Internship Experiences and Critical Soft Skills Development among Tanzanian Graduates

Abstract

As graduates have transitioned into the workforce, employers have complained that these younger employees lack the soft skills that are needed to be successful in the workforce. Soft skills are personal traits and skills that employers seek in employees. Internship programs can be used to develop soft skills. Few qualitative studies have looked at how the internship experience contributes to the development of soft skills that are considered critical for graduates to possess. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to understand how Tanzanian graduates describe their individual internship experience in supporting the learning of critical soft skills (specifically, communication, teamwork, problem solving, and interpersonal skills). The conceptual framework used to ground this study included the experiential learning theory, the situated learning theory, mentorship and self-efficacy. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 10 participants. The following six themes emerged from this study: (a) the internship experience developed critical soft skills among graduates; (b) graduates understood the importance of soft skills in the workplace; (c) the social work environment supported the learning of critical soft skills; (d) graduates faced several challenges during their internship experience; (e) lack of formal mentorship during internships; (f) graduates would like to see more structure and a focus on learning during internships. This study contributes to the literature exploring internship experiences and soft skills development by uniquely focusing on critical soft skills. Additionally, this study contributes to the limited literature exploring human capital development in the African context. The results of this study could be used by organizations to further their understanding on how to develop better internship programs that enhance soft skills development.