Do You Currently Provide a Stipend? : An Exploratory Study of Social Work Internships in Illinois

Background: This mixed methods study explores the characteristics of agencies that provide paid and unpaid social work internships within the State of Illinois. A 10-item survey was created and distributed by the Illinois Consortium of Field Educators for the purposes of gathering general organizational information (e.g., location, size of budget, etc.) from partner field sites as well as to better understand the reasons why practicum agencies do not currently provide a stipend.

Methods: Data were collected using a cross-sectional survey that was administered between March 13, 2023 to March 28, 2023 through participating institutions within the Consortium (n = 25). For the 593 agencies who responded, 32% (n = 189) of field sites currently offer a stipend; of this sample, the majority of paid internship sites (54%) provide a lump sum payment, only 3% of BSW/first-year MSW internships are paid, and just over half (53%) of paid internships support one or two students. Of the 68% (n = 404) that do not provide a stipend, they were asked open-ended questions to elicit reasons why their internship is unpaid. Sample questions include, “What barriers have you encountered in offering a stipend?” and “What are your thoughts on providing compensation to interns?”

Results: The qualitative analysis revealed the following 4 themes: 1) Compensation is Necessary and Beneficial, 2) Scarcity/Competition (not enough funding or supervisors), 3) Compensation is Unknown (sites discussed needing additional training or information to implement paid internships), and 4) Anti-Paid Internships. These themes ranged greatly in their opinions on whether internships should or should not be paid and if so, who should be responsible for payment (e.g., university, field agency/internship/practicum site), and the implications of increasing or mandating paid internships. Suggested opportunities for additional engagement include university support, agency support, student advocacy, legislative support, rethinking social work accrediting standards related to field, and private funding support.

Implications: While this study provides a base understanding of agency characteristics that provide an internship stipend, additional quantitative analyses are needed to truly understand the intersection of certain factors, such as the size of an organization, and whether this is related to the likelihood of offering a paid or unpaid internship. A follow up survey will be administered in Spring 2024 to field sites that provided a stipend for the 2023-24 school year with the purpose of confirming specific details of range of pay, how payment is funded, and other key variables to consider.