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Recent reports on accounting education have observed that an increasing difference exists between what students are being taught and what accounting practitioners actually do. Yet, despite such criticisms of accounting education, methods exist that help blend study and practice more effectively. Included among the methods are accounting internships and related cooperative work‐ study programs. This study was conducted at the college of Business and Economics, United Arab Emirates University to investigate the effect of student internships on subsequent academic performance. The post‐internship course performance of students with accounting internship experience was compared to that of non‐internship students matched on the basis of grade point averages (GPA) and credit hours completed. The results indicated that the internship students performed significantly better than the non‐internship students in accounting courses, and in overall GPA subsequent to the internship semester. These findings contradict prior research and support accounting internships as tools to enhance students’ knowledge and motivation.

Internal audit student internship programmes are an integral part of the curriculum for Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) target schools of US universities. The internship concept is explored ‐ how it is implemented, its characteristics, and its advantages and disadvantages – at six target schools. It is concluded that the benefits, to the items, employers and academic institutions, outweigh the potential disadvantages.

The present paper aims to outline the case for diversity gains for employers via virtual internships, while recognizing the role of government and educational support.

In the context of Australian employment statistics about people with disabilities, the actors, key issues and barriers to utilizing virtual internships are explored.

The results of an online survey with 24 career, access and inclusion service officers at Australian universities suggested that the large majority were unfamiliar with virtual internships, as many shared concerns about what kind of learning and mentoring opportunities such computer-mediated internships may provide to their students.

Employers embracing new e-HR developments may be particularly well situated to adopt virtual internships and combine these effectively with existing diversity initiatives, many of which already include mentoring and learning opportunities. A closer dialogue with career, access and inclusion services may further support a fruitful knowledge exchange and reduce the concerns of educational representatives about virtual internships and their usefulness to increase the employment prospects of people with disabilities.

At present, virtual internship programs remain the exception, and are often not connected with diversity initiatives, nor are virtual internships well known among student services. However, virtual internships represent a promising opportunity for employers who wish to access untapped national (or even international) talent pools and thus candidates that would benefit from and contribute to their diversity initiatives.

The purpose of this study is to document the process of transformative learning during students’ internships.

A qualitative study was conducted with 13 interviewed students to gain deeper insights into their learning experiences during their internships. Their weekly reflections from their 6 month’s internship experience were also coded for common themes.

The study found numerous trigger events ranging from task-related challenges to interpersonal challenges to environmental challenges led to mindset shifts in students during their internships. The mindset shifts are enabled by students engaging in the trigger events through asking questions, seeking information and reflecting. Other enablers of these mindset shifts are workplace psychological safety, social support and individual learning orientation. The conclusion drawn is that trigger events and enabling resources such as external support are central to healthy mindset shifts and learning.

This paper provides important guidance for supporting transformative learning during student internships.

This paper provides important guidance for supporting transformative learning during student internships.

The effect of vicarious learning during clinical or medical internships on graduates' adaptive career behaviours has attracted scant attention from healthcare researchers, particularly, in the developing world context. Drawing upon the social cognitive career theory model of career self-management (SCCT-CSM), the current study examines how vicarious learning influences the clinical graduates' adaptive career behaviours (i.e. career exploration and decision-making) via career exploration and decision-making self-efficacy (CEDSE) and career intention.

Data were collected from 293 nursing graduates undertaking clinical internships in 25 hospitals across Nigeria who willingly participated in this study as they were also assured of confidentiality at two-waves. The proposed hypotheses were tested using a path analysis.

The findings showed that vicarious learning during clinical internship had a direct effect on career exploration, decision-making and career decision self-efficacy among graduate trainees. Also, the findings revealed that the effects of vicarious learning on the graduates' career exploration and career decision-making were significantly mediated by career decision self-efficacy and career intentions.

The findings of this study have important practical implications for higher education institutions and industries that send and receive clinical graduates for clinical internships to gain more skills. More emphasis should be on encouraging learners to learn vicariously in addition to other forms of learning experiences available during clinical internships.

The study explains that the graduates' higher engagement in clinical career exploration and decision-making was based on a higher level of vicarious learning during internships. The results suggest that higher education institutions and healthcare service providers can derive greater benefits from more emphasis on promoting vicarious learning during clinical internships.

Firstly, this study diagnosed professional competence amongst Chinese vocational students within a broad range of the manufacturing sectors; then, the authors examined how different types of P-E fit (job, organisation and vocation) and internship quality jointly shape the newly acquired professional competences of interns.

This study utilised the COMET methodology to conduct a large-scale assessment of professional competence amongst 961 graduates from vocational colleges who had successfully completed internships. Participants actively engaged in the data collection process by responding to questionnaires that sought contextual information concurrently.

The majority of students have attained fundamental functional competencies, indicating their fulfillment of basic requirements. However, there is a tendency to overlook the cultivation of shaping competence. Three types of P-E fit and task characteristics are positively correlated with professional competence. The indirect relationship between P-E fit and professional competence mediated by task characteristics was verified through P-V fit and P-J fit except for P-O fit. Overall, the model explains 39.2% of the variance in professional competence.

“How to promote professional competence” has been highlighted as an important topic in vocational education. This paper contributes to identify the characteristics of a quality internship program for vocational colleges and firms. These insights are important in considering a student-centred approach, design internships programmes that better fit their own abilities, needs and vocations, avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach to implement internships and thus, enhance students' professional development.

This chapter uses macro policy analysis conducted at the Center for Teacher Education Research (CTER), Beijing Normal University to analyze the decision-making concerning teacher internship from the perspective of national policy. Internship, a teacher preparation policy initiative in China, is both needed to ease the teacher shortages in rural and poor areas of China and to create new models of teaching practice. Attention is then given to two aspects in policy implementation – student teachers’ learning and teachers’ multiple forms of instruction – from the perspective of teacher preparation. To conclude, the chapter offers some summary statements having to do with the policy debate and the implementation of the internship in China.