU Access to the Workplace programme and the personal contacts of the research team. Organisations that declined to participate generally cited the fact that they had not run a virtual internship programme. Our initial request was for a minimum of two interviewees in each organisation, one with an intern programme manager and one with a line manager or mentor. In some organisations we interviewed the programme manager, a line manager and mentor. In organisations with fewer participants on programmes one person often filled all roles hence the differences in numbers.

The organisations covered a broad range of sectors from professional services to technology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food, and engineering and construction. Intern programmes ranged from single participants to thousands as part of global programmes in larger multinationals.

Our interviews followed a semi-structured format with initial prompts based on our review of extant research on virtual working and virtual internships. We then completed 37 semi structured interviews across 22 organisations. Interviewees lasted between 30 and 70 minutes. They were conducted over zoom and recorded with interviewee’s consent. Each interview was transcribed to ensure accuracy.

The study was approved by DCU’s Research Ethics Committee.

We are grateful to all interviewees for their support of the research.

[1] Taylor, M.S. 1988. Effects of college internships on individual participants. Journal of Applied Psychology, 73(3), pp. 393-401.

[2] Degravel, D., Hertz, G. & Koutroumanis, D.A. 2012. Internships as a strategic tool for small business: A conceptual study. Small Business Institute Journal, 8(1), 30-46.

[3] Gerken, M., Rienties, B., Giesbers, B. and Könings, K.D., 2012. Enhancing the academic internship learning experience for business education—a critical review and future directions. Learning at the Crossroads of Theory and Practice, pp.7-22.

[4] Rogers, S.E,  Miller, C.D,  Flinchbaugh, C., Giddare, M. & Barker. B. (2021). All internships are not created equal: Job design, satisfaction, and vocational development in paid and unpaid internships. Human Resource Management Review, 31, 100723

[5] The Future of Work survey published by Boston Consulting Group based on 2000 furloughed and retained employees in the United Kingdom  https://media-publications.bcg.com/Future-of-Work.pdf