trout abby - learning good employee skills maximizing internship program effectiveness - presentation

Learning Good Employee Skills: Maximizing Internship Program Effectiveness NSEE Annual Conference, September 2016 Abby Trout, Career Center Carol Trosset, Institutional Research and Assessment Carleton College Institutional Research and Assessment Overview Carleton College = a highly selective liberal arts college in Minnesota, with 2000 undergraduates • Introduce the Carleton College Career Center’s internship process and its focus on learning goals • Review Trosset’s research at Bennington College on which skills are most valued by interns’ employers • Present new research at Carleton on how students become aware of and learn these skills • Discuss implications for Career Center programming Institutional Research and Assessment Career Center mission: Institutional Research and Assessment Carleton Career Center learning goals: • • • • • • • • • Self-assessment Career field awareness Transferable skills Market selves Experience Job search Graduate degrees Access to networks Effective networking Institutional Research and Assessment Career Tracks Institutional Research and Assessment Internships at Carleton • 488 (33%) of rising Carleton sophomores, juniors, and seniors did internships in Summer 2016 • 113 of these internships were funded through the Career Center • Career Center provides funding to cover expenses (i.e., housing, transportation, food) • $386K awarded for Summer 2016 • Internships located all over the world (all over US and 29 countries) and in a variety of industries Institutional Research and Assessment What makes for a rewarding internship? • • • • A strong relationship with a supervisor Learning Goals Self-discovery Institutional Research and Assessment At Carleton, students specify learning goals: Institutional Research and Assessment Research on Learning Outcomes • What are the actual learning outcomes? • What are the most important/beneficial outcomes, that internships should foster? • How can we assess (a) the degree to which students achieve these outcomes, and (b) the quality of their performance as interns? • Can we identify how beneficial learning took place, so we can design experiences that maximize these effects for other students? Institutional Research and Assessment Bennington College Research: Assessing Internship Performance Liberal arts college in southwest Vermont 700 undergraduates 7-week internship required every winter All students complete internships Research in 2013-14 and 2014-15 Holly McCormack, Dean of Field Work Term Institutional Research and Assessment 10 What They Learned, cont Quality of Work • The importance of doing high-quality work • Attention to detail • The value of being well-prepared Time Management • Improved time management skills • Became better organized • The importance of managing one’s time • How to set priorities Institutional Research and Assessment 24 What They Learned, cont Flexibility • The importance of flexibility • The value of patience • That being flexible can improve the quality of the work Taking Direction • The importance of asking questions • The importance of taking notes • How to accept critique Institutional Research and Assessment 25 What They Learned, cont Teamwork • The importance of teamwork • The importance of learning from co-workers • Teamwork and facilitation skills • Project management and leadership experience Interpersonal Skills • The value of interacting and building relationships with co-workers Institutional Research and Assessment 26 Those with a goal more likely to learn; Most who learned did not have that goal 60% 50% 40% With Goal 30% No Goal 20% 10% 0% Learned target skill Institutional Research and Assessment Learned different skill No employee skills reported 27 What leads to the learning when it’s not motivated by a goal? • Specific on-the-job events • The difference between a job and a class • Directed reflection Institutional Research and Assessment 28 Specific events • “One of the biggest lessons I learned early in my internship was to not be afraid to ask for help, or be inexperienced in any particular skill The first project I was assigned involved using Excel Initially I was frustrated and embarrassed that it took me longer than expected to learn how to use that program and that I didn’t know how to use it before However, as I reflected with my supervisor about this anecdote at the end of my internship, she was surprised that I didn’t ask her for help rather than dealing with it on my own At the time I didn’t know that was an option, I believed the expectation was to already be equipped to complete the projects assigned.” • “Staying organized was something that I struggled with sometimes My supervisor would send me an e-mail of something that would be coming up in two weeks and because it was two weeks away I’d say, ‘Well, I’ll read it next week when I have more time.’ I would then lose my e-mail in my constantly overflowing inbox and I’d have to ask my supervisor to resend it Early on, at meetings I wouldn’t take notes, thinking my memory would be good enough, but when it became clear that the little nuances and wordings mattered just as much as the main idea we were trying to convey I realized that I had to start taking some notes or become lost.” Institutional Research and Assessment 29 Events, cont • “My supervisor was an extremely busy woman – as a result she usually sent tasks to me and my two fellow interns and left it up to us to work together or divvy up the work as we thought best This was an important exercise in teamwork: I learned the importance of giving credit where credit was due was essential for a successful team Even small things like saying ‘Ashley and I edited this report’ rather than ‘here’s the report you wanted edited’ goes a long way in creating a healthy group dynamic.” • “I’ve learned to keep my collected data clean Although this project had been going on for three years now, there was no standardized manner of storing or analyzing the data Thus, the last two weeks of my internship were largely spent going through thousands of haphazardly sorted photos, essentially doing other interns’ work for a second time This was incredibly frustrating Acknowledging that I have been lax in storing my data neatly during past projects, I learned the hard way that it pays to stay organized from the beginning!” Institutional Research and Assessment 30 Difference between a job and a class • “Through this project I developed my willingness to pay attention to detail as I encountered many specific comments of constructive criticism, a type of conversation I rarely have in an academic setting as little of my work ever reaches beyond my professor grading a specific assignment This experience helped me understand the kind of work put into public education initiatives and the importance of detail-oriented review.” • “Usually I was very engaged in my work because I had to be extremely attentive when processing information and working on my projects In the field that I am interning for, mistakes must be recognized and fixed before it is sent in.” • “Here, giving up means letting over 40 children down Giving up means sending the message to those children that they aren’t worth it Giving up meant impacting someone else’s life just as much as my own In school, giving up in a class, for example, only really affects me I guess in other words I learned a greater sense of responsibility, because I have wanted to just quit so many times.” Institutional Research and Assessment 31 Directed Reflection via Weekly Blog Prompts • Observe others’ work ethic • How you stay engaged with the work • What you’ve learned by making a mistake • Standards of punctuality • Observed nature of professional conduct • Difference between a supervisor and a professor • How people work in teams • Relevance of interpersonal skills • Working independently and taking initiative • Accomplishments and skill building • Observe effective communication Institutional Research and Assessment 32 Among those who reflected on learning nongoal employee skills, 3/4 wrote about employee skills in response to summer blog prompts • “The skill that I’m most proud of is my growing sense of flexibility I tend to be a rather stubborn person, and I don’t like to change things or let on when I am lost This internship, however, has really challenged me to have to change this Every time I think that I am finally done with creating my stimuli, my supervisor thinks of something I can change My original plans and expectations for my experiments have certainly changed a lot over the course of the past five weeks, and I think that’s absolutely awesome Though it’s certainly frustrating to feel as if I’m not making progress at times, it’s really cool seeing just how much of a process experiment design is.” • “Even doing boring tasks (sharpening pencils, printing tickets, folding programs), I am surrounded by friendly and engaging people Many of my bosses are on teams that put on shows here, so seeing their shows serves as motivation and a reminder that grunt work is almost always necessary.” Institutional Research and Assessment 33 Supervisor Evaluations Positive Improvement Needs Work Work ethic 22 Engagement 10 Quality work Time management Flexibility Professionalism Take direction 2 Teamwork Interpersonal 15 Initiative 11 Confidence 12 Communication 10 Institutional Research and Assessment 34 Differential Salience • Students start out knowing the importance of time management and communication skills • They become aware of the importance of asking questions, attention to detail, and relationships with co-workers • They remain unaware of most dimensions of professionalism (other than dress code) Institutional Research and Assessment 35 Next Steps • Conduct focus groups with some of the 2016 interns about what facilitated this learning, and how to get other students to see its importance • Summer Interns 2017 –Require one of the three learning goals to be a generalizable skill – Continue to adjust blog prompts to include features of employee skills we know students are encountering, and that they should think about – Find ways to expand their awareness of the less salient skills (like professionalism) –Use metrics to show incentive to other interns to register with our office Institutional Research and Assessment 36 Next Steps • Broader application of specific findings and the usage of structured reflection pre-, during, and post-experience to other preparation programs –Post-grad fellows –On-campus jobs and interns –Externships • Structure alumni-student programming –Build alumni profile questions around employee skills prompts –30 Minutes program questions Institutional Research and Assessment 37 Questions? ... structured reflection pre-, during, and post-experience to other preparation programs –Post-grad fellows –On-campus jobs and interns –Externships • Structure alumni-student programming –Build alumni... management skills – 13% Improve foreign language skills – 12% Gain cross-cultural competency – 11% Improve interpersonal interaction skills – 11% Gain life skills – 7% 32% had only job-specific... Students’ Learning Goals • Explore a possible career – 73% • • • • • • • • • Gain academic learning – 47% Learn job-specific skills – 41% Improve research skills – 22% Improve communication skills