Internship and Experiential Education

NACE defines a cooperative education programs, or co-ops as provide students with multiple periods of work in which the work is related to the student’s major or career goal. The typical program plan is for students to alternate terms of full-time classroom study with terms of full-time, discipline-related employment. Because the program participation involves multiple work terms, the typical participant will work three or four work terms, thus gaining a year or more of career-related work experience before graduation. Virtually all co-op positions are paid, and the vast majority involve some form of academic credit.

Short-term opportunities lasting from a few months to several years that focus on the professional development of the fellow. Fellowships are typically sponsored by a specific organization seeking to expand leadership in their field. Fellowship programs can be designed to support a range of activities including graduate study in a specific field, research to advance work on a particular issue, developing a new community-based organization or initiative, training and reflection to support the fellow's growth, opportunities to further explore a particular field of work.

NACE defines an internship as a form of experiential learning that integrates knowledge and theory learned in the classroom with practical application and skills development in a professional workplace setting (across in-person, remote, or hybrid modalities). Internships provide students the opportunity to gain valuable applied experience, develop social capital, explore career fields, and make connections in professional fields. Internships can be for credit/non-credit, be paid/unpaid, and part-time/full-time. An internship is not a part-time job, or a position developed to replace/displace a full-time employee. An internship will include mentorship, professional development, and critical reflection.

Service learning is distinguished by being mutually beneficial for both students and community. Service-learning is growing rapidly and is considered a part of experiential education by its very nature of learning, performing a job within the community, and serious reflection by the student.

Volunteering allows students to serve in a community primarily because they choose to do so. Many serve through a nonprofit organization—sometimes referred to as formal volunteering—but a significant number also serve less formally, either individually or as part of a group.

An experiential learning opportunities, similar to internships but generally shorter, provided through partnerships between educational institutions and employers to give students short practical experiences in their field of study. 

An activity where you can “shadow,” observe, and follow someone in their potential field while the professional is at work. Usually for a set period of time, shadowing can last anywhere from one hour to a week or longer. It all depends on the program, employer, and industry. 

NACE states, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, apprenticeships combine paid on-the-job training with classroom instruction to prepare workers for highly skilled careers. Workers benefit from apprenticeships by receiving a skills-based education that prepares them for good-paying jobs. The federal government supports the Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) to help employers and job seekers alike.

Clinical experiences provide hands-on medical based experiences of a predetermined duration directly tied to an area of study.

Faculty guided field work allows students to explore and apply content learned in the classroom in a specified field experience away from the classroom. Field work experiences bridge educational experiences with an outside community that can range from neighborhoods and schools to anthropological dig sites and laboratory settings.

Practicums are often a required component of a course of study and place students in a supervised and often paid situation. Students develop competencies and apply previously studied theory and content.

When used as part of a course, simulations and gaming/role-playing aim to imitate a system, entity, phenomenon, or process. Simulation can allow experiments to be conducted within a fictitious situation to show the real behaviors and outcomes of possible conditions of real-world experiences.

Student teaching provides candidates with an opportunity to put into practice the knowledge and skills they have been developing in the preparation program. Student teaching typically involves an on-site experience in a partner school and opportunities for formal and informal candidate reflection on their teaching experience.

Study Abroad provides opportunities for students to pursue experiential education experiences or academic goals in a foreign country.

Research is increasingly common at universities across all disciplines. With strong support from the National Science Foundation and the research community, scientists are reshaping their courses to connect key concepts and questions with students’ early and active involvement in systematic investigation and research. The goal is to involve students with actively contested questions, empirical observation, cutting-edge technologies, and the sense of excitement that comes from working to answer important questions.