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Work-based studying is changing into a essential pathway to profession readiness. On this Larger Ed Careers interview, Andrew Hibel, COO of HigherEdJobs, speaks with Danika Bellamy Sankar, affiliate director of work-based experiences at Longwood College in Farmville, Virginia, about how micro-internships give college students publicity to actual tasks whereas serving to them construct confidence and navigate the workforce.
Andrew Hibel, HigherEdJobs: Your profession has woven collectively work in inclusive excellence practices, analysis, and group growth earlier than bringing you to Longwood’s Workplace of Alumni and Profession Success. On condition that broad basis, what initially drew you into serving to college students navigate profession exploration, and the way did these earlier experiences form the best way you concentrate on getting ready college students for real-world alternatives?
Danika Bellamy Sankar, affiliate director of work-based experiences, Longwood College: It is a nice query as a result of it highlights two vital truths about careers. They’re extra of a journey than a hard and fast vacation spot, and what we be taught alongside the best way can each inform future choices and improve our effectiveness in present roles.
My very own expertise within the cooperative training program on the College of Guelph throughout my undergraduate research sparked my curiosity in profession providers. By means of my work-based studying experiences, I obtained robust assist with resume opinions, interview preparation, and co-op and internship purposes. That assist was transformative and confirmed me the influence that profession growth professionals can have.
After that have, I naturally started serving to folks in my life with their resumes, encouraging them to use for roles they may not have in any other case thought of, and supporting them with software supplies. Professionally, my work in inclusion, analysis, and group growth has grown out of my instructional coaching and has allowed me to be more practical in my present position on Longwood’s Profession Success crew.
As affiliate director of work-based experiences, no two days are the identical, and the position attracts on a variety of abilities I’ve developed throughout numerous positions. Most significantly, these experiences have given me a broader perspective on what is feasible for college kids from various instructional backgrounds. They’ve strengthened the worth of continuous exploration and strengthened my capacity to arrange college students for the office by specializing in core, transferable abilities I’ve needed to deliberately develop all through my very own profession journey.
Hibel: Many could also be unfamiliar with the time period “work-based studying,” which might embody all the pieces from a one-day work shadow to a structured micro-internship or short-term venture with an employer. Earlier than we get into the specifics of Longwood’s applications, how do you outline work-based studying in your context, and why has it turn out to be such a necessary a part of supporting college students’ profession growth right now?
Sankar: Such a well timed query and an vital space of focus for all instructional establishments. In my position, I’ve been lucky to interact with some superb companions within the area of work-based studying. I personally admire the SCHEV-adopted definition utilized by Virginia’s public establishments, which states:
“WBL is an academic strategy that integrates educational instruction with sensible work expertise. It’s designed to offer college students with the chance to use classroom studying to real-world work settings and achieve sensible abilities, information, and expertise which might be immediately related to their future careers. WBL can take numerous kinds, together with internships, apprenticeships, co-op applications, and different experiential studying alternatives …”
We all know that employers worth work-based studying when making hiring choices. Within the NACE Job Outlook 2026 report, nearly all of employer respondents famous the significance of experiential training. Not solely does it present that college students have expertise, but it surely additionally communicates that they perceive what to anticipate of their discipline, are ready to satisfy its necessities, and have explored their chosen profession in a significant, sensible means.
There may be additionally a rising pattern towards skills-based hiring. In the identical NACE research, 70% of employers reported utilizing skills-based standards when making hiring choices. One main means college students can show these abilities is by exhibiting they’ve developed them not simply academically, however in a office setting. The truth is, 74.1% of employers indicated that college students might finest show their abilities throughout the hiring course of by experiential studying or work accomplished throughout school.
Because the financial system adjustments and a few sectors turn out to be extra aggressive, a good way for college kids to face out is by collaborating in a wide range of work-based studying experiences, progressing from shadowing and short-term micro-internship tasks to full-length internships. Importantly, it additionally helps college students verify whether or not their chosen discipline is true for them and permits them to pivot to different alternatives earlier, doubtlessly lowering prices and higher getting ready them for the workforce.
Hibel: Many establishments are exploring micro-internships however battle with the logistics, matching college students, getting ready employers, and making certain significant venture design. What programs or practices have been most important in making Longwood’s matching and placement course of work easily?
Sankar: Our micro-internship program is a part of our Quality Enhancement Plan and aligns with our profession all over the place focus. This system prioritizes classroom-to-career connections, community constructing, increasing college students’ marketable talent units, and reconnecting alumni to the college, amongst different targets.
On the core of its success are our alumni, their love for his or her alma mater, and their ardour for giving again, serving to college students achieve experiences that they know can improve profession aim attainment. We’ve got additionally discovered from wonderful applications reminiscent of SHIP at Christopher Newport College. One fantastic side of profession providers is the generosity throughout the discipline. Colleagues share assets and supply insights into what works and what doesn’t.
We’re repeatedly refining the method with every iteration, continuously searching for suggestions and making adjustments the place obligatory. Our college students are nice at letting us know shortly if one thing is just not working effectively, which helps us fine-tune this system. We’re additionally not alone in delivering this program. We work intently with a High quality Enhancement Plan committee that gives steerage as we undertake or modify components.
All college students in this system take a zero-credit course, which has been profitable in serving to them set up targets for the expertise and their careers, assess their NACE competencies, make plans to boost them, after which replicate on the finish of the expertise to find out whether or not their plans want to vary. Total, this system is designed to assist college students discover, join, develop, and achieve a aggressive edge as they progress by their educational applications.
