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1. Introduction
Previous research underscores the key role of internships as a predominant tool to increase the employability of young adults (Callanan and Benzing, 2004; Drewery et al., 2016; Finch et al., 2013; Gault et al., 2010; Inceoglu et al., 2019; Ishengoma and Vaaland, 2016; Pereira et al., 2020; Silva et al., 2016). Young people are three times as likely as adults to be unemployed (International Labour Organization, 2020) and the study of young people's employability has secured a central position in the public discourse of scholars, companies and public administrations over the past decade.
Employability is a key measure of an internship's success. There is evidence that perceived employability facilitates proactive behaviors and better adaptation (Fugate et al., 2004) and positively impacts job-related and general well-being (Bakker et al., 2004; De Cuyper et al., 2011). While previous studies have explained how individual and contextual factors such as personal traits, socio-demographics, education, skills and labor market factors influence perceived employability, little attention has been devoted to the features of the internship experience itself. Therefore, “it is currently not possible to assess which aspects of the placement experience contribute to positive changes in psychological factors, career resources and career outcomes” (Inceoglu et al., 2019, p. 326). In other words, despite its widespread use, we have very limited knowledge about how organizations can design internships that maximize interns' employability. Thus, a significant research opportunity exists to identify the key features of an internship and explore their link with interns' employability.
The purpose of this study is to build on the theoretical model proposed by Inceoglu et al. (2019), which in turn builds on transition theory (Schlossberg, 1981) and the career resources model (Hirschi, 2012) to shed light on how internships' features drive employability outcomes. How can we tell the difference between an internship that increases interns' employability from one that does not? Specifically, we propose that the duration of an internship, the degree of formalization and the use of internship-specific motivational practices are likely to influence interns' perceptions of employability.
To test our model of perceived employability, we analyzed data from a relevant stratified dataset of 13,422 respondents with internship experience from the 27 European Union (EU) member states. Our data and...