Do Internships Increase the Probability of Immediate Post-College Employment for First-Generation College Students?

Background and Purpose: It has been estimated that approximately one in six college students in the United States are the first in their families to attend college (Irlbeck, Adams, Akers, Burris, & Jones, 2014).  Existing literature suggests that these first-generation students often have less access to information about college, less financial support, and lower graduation rates than their peers (Pascarella, Pierson, Wolniak, & Terenzini, 2004).  In addition, it appears that first-generation college students have very different experiences in college, in terms of the number of credit hours completed, number of hours worked per week, and likelihood of living on campus.  These differences have been shown to affect their cognitive and noncognitive outcomes (Pascarella, Pierson, Wolniak, & Terenzini, 2004). 

While researchers have begun to explore factors affecting the academic engagement and retention of first-generation college students (Ishitani, 2003, Engle & Tinto, 2008), less is known regarding their employment experiences immediately following graduation.  This study focuses in particular on the impact of internships on post-college employment outcomes for first-generation college students, in order to assess whether more attention and resources should be directed toward internships and formalized internship programs in the future. 

Specifically, the study examines two main research questions:

 

1. Does participation in an internship program increase the probability of considering or having accepted an offer of employment during spring of senior year of college for first-generation college students?
2. For those first-generation students who had internships, which individual- and institutional-level factors increase the likelihood of post-college employment?

Methods: Data for the study came from the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute’s 2008 Freshman Survey and 2012 College Senior Survey.  The College Senior Survey is a follow-up to the Freshman Survey, and therefore provides rich data on the students in the dataset. 

This study used cross-tabulations and logistic regression analysis to examine relationships between individual-level variables, institutional-level variables, and the dichotomous outcome variable of whether the student was considering or had accepted a job offer or not.  For the regression analysis, the independent variables were blocked into three groups, which were then entered into the equation using blocked entry regression analysis. As each group was added in to the equation, the changes in the Beta coefficients were assessed, in order to see how the strength of the variables changed when new variables were added in.

Preliminary Findings and Implications: Preliminary findings suggest that internships do increase the likelihood of immediate post-college employment for first-generation college students.  However, these outcomes appear to differ depending on individual-level factors such as students’ gender, choice of major, and level of engagement on campus. 

These findings are particularly timely now, in light of the high rates of unemployment and underemployment of recent college graduates (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015).  In addition, if first-generation students experience benefits from participating in internships, this may suggest a need for additional consideration around how internships might be made more accessible to all students.