Bridging the skills gap between students and employers: a community college internship implementation guide

Experiential learning has been used to enhance lessons learned in the classroom for
centuries. This dissertation explores the research regarding the academic and vocational benefits
for students when they participate in experiential learning, particularly in the form of internships.
This product dissertation utilized a qualitative research approach to examine how
internship programs are structured at two-and four-year schools. Internship programs were
viewed through the lenses of experiential learning theory, career development theory, and
workforce development theory. A purposive sampling technique was utilized to identify eight
programs to analyze. Internship program managers were interviewed, and publicly available
websites were reviewed.
Internship program managers identified common challenges including implementing
standardized processes across the institution, building and maintaining relationships with faculty,
and agreement on the value of an academic course to accompany a student’s work experience.
The research also identified successful approaches that resulted in sustainable internship
structures such as planning for growth at the outset of developing a new program, situating a
centralized internship program under the guidance of the chief academic officer, and utilizing
change management concepts when developing or expanding a program.
The major findings of this study resulted in recommendations in several key areas
regarding the structure of internship programs. Recommendations are included for developing a
strategic program implementation plan that is designed for program expansion, identifying and
training an implementation team utilizing change management principles, developing a co-requisite or pre-requisite academic course to be taken alongside the work experience component,
and planning for budget considerations. The recommendations were used to develop an
internship implementation guide.
The internship implementation guide is organized in a workbook format and designed to
help strategic planners assess how their institution might develop a program that meets the needs
of their students, faculty, and the local business community.