16/06/2023

Though not new, virtual (remote, online, or e-) internships have increased in popularity across the world since the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Virtual Internships, an educational technology company, their brokered internships increased from 200 a year in 2018 to 1600 a year in 2020, while between a quarter to a half of UK students reported doing at least some of their work placements online in 2020 (Prospects, 2021; Holt-White & Montacute, 2020). But what do we know about virtual internships? In this blog, we address this question and highlight issues that we are covering in our research project. 

We are exploring the virtual internship landscape and student intern and employer experience in two contrasting institutional contexts, the UK and Italy. Why these two countries? We deliberately adopt a cross-national perspective to address the effect of the institutional context on the design, implementation and experience of virtual internships. In Italy, placements and internships are typically part of a more institutionalised transition from education to employment and are usually part of the educational curriculum if they satisfy basic requirements, whereas in the UK they are less institutionalised and more varied. We discussed some of these issues in our earlier work (Tzanakou et al., 2021) on how different types of internships relate to graduates’ labour market outcomes – we found different effects in Italy and the UK – and will build on our work in this project. 

Immediately, we run into the issue of what is an internship. We tackle this first before addressing virtual internships specifically. In our previous research collaborations, we noted that the meaning of ‘internship’ isn’t fixed, varying within and between countries. To establish shared terminology, Broeki et al. (2017) distinguish between: (1) internships undertaken as part of vocational/academic curricula; (2) internships associated with active labour-market policies; and (3) internships in the open market. Some have argued that internships should be distinguished from other work experience activity by their learning and skill/knowledge development component. NACE (2018), for example, defines an internship as 'a form of experiential learning that integrates knowledge and theory learned in the classroom with practical application and skills development in a professional setting.' While we cannot offer a definitive interpretation of internships, in the case of higher education students, internships typically last several months, may be paid or unpaid, and may or may not be part of a course. We therefore focus on Broeki et al.’s curricular and open market internship categories. 

The term ‘virtual internship’ is also ambiguous. It can refer to a range of work experiences, including: simulations (for example, Forage’s virtual work experience programs), slightly longer internship experiences or insights (for example, such as those organized by the Bright Network), and longer-term internships that take place online/remotely, that may equally well take place in-person. There is also a tension in the equivalence of ‘virtual’ and ‘remote’ internships. While both can be done online, the former is sometimes used to refer exclusively to short work simulations that participants can do in their own time and the latter – to internships in organizations that take place online rather than in person. Through our stakeholder interviews, we are aiming to map the different types of virtual internships available, summarise their characteristics, and the main parties involved. 

We know that students and graduates increasingly use internships and work-related experience as a way of developing ‘standout employability’ and skills valued by employers (Anderson & Tomlinson, 2021) and that for employers, internships can be a way of trialling potential employees as a sort of ‘long interview’. To what extent can virtual internships replace or complement in-person internships regarding skill development for the intern and recruitment practices for the employer? We’re addressing this issue through our intern and employer interviews.  

We also know that virtual internships have the capacity to overcome some of the barriers to participation in traditional in-person internships, such as costs of relocation for an internship that may be unpaid, difficulties in working on-site related to disability or health issues, and difficulties arising from caring responsibilities. But to what extent are other problems created, such as issues with access to reliable devices and software, a good enough internet connection, daily interaction with colleagues and supervisors, and a designated place to work in peace, particularly among interns from disadvantaged backgrounds? This widening participation angle runs through our research, and we raise it in discussions with employers, interns and stakeholders. 

What do we hope to get out of our project? Our aims are (1) to map the key features of the virtual internship landscape and (2) to compare digital to in-person internships on accessibility, skill development and employability for the intern, and on recruitment process and internship design/delivery for the employer. By doing so, we hope to inform emerging research on the process and effectiveness of virtual internships and provide best practice guidance for students, employers and other stakeholders in developing successful virtual internships.

References 

Anderson, V., & Tomlinson, M. (2021). Signaling standout graduate employability: The employer perspective. Human Resource Management Journal, 31(3), 675-693. 

Broeki, S., Hogarth, T., Baltina, L., & Lombardi, A. (2017). Skills development and employment: Apprenticeships, internships and volunteering. European Parliament. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2017/602056/IPOL_STU(2017)602056_EN.pdf 

Holt-White, E., & Montacute, R. (2020). COVID-19 and social mobility impact brief # 5. Graduate recruitment and access to the workplace. The Sutton Trust. https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Access-to-the-Workplace-Impact-Brief.pdf  

National Association of Colleges and Employers [NACE] Center for Career Development and Talent Acquisition (2018). Position statement: U.S. Internships. National Association of Colleges and Employers [NACE]. https://www.naceweb.org/about-us/advocacy/position-statements/position-statement-us-internships  

Prospects. (2021). Early Careers Survey 2021: Work experience during a crisis. https://graduatemarkettrends.cdn.prismic.io/graduatemarkettrends/bf3409a0-b8d2-406e-b56b-a4720cf327a7_early-careers-survey-2021-work-experience-during-a-crisis.pdf  

Tzanakou, C., Cattani, L., Luchinskaya, D. & Pedrini, G., (2021). How do internships undertaken during higher education affect graduates' labour market outcomes in Italy and the United Kingdom? In A. Stewart, R. Owens, N. O'Higgins, & A. Hewitt (Eds.), Internships, Employability and the Search for Decent Work Experience (p. 55-75). Edward Elgar Publishing. 

17/09/2021

We're kicking off our project and are excited to get started!