Technical Training and Soft Skills--A Study of Internships

Faculty encourage students to participate in internships to gain major-specific knowledge and make contacts in their field. Internships are becoming more popular with students over the past 5 years, with an uptick in the number of students who participate in this kind of experiential learning. While students do learn technical training in an internship they also have the ability to experience, practice and hone soft skills. Soft skills are skills such as communication, teamwork, leadership, and problem solving. These skills are the skills employers are seeking above and beyond technical skills. When the goal in internships becomes not only helping students focus on their intended field of study, but also learning the soft skills requested by employers, the internships benefit students in a multitude of ways. The question becomes how does the academic environment structure an internship to ascertain that students are learning the soft skills as well as the technical skills needed to succeed? This paper focuses on internships and their benefits to students in both a technical and soft skill aspect as well as assignments and measuring tools used in internship classes to instill and assess the internship.