The use of internships to foster employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship in the IT sector

Laura Galloway, Abigail Marks, Shiona Chillas

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    27 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report a study of the role of internships for ITstudents and for the IT sector. The contribution of internships for career-readiness, and for the development of existing IT organisations and the creation of new ones is explored.
    Design/methodology/approach – Surveys of interns and managers from host firms wereconduced, followed by in-depth interviews with six interns and five organisations.
    Findings – Internships are useful for increasing enterprise and employability skills and commercial awareness for IT students. IT organisations also benefit in that internships are used to recruit fresh talent. Findings regarding entrepreneurship were disappointing, with little reportage of ambitions to create new firms, nor awareness of the high likelihood of self-employed contractual work in the sector.
    Research limitations/implications – Implications for research include that self-employment and business ownership are not always “successful” entrepreneurial outcomes born of agency. This requires further study.
    Practical implications – Development of opportunities for experiential, real-world learning for IT students is implied, as is increased educational focus on employability and enterprise skills to best advantage students for the realities of employment in IT. There is a strong suggestion that much more
    needs to be done in terms of encouraging entrepreneurship.
    Originality/value – The paper reports the potentials of internships to interns and to organisations, and through combining these perspectives, provides comment on the utility of internships for the IT sector as a competitive, opportunity-rich global industry.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)653 - 667
    Number of pages14
    JournalJournal of Small Business and Enterprise Development
    Volume21
    Issue number4
    Early online date16 Oct 2014
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2014

    Keywords

    • Entrepreneurship, IT, Employability, Internships, Enterprise

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Business,Management and Accounting

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