Internships are essential for equipping learners with the real-world skills they need for success in today’s workforce.
However, reaching 100% internship completion isn’t just about increasing opportunities—it’s about addressing and removing the barriers that prevent learners from completing them.
Tackling these barriers requires a holistic, systemic approach that ensures every learner, regardless of background, can gain meaningful, career-aligned work experience before graduation.
In this article, with insights gained from working with hundreds of higher education providers and thousands of interns, we collate and investigate the key challenges for internship completion and how we can begin to overcome them.
Real-world work experience, namely internships, must be a core component of every learner’s academic journey, not an optional add-on. By embedding internships into the curriculum, universities and colleges can guarantee that all learners, regardless of personal networks or financial means, gain real-world experience before they graduate.
Wider Insight: Research from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) shows that internship participation leads to higher employment rates post-graduation, with 70% of interns receiving full-time job offers from their internship employers (NACE, 2024).
Implementing the Solution: Higher education providers that integrate internships into their academic programs make it possible for all learners to access this vital experience. This should not be an extra burden for the learner to seek out but a part of the learning ecosystem—ensuring that every learner has the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned in a professional setting.
The challenge of scaling internships is not just about attracting big corporations but also ensuring that small and medium enterprises (SMEs), startups, and global businesses are involved. These organizations offer rich, dynamic environments where learners can gain practical skills but often lack the resources or knowledge to host interns.
Recent Insight: A report by the European Union’s Erasmus+ program highlights that while 80% of companies in the EU recognize the value of internships, only 43% have actively participated in hosting interns in the past year (Erasmus+ Report, 2023).
Implementing the Solution: It’s crucial to demystify the process and lower the barriers for these smaller companies. By creating clear structures, support systems, and resources, we can make it easier for them to engage with talented learners and help them see the long-term value of investing in internship programs. The gap between between industry and academia can be bridged with the support of structured programs.
Internships can seem daunting for employers, particularly those without experience in managing interns. The perceived time investment, lack of structure, and the challenge of finding the right talent can make companies hesitant to participate in internship programs.
Recent Insight: According to a report from the Brookings Institution, only 20% of small businesses in the U.S. offer internship programs, compared to 60% of large companies. This disparity reveals that SMEs are disproportionately underrepresented in providing work-based learning opportunities (Brookings, 2023).
Implementing the Solution: Universities and industry partners must work together to provide employers with resources and clear frameworks that make hosting interns manageable and rewarding. This can include pre-vetted, career-ready learners, project-based internships aligned with business goals, and ongoing support from internship success advisors. By removing these barriers, companies of all sizes can participate in internships.
To learn more about bridging the gap between employers and educators to scale internship access, download our report: More Internships, Please - Empowering SME and University Collaboration, 2024
Internships should be considered part of a larger career development strategy, not a standalone experience. It’s crucial that learners are supported not just during their internship, but throughout their career journey, from skills training to job placement.
Wider Insight: The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report (2023) emphasizes that internships alone are insufficient for preparing learners for today’s job market. There is a growing demand for structured career pathways that connect internships to long-term career opportunities.
Implementing the Solution: To ensure the success of internships, they must be integrated into a multi-step career development journey. This includes foundational skills training, industry-led courses, career coaching, and internships that allow learners to apply their learning in real-world settings. Such a holistic approach will prepare learners for long-term career success, not just a one-off experience.
One of the most significant barriers to internship access is the reliance on personal networks. Too many internships are still secured through who you know, not what you know. This leaves many learners—particularly first-generation students and those from underserved backgrounds—locked out of vital career opportunities.
Wider Insight: A study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that first-generation college students are half as likely to secure internships compared to their peers, highlighting the inequity that still exists in today’s internship landscape (CEPR, 2023).
Implementing the Solution: It’s critical to level the playing field and remove social capital as a prerequisite for success. This means offering internships that are accessible to all learners, regardless of background or network. Virtual Internships enables you to guarantee every single one of your learners an internship placement, therefore ensuring that work-based learning opportunities are equitable, scalable, and workforce-aligned.
Achieving 100% internship completion will require systemic change, from policy-level shifts to on-the-ground support. But, with the right systems in place—systems that simplify engagement, provide clear pathways, and integrate internships into the academic journey—we can move closer to the goal of ensuring that every learner graduates with meaningful, career-aligned experience.
The vision is clear: internships should be a universal component of higher education, available to all learners, and seamlessly integrated into their educational journey.
At Virtual Internships, we work with hundreds of education providers worldwide, from universities and colleges to international training providers and governments, to ensure equitable access to meaningful, supported, structured project-based internships that are scalable for all learners.