| Higher education continually faces scrutiny regarding the value of a degree and the investment of money and time. Is a college degree worth the cost of attendance? Do graduates face a burden of financial debt that is crippling them and/or society? Should the government limit funding to educational institutions that are unable to establish that their graduates are succeeding? This has led to demands to provide answers to these questions and define pathways to employment success for their graduates. Internships and other experiential activities are promoted as pathways to enhance employment outcomes and by employers as a means for employee recruitment. Studies have indicated that student internship participation has led to increased success in the job search process than for those who do not participate in these experiential activities. However, there are shortcomings within the existing literature. Most studies have been limited to specific groups of student majors, specific types of institutions, or have not included other career-related activities and work experiences. The purpose of this study was to generate a grounded theory of how employmentrecruiters valued and regarded the impact/influence of career/job-related experiences of liberal arts graduates. I used a constructivist grounded theory study design to develop a grounded theory for further inquiry. I interviewed 23 employers who were actively involved in the job recruitment process from liberal arts institutions in the Great Lakes region.
xii This study resulted in a deeper understanding of the factors that employers considered when evaluating students for employment. This included the development of the grounded theory that while internships are important, other factors contributed significantly to the employability of liberal arts graduates. Respondents, in this study, indicated that employers primarily desired the skills promoted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers and the American Association of Colleges and Universities. The respondents indicated that these skills are developed through many different experiences and are not confined to internship participation.
Keywords: Frederick Troy Kase, Internships, Liberal Arts, Career-Related Activities,Employers |