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Internships are a popular way for people, generally young adults, to gain either paid or un-paid on-the-job training for white-collar and professional careers across different industries and job types, such as human resources, manufacturing, accounting, marketing, banking, hospitality and public relations.

To date, there is ambiguity about what types of internships exist, what types might work best for different stakeholders, how to decide whether to engage in internships or increase them and, ultimately, how to make these internships succeed for each main stakeholder.

In response to this ambiguity, Maertz et al. (2014), in their article “Building successful internships: lessons from the research for interns, schools, and employers”, highlight that there are few essential measurements or boundaries of internships, necessary for stakeholders to be on the same wave length when discussing internships. They also address the fact that there is no single point of reference for the potential costs and benefits of internships across different industries, or how to go about facilitating their success.

There are numerous types of internships, including paid or unpaid, full-time or part-time summer work, academic course credit or no course credit, and project-based or job-based work format. It is impractical to account for the benefits and costs of every variation across every industry. Therefore, Maertz et al. summarize the benefits and costs around a more general case, by making basic assumptions that the intern is most likely a student or recent graduate, receiving low pay and doing what is asked.

Benefits and costs for interns

Pay is typically a small but straightforward benefit for interns, but other benefits include:

  • learning how to apply classroom concepts in a work environment may accelerate job performance;

  • improved work habits, on-the-job knowledge and skills and ability to identify career options;

  • smoother transition from education to work;

  • development and crystallization of vocational self-concept and work/career values;

  • marketable practical job experience, which...

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