Hibel: Work-based studying is commonly mentioned by an fairness lens. How have you ever seen micro-internships open doorways for first-generation, low-income, or in any other case under-resourced college students who could not be capable to relocate, tackle unpaid roles, or decide to longer internships?
Sankar: One of many key strengths of micro-internships is that many may be accomplished just about, eradicating boundaries that may in any other case stop college students from collaborating. In our program, college students additionally obtain a $500 stipend, which helps cowl prices, particularly alternatives which might be in individual or require web site visits. One other nice characteristic is that college students can full their 20-hour venture work based on their very own schedules. Lots of our college students work full time throughout the summer season, when this system is held, so with the ability to manage their venture hours round paid employment makes participation doable.
Micro-internships additionally give college students the possibility to construct knowledgeable community, which is especially precious for first-generation college students or these from underserved communities who could not have entry to such connections. They’ll additionally function a pathway to longer, paid internships with the identical organizations when out there. By means of these experiences, college students can discover whether or not they need to proceed with an employer whereas additionally rising their visibility, a bonus when competing for internships and roles towards candidates who could have household connections or different extra assets.
Hibel: Your position requires shut collaboration with college, employers, alumni, and campus companions. What have you ever discovered about constructing these partnerships in order that tasks are excessive influence for college kids and meet actual wants for employer hosts?
Sankar: Companions are important to this work, and plenty of people inside and outdoors the college play a essential position in making certain profitable experiences. As somebody who is of course introverted, I initially discovered it difficult to succeed in out. Nevertheless, Longwood’s welcoming and supportive group and the wonderful crew I work with, led by the senior director of profession {and professional} engagement, Dr. Elizabeth Narehood, and supported by the director of campus engagement, Megan Miller, made connecting far simpler than I anticipated.
Our alumni board and alumni profession committee are additionally extremely lively, sharing their experience, connections, and steerage. Together with the excellent alumni engagement crew, led by the senior director of alumni engagement, Nicole Perkins, they create significant alternatives for alumni to remain linked to the college and companion on applications. Our communications crew ensures these initiatives are successfully promoted, whereas the group relations crew, beneath the course of Jen Carne, helps us determine and entry alternatives within the native space. College are additionally important, making certain we interact pupil members and determine alumni matches. Notably, on the heart of this work is the High quality Enhancement Plan committee, which helps this system and its administration.
What makes all of this doable is that these companions usually are not solely educated and effectively linked, but additionally genuinely open to collaboration and offering assist wherever wanted. This system wouldn’t exist with out them, making it important to maintain them knowledgeable and to hunt and comply with their sensible recommendation every time doable.
Hibel: Micro-internships have gotten a nationwide pattern, with establishments highlighting them as a versatile pathway towards profession readiness. What recommendation would you provide campuses seeking to launch or scale their very own micro-internship applications, particularly these ranging from scratch?
Sankar: Micro-internships are a wonderful means for college kids to discover profession pursuits whereas gaining abilities and constructing skilled networks, all with a comparatively small funding of time and assets in comparison with a semester-long internship. That stated, establishments ought to thoughtfully contemplate their distinctive environments, together with the dimensions of their pupil physique, the educational applications they provide, the wants of their college students, and the targets they hope to attain by a micro-internship program.
At Longwood, our strategy is knowledgeable by our Civitae Core Curriculum, which emphasizes citizenship, efficient communication, essential considering, collaboration, and integrative studying, getting ready college students not just for significant careers, but additionally for lively, engaged lives as citizen leaders. With a robust deal with personalised studying and shut college engagement, we prioritize relationship-driven experiences and intentional matching over purely algorithm-based or large-scale placement fashions. Different establishments could discover that completely different approaches higher align with their institutional context and pupil populations.
For campuses ranging from scratch, alumni may be an particularly efficient place to start. Alumni carry a robust dedication to the establishment, a need to offer again, and a deep understanding of the coed expertise, making them ideally suited hosts for significant micro-internship tasks. Partaking alumni early may also help set up high-quality websites whereas additionally strengthening alumni-student connections.
Finally, campuses ought to analysis out there platforms and fashions, interact inside and exterior companions, and actively search pupil enter to tell program design. Launching this system, studying from early iterations, and remaining versatile and attentive to suggestions are key to constructing a sustainable and impactful micro-internship program.
Hibel: As you assist college students embark on their very own paths, what points of this work really feel most significant to you, and what continues to inspire you as you look towards the way forward for pupil profession growth?
Sankar: It’s deeply fulfilling to attach college students, put together them for these experiences, and hearken to their suggestions afterward. Whereas I’m at all times excited to make a match, probably the most rewarding half is at all times listening to college students replicate on what they discovered, how the expertise strengthened their abilities and connections, and the methods it clarified or solidified their targets.
These alternatives are vital not just for enhancing college students’ resumes and getting ready them for major-related employment after commencement, but additionally for serving to them higher perceive their pursuits and the way these pursuits align with a satisfying profession and life.
We all know the job market is consistently evolving. Many roles that exist right now didn’t exist many years in the past, and the identical will likely be true sooner or later. Any time spent creating a deeper understanding of oneself, together with strengths, areas for development, and private motivators, helps college students put together for his or her goal roles and likewise builds their capacity to pivot or alter their profession plans as wanted. Exploration can type an vital a part of one’s profession journey, and micro-internships are a wonderful method to assist that course of.
