Poster: Intern and Supervisors\u27 Attitudes toward Job Skills and Professional Characteristics: An Exploratory Coorientation Analysis

Internships help students transition to entry-level positions. Indeed, there are many early career advantages for undergraduates with internship experience including less time finding a first employment position, increased monetary compensation and greater overall job satisfaction. Internships improve interconnections between service learning and citizenship education, and have the potential to strengthen relationships between the academy and business and community partners. Professional and scholarly evidence also highlights the important role of internships but suggests a gap exists between students and supervisors regarding the relative importance of specific job skills and professional characteristics. While previous studies explored the underlying feelings and expectations of the two groups towards one another, this exploratory study is unique as it uses co-orientation as the theoretical framework to compare and contrast BSU students and their supervisors\u27 ranking of the most important skills/characteristics. Based on survey results, the researcher proposes intentional changes to course design and teaching practices to improve student learning outcomes