July 9, 2009

What could a California State University, Fresno student learn from being in an office environment for 20 hours a week? The answer - tons.

Over the last year, Craig School of Business professors Debbie Young, Donald Stengel, and Priscilla Chaffe-Stengel have worked on research entitled, “Assessing the Academic and Work Place Skills of Undergraduate Business Interns.” In many ways, this is a groundbreaking subject, according to Young.

“Research done on internship assessment is rare, especially in terms of identifying skills gained as a result of internships,” she said.

As director of the Internship Program at the Craig School of Business, Young has compiled years of data on the satisfaction and success of internships from both the employer and the student standpoint. She formed a team with professors Stengel and Chaffe-Stengel from the Information Systems and Decision Sciences Department to develop an effective assessment tool and analyze data. The results are unexpected.

“When I first approached Dr. Chaffe-Stengel about the research, I wanted to simply prove that interns gain skills they need in today’s business work environment as a result of their internship experience,” said Young. “I wanted to confirm the importance of doing an internship before a student graduates. What we found was surprising. We grouped the skills into two categories: work-based skills (such as motivation, work ethic, team player, etc.) and academic skills (written and verbal communication, quantitative and computer skills).

“The research findings clearly indicate that interns gain the most knowledge in their academic skills as a result of their internship. I honestly thought that their work-based skills would improve more significantly than their academic skills. This is a powerful finding and another reason to encourage Craig School of Business students to participate in the program,” said Young.

The research team has submitted a paper for possible publication to the Cooperative Education and Internship Association Journal, and the research will continue as data are analyzed for the 2008-09 academic year.

“We will now have some historical data to work with and will continue to collect these data for many years,” said Young. “We may start looking at skills gained by each option. In the future, it might even be interesting to compare our results with another business school.”

The results of the research also speak to the quality of the internship experiences offered to our students, Young said. “From the student’s perspective, a successful internship is one in which they are given tasks to which they can apply classroom knowledge and theory. Many students want to have the opportunity to spend time with and talk to a mentor who can lead them in the right career direction.”

Young said the acceleration of academic success would not be possible without the hundreds of dedicated companies who take on students each year.

The Craig School of Business Internship Program continues to be the flagship project for the Business Associates, who contribute about one-third of their operating cost each year.

(Copy by Tracy Newel, Craig School of Business - Office of Advancement.)