In Germany internships are an obligatory part of Bachelor programmes. Within the project POINT the development of work place competencies during internships will be analyzed.

Therefore a questionnaire for assessing work place competencies and characteristics of internships was developed. Facets of work place competencies were social, professional, personal and methodological competencies. The acquisition of competencies was measured by self-ratings applying either a retrospective pretest-posttest design with only one point of measurement or a pretest-posttest design with two points of measurement.

Students (N= 231) reported a gain of work place competencies after internship (small to medium effects). Factors associated with gain of work place competencies were identified by regression analyses and structural equation modelling: personal characteristics (clarity about vocational goals, certainty about choice of major) and characteristics of the internship (difficulty and variety of tasks, participation, supervision, self-determination).

Recommendations about the organisation of students’ internships are derived. Overall, internships make a meaningful contribution to the development of work place competencies and employability in higher education.

Against the background of the Bologna process in 1999, the newly created Bachelor programmes are getting implemented in almost all German universities. One of the main goals of the new curricula is to assure the employability of graduates by reinforcing practical relevance in Bachelor programmes. In this regard, in Germany internships are assigned to play a key role for developing workplace competencies. Hence, internships are now obligatory in almost all fields of studies in Germany. However, until now the importance of internships for employability of graduates is barely explored. Therefore one objective of the project POINT is to evaluate the benefit of internships in higher education.

The focus of the evaluation of internships lies on the gain of work place competencies during internships.

In the literature four facets of work place competencies are distinguished. Professional competencies are professional skills, abilities and knowledge necessary to perform a task at work. Methodological competencies stand for the ability to apply strategies to analyse, structure and solve tasks and for creativity. Personal competencies are flexibility, purposefulness and self-confidence. Social competencies are shown in interaction with others: communication skills, team work abilities, sensitiveness and assertiveness.

To measure the acquisition of competencies during internships students were asked to rate their development of work place competencies. To assess the four facets of work place competencies, a questionnaire for students was developed and proved in preliminary studies (last version contains 34 Items). Furthermore, to identify supporting and inhibitory factors of successful internships, a questionnaire for assessing characteristics of internships was designed.

231 students from eleven universities in Germany participated in the online survey to evaluate their development of work place competencies during internship and the internship itself. 80.1 % of the participants were female, the average age of the students was 23.2 years. Most of the students did their internship during the second year at university. 35.5 % studied education, 10.4 % psychology, 20.3 % social sciences, 21.2 % humanities and 10.3 % in another field of studies.

The internships lasted 9.6 weeks (40 hours per week) in average (range from 1 to 35 weeks). The internships were done in different institutions (public sector (51.9 %), non-profit organisations (24.24 %), business companies (20.8 %)) and different fields, e.g. therapy, finance, culture.

One group of the students rated their current level of work place competencies before and after the internship (pretest-posttest design; n= 42). Another group filled in the questionnaire only after having accomplished their internship (retrospective pretest-posttest design; n= 189). They were asked to rate their current level of competencies and to rate retrospectively their level of competencies before they started the internship. These two designs were applied because of a possible response shift bias. A response shift bias can arise if the internship changes the subject's evaluation standard with regard to the dimension measured with the self-report instrument.

Students in both groups reported a gain of all facets of work place competencies after internship. The differences of levels of workplace competencies before and after internship are not significant - the effect sizes range from .10 to .31.

Students who rated their development of workplace competencies retrospectively reported a higher a gain of competencies. Paired sample t-tests show significant changes in work place competencies – effect sizes range from .34 to .55 (medium effects).

Regression analyses and structure equation modelling show that the gain of work place competencies can be explained by personal characteristics (clarity about vocational goals, certainty about choice of major, motivation) and characteristics of the internship (difficulty and variety of tasks, participation, supervision, self-determination).

Students were asked to rate different characteristics of their internships. Results show that students are especially satisfied with their supervision during internship, but less satisfied concerning the transfer of theory into practice but Recommendations about the organisation of students’ internships are derived.

Overall, internships make a meaningful contribution to the development of work place competencies and employability in higher education. Most of students perceive that the employability is fostered by internships. The different outcomes applying the two designs can be explained by a response shift. To test this conclusion, in a pretest-posttest design students will be asked to rate their current level and their level before internship. In future research the students` self-ratings of gain of competencies will be compared to ratings of their supervisors during internship.