Facilitating career insight of students from their internships and work experience

Abstract

While universities are putting strong emphasis on and resources into developing internships and work experience schemes,research on the impact of internships and work experience on career development of students is inconclusive, depending on internship design and quality (e.g., Gamboaa, Paixãob, & de Jesusa, 2013; Arnold, Auburn, & Ley, 1995). From the perspective of career counselling, upon gaining work experience, students may need further guidance from teachers or facilitators to process and reflect on work experience to generate insights and directions for their career development (e.g., Cheung, in press; Taveira & Rodriguez, 2003). Up till now, research and practice tend to focus on professional development through internships rather than on the facilitation of internship experience to discover career insights. This project is a first endeavour in this university to develop such practice of facilitation in this university through practice, evaluation and disseminating results. The project aims at advancing the curriculum of postgraduate counselling education (MSS Counselling in this university) in discovering knowledge and practice in career counselling, as well as enhancing undergraduate students’ attributes to reflect from internship learning and generate a positive and flexible approach to develop employability.