TOWSON COLLEGE INNOVATES

Program Innovation: Micro-Internships Offer Career Experiences, Alumni Connections

Students use Goucher College’s micro-internship program for six-week virtual internships hosted by the college’s alumni network.

Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed

Students use Goucher College’s micro-internship program for six-week virtual internships hosted by the college’s alumni network. (Flickr/Goucher College)

Internships remain important in a student’s career development, but equal access to opportunities remains a challenge.

In 2021, only 21 percent of college students completed an internship, compared to pre-pandemic numbers—50 to 60 percent of students—according to the National Survey of College Internships from University of Wisconsin at Madison’s Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions.

An August 2022 Student Voice survey conducted by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse found that first-generation students were likely to lack any internship experience or experiential learning within a course: half of all first-gen students and two-thirds of first-gen community college students had not had these experiences.

Of those studied by the Wisconsin center who did not complete internships, 60 percent said they did not know how to find an internship, 56 percent were burdened with coursework and 40 percent needed to work a paid job instead of interning.

Short-term internships, known as micro-internships, have begun to get attention within higher ed as an effective way to get students that crucial on-the-job experience. At Goucher College in Maryland FINISH READING HERE

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