2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Internships have long been considered an essential experiential learning method in higher engineering education. It can immerse students in real-world practices and bridge the gap between theory and practice. Internship experience is particularly crucial in fields with strong practical emphasis, such as construction. Recognizing the value of student internship experiences, many universities embed internship courses within their curriculum, and even making them a prerequisite for graduation. However, despite the widespread presence of internship programs, there still exists a gap between the requirements and offerings from the industry and the expectations of students. Such gap can affect the efficacy of student learning experience, potentially undermining the objectives internship programs seek to achieve. To comprehensively understand the current state-of-the-art of the internship programs and student internship experience in the construction industry, this research conducted a comparative analysis from both the employer and student perspectives through online surveys. The results compared the internship program details, intern hiring preferences, and internship format across 11 construction companies in different sizes, as well as student job search experience and the resources they leverage. The results also compared the perceived qualities of an ideal employee, as ranked by both the employers and students. These results foster broader discussion among companies to share experiences and best practices of student internship programs, and provide a roadmap for higher education institutions and industry partners to collaboratively design internship programs that are relevant, effective, and aligned with the evolving needs of both the industry and its future professionals.